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

Sony UK’s long-running semi-official” European PlayStation blog Three Speech is to close its digital doors on April 17th and will be replaced by a brand new EU PlayStation portal. A statement on the site reads: It’s your feedback, comments and suggestions that have made this possible, so you should all …

Downloadable content for Valkyria Chronicles will be made available from Thursday April 16th for 3.19, Sega has revealed. The pack can be downloaded via PSN, and features two new missions entitled Enter The Edy Detachment and Behind Her Blue Flame, as well as an extra difficulty mode. Valkyria Chronicles was …

Publisher Activision Blizzard has confirmed its ex-Vivendi free-roaming action title Prototype will be released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on June 5th in Europe – with American gamers having to wait until June 9th. Prototype takes the sandbox city formula and mixes up by granting players mutated shape-shifting super …

The North American arm of online retailer Amazon has begun selling Xbox Live Arcade games via its portal in the form of purchasable Xbox Live codes. The so-called ‘walled gardens’ of digital console publishing have for a long time been regarded as the biggest barrier between traditional retail and the …

What was behind the decision to re-launch Zavvi?We tried to get the Woolworths name back in December – and we were keen to reinvent both them and Zavvi as online retailers. They are both such strong brands – Woolworths phenomenally so. But Shop Direct came in for Woolworths, and we …

Early bird offer starts as Ubisoft, Sega and audio experts join July event speaker roster

Wii and DS platform holder Nintendo has released a list of upcoming titles for its existing downloads portal WiiWare and its brand new service for the recently launched DSi handheld, DSiWare. There’s plenty on offer, including a couple of established Nintendo brands such as Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training. Click here …

Advanced registration for the E3 Expo ends this month – and the organisers of the show are encouraging UK execs to get their applications in early. E3 Expo – which promises ‘the biggest games and the biggest names’ – will allow UK professionals to test-drive the latest video game titles, …

We look at why the games development community has embraced the latest web craze

Firms can now get up to £1,800 for funding to attend industry events