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

Having literally just announced that it has rejected the acquistion offer from Final Fantasy developer and publisher Square Enix , Japanese firm Tecmo had made the surprise announcement that it is planning to merge with Koei. Kotaku reports that talks are already underway following the creation of an ‘integrated management …

Executive-aimed conference selling out; only two days left for reduced rates

Sainsbury’s won out at last night’s MCV and Xbox 360 Industry Pub Quiz, beating The Sun in a nail-biting tie-breaker. The champs received the top prize of an Xbox 360, a 12-month subscription to Live and a copy of Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, all courtesy of sponsors Microsoft. 17 …

Age of Conan developer Funcom has moved to quash speculation that the long-awaited Xbox 360 version of its MMO adventure Age of Conan is no longer on the cards. The firm’s Erling Ellingsen told Eurogamer: The Xbox 360 version is still very much set to happen and we are working …

Grasshopper 'hopefully a springboard'; aims to help Eastern developers create cross-cultural games

It’s lift-off for Activision Blizzard this week as the majority of Vivendi’s UK staff complete the switch to Activision’s Stockley Park facility. Activision Blizzard’s UK managing director Andrew Brown has told MCV that the new team will come together for the first time this week as Vivendi’s office in Marlow …

Despite its belief that the next few years will bring massive profit to those who’ve invested in Sony’s high-def disc format Blu-Ray, Korean electronics firm Samsung has stated that it thinks Blu-Ray will be dead by 2013. Speaking to Pocket-Lint, Samsung UK’s director of consumer electronics Andy Griffiths stated: I …

Legendary developer to talk on creating 'believable game worlds'

Sega has confirmed that Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 2009 will be released on PC, Mac and PSP on November 14th – but there’s bad news for console owners with the confirmation that there’s no Xbox 360 version planned this year. The details were revealed last night at a London press …

SCEA’s hardware marketing director John Koller has released a statement correcting claims he made earlier in the week regarding that battery life of the firm’s upcoming PSP 3000. On Monday he stated that the machine’s brighter screen would reduce its operating time by up to 30 minutes – however, a …