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

The founders of the BitTorrent Pirate Bay website have been found guilty of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ this morning – with all four execs given custodial sentences. In a landmark case in the differentiation between file-sharers and pirates, the Swedish Court found Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, …

Microsoft was understandably upbeat following the release of NPD’s March statistics, which showed that Xbox 360 was the only console to see year-on-year hardware sales increases. The 360 sold 330,000 units throughout the month, a 25 per cent increase on the same month in 2008. The numbers, the platform holder …

Hollywood’s flirtation with online gaming is developing into a committed relationship – with Paramount the latest Tinseltown giant to bypass retail for a major movie tie-in. The studio has created a download-only game of its new Star Trek movie – disregarding the opportunity to release a boxed product spin-off of …

Sony neglected to make any mention of PS3 hardware sales in its response to NPD’s March numbers, which showed year-on-year declines for the machine, and instead chose to focus on its unquestionably strong 2009 software line-up. Guerilla’s Killzone 2 has now sold more than one million copies worldwide since its …

The lack of a March-based Easter has not only dented NPD’s previously untouchable clean run of strong monthly US sales results, but also chinked the previously unblemished armour of market leader Nintendo. Sales of its Wii console fell 17 per cent compared to march 2008, with 601,000 units shifted. It’s …

Organiser welcomes submissions for lectures, roundtables and tutorials

Resident Evil 5 sold over 1.5 million units across North America in March, according to the latest NPD figures. Capcom’s newest instalment in the undying franchise was in fact the most popular title for any single platform, with the Xbox 360 edition (938,000) even managing to outsell the lucrative Nintendo …

Japanese publisher picks up game developed by Wargaming.net

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 managed to buck trends in March by becoming the only console to enjoy a year-on-year sales boost. The Xbox 360 sold 330,000 units across North America in March; a figure which Microsoft was pleased to explain accounted for a 25 per cent year-on-year sales increase. The system’s …

The North American video game market has been dealt a heavy yet expected blow as the latest NPD figures show year-on-year declines for March. The US market generated a total of $1.43bn in March; a significant 17 per cent fall from the same period last year, and a slight trim …