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

Nintendo has for the first time admitted that the limited 512mb internal memory stored inside the Nintendo Wii is beginning to pose a problem, and has stated that it is looking to address it. NoE’s MD of marketing Laurent Fischer famously said last month that geeks and otaku are the …

In a blog post on its website discussing the upcoming PAX games expo, Halo developer Bungie has confirmed that it is currently working on three new projects – but added that it won’t be making any big announcement at the Penny Arcade event. The news comes after the developer confirmed …

North Carolina-based Wake Tech's students to get their hands on Vicious Cycle's engine

You only have to look at the headlines streaming through MCV in recent months to know why this is being described as the games industry’s age of consolidation. If it’s not 92 per cent of Activision’s shareholders voting for a merger with Vivendi, it’s the gripping – and titillating – …

Rumour has it that Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the SNES-CD. However, on closer inspection former Nintendo Chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi decided the contract was unacceptable and secretly cancelled all plans. Sony decided to use what they had developed so far and make a standalone console …

On April 1, 2003, one of the two biggest video game publishers in Japan, Enix, legally absorbed the other, Square. The latter’s stockholders received 0.85 shares of stock in the new company compared to Enix stockholders receiving a one-to-one trade. Despite this, many top officials within Square assumed leadership roles …

The 74 million acquisition of the second biggest specialist retailer in the UK by the biggest was a mighty shock for the entire British industry – not least the MCV team, who had to deal with the breaking news on our magazine’s deadline day. The total investment included 300,000 set …

Blizzard had been shunted around the industry like a pinball before being picked up by CUC International in 1996. However, two years later, more turmoil: revelations of dodgy dealings meant CUC (now Cendant) lost 80 per cent of its stock value. Canny Vivendi’s media subsidiary Havas wasted no time at …

The coupling of the world’s biggest publisher with Peter Molenyeux and Les Edgar’s lovechild led to some of EA’s most successful PC games, not least Syndicate Wars, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? In 2000, Electronic Arts merged its EA-UK offices with the Bullfrog offices in Chertsey. By …

The closest the video games industry has ever come to a real David-and-Goliath humdinger, Jane Cavanagh’s Britsoft baby SCi amazingly beat out the might of U2 loudmouth Bono’s cash when it bought fellow UK firm Eidos. Elevation Partners, run on Bono’s money and headed up by success-hungry John Riccitiello, had …