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

The Joint Administrators of Zavvi UK Ernst & Young has today announced the immediate closure of a further 18 stores. 353 employees have been laid off as a result, bringing the total number of people who have lost their jobs since the firm went into administration to 594. Ernst & …

Binary Tweed visits classic genre for debut release

GAME has unveiled its first foray into the games rental space with its new online service – GAME Rentals. The service was formed in partnership with SwapGame, and allows consumers to borrow two games at a time for a monthly fee. GAME Rentals also offers unlimited play time with no …

American McGee predicts long future for segmented downloadable content

With interactivity the key point of our medium and engines becoming ever more powerful, is the day of the cutscene over? Our assembled writers weigh in...

Demonstrating the flexibility of Epic Gamesâ?? renowned game engine, Unreal Engine 3 is now an increasingly common choice for studios working on a variety of downloadable games.

The UK Labour party has become the latest governmental institution to turn to online social world Second Life in effort to spread its word to a brand new audience – and a 3D representation of Business Secretary Peter Mandelson has been chosen to front the venture. For the complete story, …

US publisher EA is set to bring family board game favourite Trivial Pursuit to a host of games platforms this March, with versions planned for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, mobile phones and online on Pogo.com. CasualGaming.biz has the complete story – click here for more details.

Rumours are circulating that Electronic Arts is considering the acquisition of specialist mobile games rival Glu following the notable activity of the mobile firm’s stock on Nasdaq last week, which traded 65 per cent higher on double normal trading volumes while the index as a whole fell. For the full …

2008 was a year filled with top new games, record breaking sales and high drama. MCV provides 50 reasons why 2009 is set to be even better. In this part, we look at numbers 25 to 1… Click here to read the full feature.