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

English children’s reading skills have slipped from third to fifteenth in the world, according to a new study – and it’s all the games industry’s fault, says The Sun. Kids hooked on computer games have sent England plummeting down world league tables for reading,” begins the story in today’s Sun. …

With the release of Sega’s Nights Journey into Dreams on Wii pencilled in for early next year, rumours abound that another classic Saturn franchise could be making its way to next-gen consoles in the near future. Speaking to Future games site Games Radar, Sonic Team USA boss Takashi Iizuka said …

Though it arrived in Europe for the first time just last year, the Dragon Quest series remains one of the hottest properties in the Japanese games market – and the latest instalment, Dragon Quest IV on DS, has kept up the tradition with sales of 597,000 in its first week. …

It had previously been suggested that a multiplayer beta for Sony’s next-gen FPS Killzone could make its way to the PlayStation Network before the end of the year, but SCEA has now stated that shooting fans will have to wait to next year to get their hands on the preview. …

A recent study by Professor Rowell Huesmann of the University of Michigan has claimed that viewers of violent TV and video games are more susceptible to increased aggression, according to Science Daily . "Exposure to violent electronic media has a larger effect than all but one other well-known threat to …

Though it can be hard to get firm data from platform holders regarding the success, or otherwise, of their digital distribution offerings, Nintendo has stated that it has to date made $33 million from paid downloads on its Virtual Console service, IGN reports . This equates to 7.8 million downloads …

Head of agency responsible for region's tax credits says they will remain despite claims by UK minister

With the global demand for Nintendo’s Wii currently far outweighing the available supply of hardware, despite the 1.8 million units being manufactured by the firm each month, Nintendo’s American president has admitted that the shortage is a missed opportunity for the platform holder. Retail giant Amazon recently admitted that it …

Event's director names Heroes exec producer and Radical devs as latest to host sessions

The Video Recordings Act 1984 makes it an offence to supply a recording containing a video work without BBFC classification. Video games which are not video works, or which are not supplied as a video recording, will not require classification from the BBFC. The question in each case is therefore …