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

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has hit out at Rockstar for basing GTA IV’s gang activity around Eastern European immigrants. The main protagonist in the title, Niko Bellic, is an Eastern European immigrant in the US. The JCWI has told The Times that it disagrees with a …

GAME boss Lisa Morgan has given her first ever national newspaper interview to The Daily Telegraph – and the newspaper has praised the business acumen of the retailer’s CEO. The piece charts Morgan’s life from being a buyer at now-defunct chain Tandy when she was 19-years old, through her roles …

National Newspaper The Times has printed an opinion piece pleading that GTA IV should not be ‘controlled by officialdom’, admitting that Tuesday’s release is the ‘cultural event of the week’. However, a basic error has sneaked into the editorial which may seem laughable to anyone involved in the video games …

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that the Singstar series has sold over 12 million units in PAL territories since launching in 2004. Five million of those sales came in fiscal year 2007-2008, according to the company, in the 12 months leading up to March 31st this year. The online …

Founders of Jagex, Traveller's Tales and Rare ranked amongst UK & Ireland's 1000 richest people

The street date for Grand Theft Auto IV appears to have been broken as a picture of the game and a receipt appears on a PlayStation forum . Asda has been indicated as the retailer to have broken the date, although comments on a recent MCV story indicates other supermarkets …

Studios VP discusses Sega Racing Studio acquisition, which makes firm one of Europe's largest studio operations

Midway could soon officially become part of the Viacom family – bringing with it its enviable network of development houses. That’s according to the publisher’s CEO – and former head of worldwide studios – Matt Booty, who told MCV that Midway strategically fits with Viacom’s overall future plans”. Viacom owner …

(First figure, 2008; second figure, 2009) HARDWARE UNITS US handheld: 12.5m 10.7m US console: 20.1m 17.2m US Total: 32.6m 27.9m Euro handheld: 14.6 10.7m Euro console: 14.8m 13.1m Euro total: 29.4m 23.8m US and European hardware sales are expected to drop – by over four million units in the US …

IDG Research obtained by MCV states that the core gamer market is saturated – and unless more publishers and platform holders embrace casual gaming, the industry could stagnate. The claims are backed up by IDG figures which reveal that the last few years of industry expansion have been driven almost …