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

Square Enix’s bid for UK publisher Eidos took another step forward this morning with the news that it had secured the support of another major shareholder in the firm. Today the Japanese firm – which last werk announced its intention to buy the ailing Britsoft firm for around 84m, confirming …

The following is an excerpt of a story written by John Gaudiosi for www.unrealtechnology.com.

Despite its many achievements in this console generation, the Xbox 360 is still struggling to shake its reputation for poor hardware reliability – but Microsoft has insisted that its new repair procedures should limit the problems in the future. Xbox 360 has become renown for what is known as the …

Director Brian de Palma delivers us a classmate shuffling up to the grave of the film’s eponymous star. She kneels to lay a small wreath, only for Carrie’s arm to shoot up and make a grab. She’s alive! Or is she? This graphic metaphor was offered by EA chief exec …

A new report entitled Special 301 Review, filed by the International Intellectual Property Alliance in conjunction with games publisher association the ESA, has highlighted the countries in which piracy remains a huge problem – and several European countries have made the list. Alongside ongoing piracy hotspots such as China and …

Media Moleculeâ??s Kenny Young talks to John Broomhall about designing the audio for its bric-a-brac world adventureâ?¦

Ditches controversial carrier charging for Google Checkout

One-man studio blasts battle to deliver games for less

Dutch games publisher Playlogic has announced the appointment of Chandra Schanz as its new director of business development. Schanz’s 28-year career has included high-profile positions at organisations including UNICEF and UNESCO. Her first job in the games industry was at German firm Topware, whom she joined in 1997 as international …

Cliff Harris is the person behind Positech, a one-man game developer based in the UK that publishes and sells its own products online. After working with Elixir and Lionhead, Harris opted to go it alone, and has just announced his newest game, Gratuitous Space Battles.