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

As the studio ponders new IP after Modern Warfare 2

The studio behind this year’s biggest game was offered a ridiculous” development budget from the world’s biggest publisher; a budget big enough for the team to politely decline. In the first half of an extensive interview with Develop, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling revealed the extent in which Activision …

The Conduit developer strikes longer-than-long-term deal to use Wwise

Activision was ready to back Modern Warfare 2 with massive funds

Though the exact launch date and pricing remains a tightly guarded secret at SCEE, Sony has at least revealed a little bit of information about its PSN movie and TV rental service, which is due to go live in the UK next month. Dubbed the PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service”, …

Xbox 360 platform holder Microsoft has begun a revised rollout” of its Xbox 360 Sky Player, though many customers remain without access to the service in what has been a troubled first week. Speaking on the Xbox forums, the firm stated: We have been experiencing some technical issues with the …

THQ has signed the rights to a new Russian-made FPS – as it bids to grow its core gamer audience in the next 12 months. Metro 2033, by Russia’s 4A Games, rounds out a trio of titles in key genres due for release at the start of next year. The …

Casual games giant Big Fish has teamed up with Focus Multimedia to launch eight new PC titles at retail this Christmas. Games already released include Drawn: The Painted Tower, The Serpent of Isis, Flux Family Secrets: The Ripple Effect, Strange Cases: The Tarot Card Mystery, Lost in the City and …

Part One; Developer discusses high budgets, moving to other platforms and meeting expectations

In what will surely encourage the self-validating conscience of illicit file-sharers, a new study has concluded that people who pirate digital content end up spending more on it than those who don’t. A survey commissioned by the think-tank group Demos showed that broadband users who never pirate material each spend …