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

PlayStation platform holder Sony is ramping up its preparations for the upcoming music video service VidZone with the appointment of a sales company for the platform. Media Week reports that Unanimis will handle VidZone’s sales inventory including pre-rolls and online leaderboards. Its campaigns will be integrated across UK, Germany, France, …

Sega Sammy Holdings Inc has reported that its annual fiscal results are in the red for the second year in the row – but that losses halved from the previous period. The company said in an earnings statement for the year ended March 31 that it had suffered a net …

We all knew it was coming, but Activision Blizzard’s reinvention of the hugely successful Tony Hawk franchise has finally been revealed – and it’s called Tony Hawk Ride. As expected, the game will use a brand new skateboard peripheral that can sense tilt and yaw. It also boasts a number …

Episodes of Wallace & Gromit, Strong Bad and Sam & Max help bolster the group's revenues

A new study has claimed that a remarkable 41 per cent of all software installations on PC last year were based on illegally pirated copies – a figure which amounts to a market value of $53bn. The global piracy rate in 2007 was pegged at 38 per cent, but successes …

As one of the games industry’s thousand pound gorillas, EA is no stranger to acquisitions. But what do the people selling their studios to Electronic Arts think of the move? According to Steven Spielberg, selling his Dreamworks Interactive studio to the publisher was both "the smartest and dumbest thing I …

Factor 5 is to close its San Rafael studio, the company’s CEO has revealed. According to a post on the official website, the ‘obstacles created by the sudden bankruptcy of Brash Entertainment for the continuation of operations have turned out too great to overcome in the current economic climate,’ wrote …

Resonance of Fate will arrive in Europe in Spring 2010 on PS3 and 360, Sega has revealed. Called End of Eternity in Japan, the game is developed by the team behind Star Ocean: The Last Home and boasts ‘Hollywood-style action sequences’, a unique story and realistic gunplay. Partnering up with …

United Front Games working on two new properties for the 360 and PS3, one being a Hong Kong-based action title with Activision

The US saw an 8 per cent year-on-year decline in hardware sales while software tumbled 23 per cent, according to data provided bythe NPD group. Physical software sales stood at $510.74 million, a significant drop from the 660.1 million during April 2008. However, NPD analyst Anita Frazier was quick to …