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

Playable demos have become an established marketing vehicle in recent years, but Valve is taking it one step further tomorrow by allowing anyone to download and play its hugely popular Left 4 Dead for free. Kotaku reports that from midnight tonight anyone with a PC and a Steam account will …

Home Retail Group has seen its profits slashed by a quarter, as the recession hits its Argos and Homebase brands. Profits at the group fell to 328m for the year to February 28th. However, the group recorded a loss of 402m due to write downs of 694m and what it …

DSGi has confirmed to the Financial Times that a 311m rights issue is imminent, with the retailer saying the funds raised from it will go towards its store refit programme and alleviating cash flow problems being caused by credit insurers. It said that the move had been forced by its …

The outspoken boss of EA Sports and former Xbox boss Peter Moore has stated that the current business model of boxed PC games is no longer viable for the publisher. We’ve got to find the right business model for us going forward,” Moore told Edge. We really want to keep …

Cult favourites The Price and King of All Cosmos will be returning to Europe later this year with the confirmation of an autumn release for Namco Bandai’s PSN-only Katamari Forever. The game, which has until now been known as Katamari Damacy Tribute, will support 1080p graphics and a range of …

Apple’s current stance in the digital mobile content market is, by most measures, as close to a monopoly as you can find in the modern games industry – and whilst credit must go to Apple for the success it has created, questions are being asked about how healthy the situation …

Guerrilla’s PS3-only first person shooter Killzone 2 has enjoyed a strong debut in the Japanese charts, with only the combined forces of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Monster Hunter G keeping it from the top spot. The Wii debut of Capcom’s Monster Hunter G unsurprisingly shot straight to the top of …

David Gosen, the current vice president of marketing for EMEA Xbox and former head of Nintendo Europe, has admitted that he believes the games industry doesn’t get the recognition or thanks that it deserves from both the wider public and government. It frustrates me that from a public standpoint, the …

Casual publishing giant PopCap will release the iPhone and iPod Touch version of blockbuster hit Peggle on May 12th, it has been confirmed. To read the full story, click here to visit CasualGaming.biz.

Looking back at your first quarter, what would you say were the highlights for Sega? Alan Pritchard: Without a doubt Empire: Total War. The sell-through in the first weekend made this the fastest selling Total War game to date and consequentially took it to No.1 of the All Formats Charts. …