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

The People reports that Prince William is struggling to find time to play the Wii he received for Christmas recently – as his grandmother, who is the Queen incidentally, is apparently hooked” on the machine. The paper quotes a Sandringham source as saying: "When she saw William playing a game …

Following the news that Warner is to cease production of HD-DVD movies and instead exclusively support Sony’s rival Blu-Ray format, last night’s CES 2008 North American HD-DVD Promotion Group conference was cancelled. A statement from the body read: "Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, we …

In a massive blow to Toshiba’s HD-DVD hi-def disc format, content giant Warner Bros has announced that it is to release future HD movie content exclusively on Sony’s Blu-Ray format, with production of Toshiba’s HD-DVD discs to cease by May. Warner chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said of the decision: …

Classic brands and well-known casual games dominate

Microsoft’s Bill Gates used his last ever speech at the annual Consumer Electronics Show to announce film behemoth MGM and TV network ABC-Disney had signed up to new content deals with his firm’s Xbox division. The technology magnate was joined on stage by Microsoft’s president of its entertainment and devices …

As part of its plan to expand the scope of the PSP as a wider entertainment system, SCE has announced that the Slim version of the handheld will be fitted with Skype capabilities, reported Next Generation . The free voice-over-IP service will be available on the console via a software …

Xbox Live users that subscribe to BT Broadband will soon be granted access to an extensive library of on-demand content including movies, TV, music videos and even BT Vision’s ‘near live’ FA Premier League football matches through their consoles. The new deal marks the coming together of two corporate giants …

PC catalogue now available on Valveâ??s network

Days after an SCEA release schedule sparked hope in the hearts of PS3 owners everywhere by announcing a January 15th release date for Ubisoft’s futuristic FPS Haze, it now appears that a March arrival is on the cards. Whilst the French publisher is sticking to its previous Q1 release date, …

Take 2 has hired former UK boss Serhad Koro as the new figurehead of its European games publishing business. MCV understands that Koro is replacing internationalmanaging director James Ellingford, whose departure emerged yesterday afternoon. The experienced Koro has been identified by Take 2’s new global boss Gary Dale as the …