MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

â??Great technology doesnâ??t help a game thatâ??s not built around that technologyâ?

ELSPA has vowed to throw the book” at individuals that pirate games software and sell it to consumers this Q4. Speaking to MCV, ELSPA director general Michael Rawlinson said that the body’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (IPCU) was already trawling the streets and the internet” to clamp down on criminal …

A total of seven EA-owned studios are alleged to be hit by the publisher’s mass-layoff operations. Pandemic, EALA, Maxis, Rupture Studios, Mythic, Tiburon and Black Box are all thought to be downsized as EA looks to shed 900 developers from its global workforce. EA has declined to comment on where …

Every person working in the UK’s games industry will be able to tell by now that we’re heading into the busiest time of the year. But as the legitimate area of the industry gets busier, so does the pirate business. Our IP crime team is out there – the Intellectual …

An analyst has predicted that New Super Mario Bros Wii’s lifetime sales will exceed 15 million units. Electronic Entertainment Design and Research’s Jesse Divnich also claimed the Nintendo game will be the biggest selling title of 2009, and expects it to outsell the Xbox 360 edition of Activision Blizzard’s Call …

US publisher Ignition Entertainment has released the first details of its newest title, Deadly Premonition. Released in conjunction with Marvelous Entertainment, the game is an Xbox 360-exclusive third-person survival horror title that puts players in the role of an FBI agent investigating a murder. Gamers must discover the secrets connecting …

Modern Warfare 2 isn’t the only slice of non-historical conflict that games consumers will enjoy in the next few months:  MCV understands that the next iteration in EA’s Medal Of Honor series will be set in the current day. A reliable industry source told MCV this week that it’s a …

Publisher offers no comment as its disposed workforce appears to be breaking silence

The market hasn’t crashed to a halt, however. At the recent London Games Conference GfK-ChartTrack boss Dorian Bloch revealed that overall the market for games sold on the High Street will be down around 10 per cent year on year. That’s a 250m deficit on 2008. It’s not necessarily a …

MCV can this week reveal first details regarding the launch of Microsoft’s Project Natal. Our sources say the innovative controller-free 360 camera will be released worldwide in November 2010. This and other details have emerged following a behind-closed-doors Microsoft tour of UK publishers and studios – the format-holder has been …