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

As reported by MCV earlier this week, Microsoft has officially announced that it has struck a deal with satellite TV provider Sky that will bring both live and on-demand programming to Xbox 360 owners. Though there isn’t a concrete channel list available as of yet, the package is set to …

A new Japanese game development group has been established at the helm of overcompensating game designer Tomonobu Itagaki. Itagaki, who previously headed up Tecmo subsidiary Team Ninja, was involved in the development of a number of popular fighting titles such as Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Last year Itagaki …

Having struck up a very profitable Olympic-based partnership last year, Sega has turned on old rival Mario to take him on at his own game with the announcement of Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing. The game, which is in development for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii takes place in …

The party that’s sure to follow EA’s release of The Sims 3 next week is likely to be a little subdued thanks to the news that the game is being pirated at a faster rate than ‘the most pirated game of 2008′ Spore. Bloomberg reports that an illegal version of …

Format-holder trying to break records with number of simultaneous players on 360

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has secured The Lord Of The Rings licence, announcing a long-term partnership with both The Saul Zaentz Company and New Line Productions. This agreement confirms Warner gained control of The Lord Of The Rings licence when EA’s licensing deal for the franchise expired. The rights fell …

Microsoft has revealed that Xbox 360 sales have topped 30 million worldwide. The firm today boasted that Xbox 360 has achieved the highest percentage growth in hardware sales of any console so far in 2009, up 28 percent over the same period in 2008. The community for Xbox Live has …

Trinigy game engine now contains multiplatform support for xaitEngine AI solution

Ubisoft thinks that the unveiling of its 3D technology will be the most memorable moment of E3 – and even influence the design of all future games. The publisher’s executive director of EMEA, Alain Corre, told MCV this week that Ubisoft is confident attendees would be left ‘dreaming’ of the …

UK based independent continuing the Stronghold series online, project to be self-funded