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

An evolving splash page on the Blizzard website has got the virtual tongues of internet gamers wagging ahead of the firm’s Worldwide Invitational this Saturday – with most speculators hedging bets on a Diablo-related announcement. The image of breaking ice, which has been gradually evolving each day, contains a number …

Hedge fund SAC Capital has reported that it now owns a 5.3 per cent stake in Take Two. The firm said in an SEC that it had acquired 4.1 million shares, worth about $108 million, for investment purposes. Earlier this month, EA extended its $2 billion takeover offer for Take …

Leipziger Messe boss Wolgang Marzin has spelled out that the annual Leipzig Games Convention will remain in the city next year following an increase in the size of this year’s event. "The Games Convention is not moving," confirmed Marzin. This year’s Games Convention will see the event grow by 25 …

But stories need work, says Wall-E production exec

APB-Evolved.com gets grant to cope with increased traffic

The full blooded release of universe-sim Spore might still be over two months away, but the popularity of EA’s taster package Spore Creature Creator suggests that interest in the title is sky-high. In its first week on the market, gamers have used the package to create a whopping one million …

Zavvi’s sales are rumbling on with yet another impressive in-store Xbox 360 bundle. As advertised in today’s national papers, gamers can pick up an Xbox 360 Elite and a copy of GTA IV for 305, and will receive Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock (with guitar) for free, a saving …

European VP of strategic marketing for interactive entertainment at Microsoft EMEA David Gosen has revealed that Xbox 360 has sold well over” five million in European territories to MCV – and that its battle with PS3 is far from over. Anyone trying to call a winner this Christmas is calling …

Publisher Take Two expects to have the majority of its Geneva-based staff back in Windsor by September. MCV can exclusively reveal that the experiment started by former international boss James Ellingford is now essentially over. The giant US publisher has had an admin base in Geneva for five years, but …

You might be sick of reading about it and maybe even playing it, but GTA IV still deserves more notice from the top, argues Owain Bennallackâ?¦