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

Eidos parent SCi Entertainment is reportedly in takeover talks once again – with Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. According to The Daily Mail, a source said discussions are at an ‘early stage’ – and that SCi has received approaches from two separate firms within the past few weeks. The newspaper has …

Play.com has kicked off its Mega Monday sale, reducing a number of leading new releases to 18 or under. Deals include Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Saints Row 2, Shaun White Snowboarding, High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance!, GTA IV, Manhunt 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, The Last Remnant, …

Sony has followed in the footsteps of Microsoft by integrating its online games network into it PlayStation internet homepage. Users of eu.playstion.com will now be able to log into the site using their PlayStation Network details and access things such as their Friends Lists and account details. It is also …

Microsoft never officially comments on its ongoing internal redesigns for its Xbox 360 hardware, but online tech-heads are claiming that the latest revision to the console’s innards has arrived on the High Street. Talk first emerged of the new motherboard’s arrival began earlier in the month, but in recent days …

Ahead of the launch of its brand new supernatural action series Demons, ITV has announced that it has recruited the talents of developer Playgroup to produce an online casual title to promote the show. CasualGaming.biz has the full story – click here and you’ll be there in no time.

Californian digital payment and micro-transaction firm PlaySpan has secured $16.8 million in series B funding, bringing the total investment in the firm to $24 million. The funding has come from a number of venture capitalist firms including Easton Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures and STIC. PlaySpan says it …

American digital micro-transaction firm gets backing of assorted venture capitalists

It’s the season to be jolly and retail is celebrating by baring its teeth and slashing prices on games hardware – and Asda is leading the way with a 23 discount on Nintendo’s Wii. Making good on its pledge to offer customers sizable savings in the run up to Christmas, …

Recent developments, from the paring down of local offices for some publishers to consolidation at a higher level, have proven otherwise. We speculated a few weeks ago that studio cutbacks at EA and THQ could just be those companies’ own realignments. But with developers across the world chopping staff numbers …

US based independent developer adopts Hansoftâ??s production management toolset