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

UFC 2009: Undisputed has racked up its second consecutive No. 1, despite seeing sales slide 42 per cent. The fighter is part of an unchanged Top Three, with Pokmon Platinum holding on in second place and EA Sports Active remaining in third. In terms of new releases, Activision Blizzard’s Guitar …

Company states it is â??opening itself upâ? to developers outside Japan

Publisher EA has confirmed that it has entered into an agreement with developer Crytek to publish its upcoming shooter Crysis 2 on both Xbox 360 and PS3 – as well as the already announced PC release. Examples of Crytek’s game engine, dubbed the CryENGINE3, had previously been shown running on …

Aside from the known appearance of Tony Hawk and the possibility of a Wii-rivalling Xbox 360 motion-tech reveal, word is spreading of a possible new Halo game making its debut at Microsoft’s E3 showcase at 18:25 tonight. CVG reports that users of Halo developer Bungie’s forum have spotted reference to …

American ratings board the ESRB has granted a certificate to retro PSOne RPG Final Fantasy VII, a sure sign that the cherished game is heading to the US arm of Sony’s PSN. There’s no word yet on a European release date, but don’t expect the wait to be too long. …

E3â??09: Studio behind the CryEngine embark on console development for the first time

Microsoft’s E3-opening press conference has been bought forward by five tiny minutes tonight – and all the clues suggest that a Tony Hawk related announcement is the reason. A recent tweet form extreme sports dude Tony Hawk himself yesterday read: Just practiced my part for Microsoft’s E3 keynote tomorrow (introducing …

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick claims 23 million people are playing online games with friends today. During the Activision Blizzard pre-E3 2009 press conference, Kotick cited the publisher’s recent research as proof that the audience is changing”. An Activision study found that 12 million people played games online with friends 18 …

Japanese business daily The Nikkei is reporting that platform holder Nintendo will reveal a new version of its world-conquering Wii Fit game at its E3 press conference tomorrow. Reuters says that it will be entitled Wii Fit Plus, and that its leading USP will be the ability to share game …

Will E3 2009 be a return to form? According to everyone you talk to at publisher and format-holder offices across the US, the event will definitely be the key event for the games industry this year. Oh… of course they’d say that, they’re the stakeholders. But perhaps for a change …