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

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 …

MCV sister site Develop has updated its exclusive monthly developer chart , provided by Chart-Track, showing how the world’s software companies fared during December and the all-important Christmas period at UK retail. While Call of Duty 4 may have been the top selling game at Christmas in the UK, it’s …

With many gamers heading to the shops today to find only emptiness and ‘for sale’ signs in the spot where they’d usually peruse the new releases, Sega has abated the post-Christmas new release blues with a number of Q1 confirmations. January will see the release of Wii racing-come-platform-come-flying-about title Nights: …

SPECIAL FEATURE: Develop investigates how making games for multiple SKUs has impacted studios

In an unusual, but welcome, step developer Criterion has released an update for the existing Burnout Paradise demo on Xbox 360 and PS3, CVG reports. The patch ups the number of available online competitors from four to eight in multiplayer, and also adds 13 new Freeburn challenges ahead of its …