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

Vivendi and Activision have both discontinued their membership with E3 organiser the Entertainment Software Association – the US equivalent of the UK’s ELSPA. The news comes after both firms – now one entity – confirmed that they would not be demonstrating their titles at this year’s E3. According to Joystiq, …

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has made no apologies for the level of carnage in GTA IV – going on the record to state: I like violence.” Speaking as part of a full interview in New York Entertainment magazine, Houser also talked of his frustration with the ‘rise of casual gaming’ …

Financial doom and gloom may be building elsewhere, but the games industry is bucking all the trends as Wii Fit and GTA IV look set to push retail sales up to the 100m mark this week. In the past week, ChartTrack confirmed that Wii Fit has already racked up 16m …

Another indication of gaming’s mass-market appeal has been secured – as Time Magazine’s readers have named Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto the most influential person in the world this year. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto has taken first place in a Time’s reader’s poll of the 100 most influential people of the year. …

Game's commercial clout underlines campaign for UK games industry tax breaks, trade association says

American news network CNN has broadcast an astounding attack on Rockstar’s GTA IV – in which presenter Glenn Beck says the game is training our kids to be killers” and teaches young men to treat women like whores”. In the diatribe, which carries the headline ‘Grand Theft Morality’, Beck likens …

Scott Foe's secret Project White Rock is revealed as UGC-driven spoof and will hit PC and handsets

One Guardian commentator said that it would be ‘an act of cultural irresponsibility’ not to play GTA IV. Another in The Times termed it ‘the cultural event of the week’. While some media outlets still fall back on the tired old ‘outrage’ headlines, it is genuinely refreshing to see this …

Leading UK retailers have told MCV that extra GTA IV stock is being hurriedly pushed into stores in order to cope with the ‘manic’ demand expected this weekend. However, the channel has admitted that the title is still expected to sell out on PS3 and 360 by Saturday lunchtime. Head …

Gamestop’s senior VP of merchandising has revealed that the release of GTA IV has inspired a ‘vigorous’ uptake in purchases of PS3 hardware. In a statement to the press reported by GameDaily, Bob McKenzie said: "From our position, the launch of GTA IV has been tremendous in driving traffic to …