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

With reports of expensive bundles and extortionate eBay prices plaguing those desperate to track down the increasingly rare Wii in time for Christmas, platform holder Nintendo has told MCV that it is considering changing some elements of its pre-Christmas marketing strategy. Marketing Week reports that all of Nintendo’s allocated Wii …

360 degree deals may be commonplace in the music industry, says Owain Bennallack, but could they prove a valuable source of income for games studios?

CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America Jack Tretton has admitted that many consumers were still left in the dark about PS3’s capabilities following the console’s launch. In an interview with GameDaily , to celebrate his first full year as CEO, Tretton said: We are on our fourth platform introduction, and …

The PSP and PS3 may have between them enjoyed a spell of dominance in the Japanese hardware market in recent times, but it seems that Nintendo’s Wii and DS double-team is staging a fight back as both machines enjoy sales rises this week – despite drops elsewhere across the board. …

Jordan Weisman forms new team, snaps up rights to Shadowrun, Crimson Skies and MechWarrior

Figures for the first week of Christmas retail have been released, and have shown that footfall only increased by 0.01 per cent year-on-year. However, looking at week-on-week figures, the number of shoppers increased by 11.2 per cent, signalling that many people had begun their Christmas shopping. For the full story …

Having originally promising to do so longer ago than MCV can remember, Nintendo’s pledge to allow gamers to swap their Stars Catalogue points for spendable Virtual Console currency has finally been realised with the relaunch of the Nintendo Europe website . Though the star-swapping page is down at the moment, …

Following the release of its 2008 Q1 and Q2 release schedule yesterday which contained no mention of highly anticipated multiplayer romp Super Smash Bros Brawl, Nintendo has said that its dates have not yet been ‘fixed or finalised’. However, in an effort not to worry its fans the platform holder …

Developer gets licence to distribute games on Sonyâ??s network

Following the closure of Microsoft first-party developer FASA last September, former head Jordan Weisman has founded a new studio entitled Smith & Tinker, and has secured the rights to former FASA titles Crimson Skies, Shadowrun and MechWarrior from Microsoft. "We’re not quite ready to announce our plans for each property, …