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

After an at times turbulent four years on the market Sony Online Entertainment is to turn off the servers to virtual world The Matrix Online on July 31st. Now we’ve seen how far the rabbit hole goes and it’s time to wake up from that dream (or go back to …

Rap superstars Jay-Z and Eminem are to feature in Activision’s upcoming DJ Hero. The game, which is due at the end of the year on PS3, PS2, Xbox 360 and Wii, is already set to feature songs from the Beastie Boys, KRS-One, Blondie, N.E.R.D, Gorillaz, DJ Shadow and DJ AM. …

Eidos has confirmed to MCV that Batman: Arkham Asylum will be released on August 28th in Europe – and three days earlier in North America. Fans will be pleased to hear that Eidos stuck to its word on the title – after initially delaying the release to the ‘end of …

Developer explains what followed when it lost two key publishing deals worth $35 million

Atari has cancelled a number of projects as part of its bid to recover from two years of sustained net losses. The company stated that to improve the cash position” it will restructure the business and focus on what it considered more cost-effective” mass-market and online games. As such, the …

Tiger Woods abandons physical media for its next title, but will it be free-to-play?

Company cuts down a number of projects to â??improve the cash positionâ?

Infogrames has posted a loss of €226.1 million for FY 2008-2009 – an increase on the €51.1 million it suffered in its previous year. The firm blamed ‘substantial write-offs and goodwill impairments’ on its publishing operations – as well as losses due to the exit of its distribution business in …

The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property claims that seven million UK residents have illegally downloaded files from the internet in the last 12 months, with the cumulative value of the stolen material estimated to be 120bn. It adds that 1.3m people use a file-sharing network at least once a …

Def Jam Rapstar set to land on Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter, with 4mm looking to integrate community features