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

After mounting a resurgence that would make even Olympian giant Carl Lewis raise an eyebrow, Sega’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has claimed the top spot in the ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 for the fourth time. The game’s resurgence is largely thanks to the release of the …

Atari has no plans to take on the likes of EA and Activision Blizzard at their own game – instead, Gardner believes that Atari can be fleet of foot and forge its own path, without the restrictions that traditionally face larger corporations. My goal is not to go head on …

ALL FORMATS TOP 20: January 2008 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360/PS3/PC/DS) Activision 2. FIFA ‘08 (PS2/360/PS3/PSP/WII/PC/DS) EA 3. The Simpsons Game (360/PS2/DS/WII/PSP/PS3) EA 4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) Sega 5. Assassin’s Creed (PS3/360) Ubisoft 6. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (DS) Nintendo 7. More …

Sega has praised the ‘flawless’ distribution network of Apple’s iPod after signing up to provide games for the platform – calling the device ‘the most pervasive cross-demographic piece of consumer electronics today’. The publisher agreed to provide Sonic The Hedgehog as a download via iTunes back in December. And despite …

The British Board Of Film Classification told MCV that it would back any move to make it responsible for rating every game – and that it recognises flaws in PEGI’s system. However, the body told MCV that it had received no official confirmation from the Government that the widely-speculated news …

Microsoft has announced that it has struck a deal with major US movie studio Paramount that will see a number of new films available to download via Xbox Live. The Xbox Live Video Store, which finally launched in Europe just before Christmas, allows users to download movies that are accessible …

Infogrames Entertainment has announced the launch of a reverse stock split, under which each new share with a value of €1 will be exchanged for 100 existing shares with a par value of €0.01. The exchange of shares will start at the opening of trading on March 4, 2008, when …

Online shopping giant Amazon.com has hinted at its plans to develop a mechanism for electronic game distribution in an online job advertisment. The ad states that the company is looking for a full-time software development engineer to join the ‘Software and Video Games Digital Technology team’. To read the story …

Eidos has teamed up with Trialpay to make it easier for customers to play the latest Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider Anniversary. TrialPay is a leader in alternative payments, and players will get a free subscription to Tomb Raider: Anniversary by trying or buying an offer from blue-chip advertisers. I …

Though the final official confirmation is not expected to arrive until tomorrow , it seems that the world has accepted that the long-fought hi-def format war is at and end – and US retailers are reacting quickly to the news. Reuters reports that many leading North American retailers, such as …