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

Head over to our RETAIL BIZ previews section to read our impressions of the biggest upcoming releases. This week, we take a look at Atari’s The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena – as well as all the other major titles hitting retail on Friday. To check them out, …

You can now read the digital edition of this week’s MCV magazine – simply point your browser here. You have the option of flicking through the pages of the magazine online, or downloading the PDF. The launch of a digital edition means MCV can now be read by more people …

GDC 09: Realtime Worlds signs Natick studio for All Points Bulletin

Video games were the shining light of the High Street last year – pulling the overall UK entertainment retail sector kicking and screaming to a five per cent increase in revenues. Games software enjoyed a 21.1 per cent rise in annual sales in 2008 according to the Entertainment Retailers Association …

GDC 09: Facial animation specialist boosts headcount by six

Online file sharing portal FileFront is to be closed by current owner and former 1UP publisher Ziff Davis, it has been confirmed. A message posted up on the site reads: We regret to inform you that due to the current economic conditions we are forced to indefinitely suspend the FileFront …

Though traditionally GDC has not been a platform from which big-hitting titles are announced, Nintendo bucked the trend yesterday with its announcement of new DS title The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The name immediately suggested a title either based on music that’s good to drink to or paranormal trains. …

In a wash of frowning newsreaders, red arrows and general gloom, GAME was a shining light, beating expectations for the retail market and being one of the few chains to turn a profit. Sure, it is benefitting from the potency of the games industry and is very much the first …

How does the Gem of 25 years ago differ from the Gem today?Chris Peacock: We started off on a marketing stall selling games from the back of a lorry, now we’re a 400-plus million group. From that point of view, there’s no real comparison between the two businesses. We’re part …

The developers of the excellent Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which has been a big hit in the UK and Europe over the last six months, have confirmed at GDC that the sequel will be released in the West. Level 5, which has developed a trilogy of Layton games …