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

The Times’ opinion columnist Janice Turner has stuck the knife into the video games industry in an article entitled ‘Xbox is crack for kids’. In the piece, which appeared in Saturday’s newspaper, Turner calls consoles ‘Satan’s Sudoku’. She goes on to write that children are ‘mentally imprisoned’ when playing games, …

EA has announced a new Battlefield game from its DICE studio – and with it, has introduced the publisher to a brand new business model. The game will be available for free over the web, not sold via retail, and is supported financially through in-game advertising and item sales. For …

New Battlefield game is digitally distributed and free-to-play, making money via in-game ads and item transactions

Next week's awards ceremony to acknowledge successes of organisation members

New SCi CEO Phil Rogers has already handpicked the Chief Operating Officer he believes will turn around SCi’s fortunes. Jurgen Goeldner joins the company with over 25 years’ experience within video games, including stints as an exec at Funsoft and THQ Germany. "Jurgen has a wealth of experience which will …

With the Manhunt 2 saga still far from passed , Rockstar is now staring another gaming controversy in the face as forces begin to gather in oppositio to its upcoming release of Bully: Scholarship Edition on Xbox 360 and Wii. CVG reports that the DSGi group, which owns High Street …

After previously saying that it would seek to compensate members after many experienced Xbox Live troubles over the Christmas period, Microsoft has confirmed that it is to offer recently released shooter Undertow free next week. Major Nelson spills the beans on his blog, linking to fellow Microsoft blog Gamerscore, which …

This week’s Macworld Expo has snared headlines thanks to the introduction of ‘the world’s thinnest notebook’, but despite an announcement from EA that Will Wright’s long-awaited Spore will have a simultaneous Mac and PC release, analysts are saying Apple still lacks a real strategy for the games industry. To read …

Middle and senior level artist, designer and producer roles see wage jump; slight rise for programmers

Old and new clash: Puzzle Quest designer and Ralph H. Baer to speak