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

The new chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association Paul Quirk has claimed that internet file-sharing is the greatest challenge posed to modern entertainment retailers, claiming that internet piracy is bleeding our industry dry”. Too often the debate over illegal filesharing is portrayed as an ideological battle, but for us this …

Following Activision’s claims that Courtney Love sanctioned the use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5, the two surviving members of Nirvana have also expressed their disapproval of Cobain’s in-game appearance. Kirst Novoselic and Dave Grohl released a joint statement calling for Activision to prevent the Cobain avatar from …

Activision has claimed it received the proper permission to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5. The publisher released a statement responding to Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, who insisted the Nirvana frontman’s appearance was a breach of contract” and that she would sue the sh*t out of Activision”. Activision …

New incentives may lie ahead for developers working on PSP Minis. The sub-100MB-sized games may soon end up on store shelves as packaged UMD games, according to Sony. The most successful Minis titles will probably transition to UMD,” said Sony Europe’s Zeno Colaco, in an interview with Develop published later …

Sales of the PS3 have climbed 300 per cent in North America since the launch of the PS3 Slim last week, according to SCEA. Revenues weren’t up by quite so much, however, thanks to Sony’s $100 price drop for the console. In total, PS3 revenues jumped 140 per cent in …

Though the signs are that the world is slowly pulling out of recession, punters are seemingly still proving reluctant to shell out the high cost demanded of modern rhythm action games – leading to ongoing year-on-year sales slumps for the genre. With the introduction of Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar …

â??We are committing to only doing it when it makes senseâ?

As the success of digital distribution services such as the iTunes App Store, Xbox Live and PSN continue to ask serious questions of the traditional console software sales model, EA boss john Riccitiello may just have hinted at a loss of appetitive for full-price console releases. This week, market research …

Company reaffirms its commitment to the PSPâ??s UMD format

Zynga accuses Playdom of misappropriation of trade secrets