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

EA has kicked off the race to grab the Christmas No.1 spot by taking FIFA 09 straight to the top of the official UK Top 40 Chart. Last week’s No.1, LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, drops to second in the ELSPA/GFK-Chart-Track ranking. Other than FIFA, there isn’t a single …

IGN is reporting that Rockstar has dated Manhunt 2’s UK release for October 31st, 2008. The title will arrive on Wii, PS2 and PSP on the date – which is exactly a year after the game was released in the US. The game is the edited second edition of the …

Nintendo has confirmed that new downloadable and boxed software for its DSi console will be region-locked. A spokesperson for the firm told CVG: "DSi software (software that is only compatible with DSi) is region locked, eg: European DSi software can only be played on European DSi consoles. "Nintendo DS software …

Seamless texture generator features up to ten-fold performance hike

Credit crunch? What credit crunch? Wall Street worries aren’t stemming the flow of cash into the games industry – I-Play onwer Oberon Media has just scored a $20m boost from a Chinese investor. The Infinity I-China Fund has stepped up to help Oberon with its push into the Chinese gaming …

E For All Expo, held in Los Angeles over the weekend, attracted 15,000 visitors. That’s according to organiser IDG World Expo, which has called the event a great success”. "E for All 2008 was all about connecting great game companies with gamers and gamers with great games, and we’re happy …

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has singled out the firm’s Xbox business as its one recent unqualified success”. Despite some negative questioning in today’s San Jose Mercury News interview, Ballmer remained positive – saying that Xbox Live in particular was going gangbusters”. Ballmer called 360 a home run” before sticking up …

Workshop to delve into sensor frameworks and RGA

Gears boss says franchises are damaged if creator studio steps away from project

Cross-platform effects sequencer approved by Sony and Nintendo