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

London studio welcomes five new recruits from UK and abroad

SouthPeak Interactive has acquired Gamecock Media Group in a shock deal that will see titles including Mushroom Men and Legendary released under the SouthPeak label this quarter. Melanie Mroz, SouthPeak CEO, said of the deal: "Gamecock brings us a solid slate of upcoming titles, including Legendary, Mushroom Men and Velvet …

SPECIAL REPORT: Popular Flash game site offers amateur developers free training, tools and assets

Publisher which championed independent devs pairs up with fledging firm, our sister site reveals

EA’s FIFA 09 may continue to dominate the UK charts , and win over the world’s games critics , but this Friday brings its sternest test yet in the shape of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 . The battle between the two footballing giants typically defines the UK October charts, …

Xbox 360 platform holder Microsoft has lifted the lid on its scheme to help those lacking memory space ahead of the release of the new Xbox dashboard upgrade next month. Microsoft yesterday revealed that users would need 128MB of free storage space to run the New Xbox Experience – something …

Sony’s LittleBigPlanet is storming Metacritic, averaging an astounding 9.5/10 from the Western world’s major press. The score (correct at the time of posting) makes the game the second highest-ever scoring game on PS3, behind GTA IV. It beats lauded releases such as COD4 (9.4/10), MGS4 (9.4/10) and Rock Band (9.2/10). …

Blaze has launched its MegaDrive handheld console, which contains games such as Sonic and Knuckles, Golden Axe, Shinobi and Ecco the Dolphin. For the full story, visit MCV sister site CasualGaming.biz.

Macdonald and Livingstone to join Conservative and Lib Dem shadow ministers

Barack Obama’s campaign team has bought ‘Obama For President’ billboards in Burnout Paradise. I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, told Gigaom. Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible …