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

EVER-EXPANDING MMO publisher NCsoft has revealed that it is giving its European European development capabilities a huge boost – doubling in size in the next 18 months alone. The target was revealed as NCsoft’s chief executive officer Geoff Heath told MCV that its first PS3 project should be hitting retail …

Empire releases Jackass into the busy Christmas market next Friday – but is confident that the mass-appeal title will hit a top five spot in the chart despite some tough competition. A new DS version of the game has been added to the publisher’s release roster for Q1 2008, showing …

System 3 has unveiled its marketing plans ahead of the release of much anticipated racing title Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli. The title is due for release in February next year, and the publisher plans to build on the hype the title has already generated with a multifaceted marketing campaign. We’re …

Following a powerhouse first week in the UK charts, Activision’s Call of Duty 4 has succeeded in beating Gears of War to become the second most played game on Xbox Live – behind only the might of Halo 3. And developer Infinity Ward has already announced that an update to …

Microsoft and Xbox supreme J Allard has said that both its Xbox 360 games console and portable MP3 player Zune are ultimately designed to connect to the same network, sparking talk that the music machine could yet play host to gaming. Speaking to The New York Times, Allard stated: "The …

The North American arm of Japanese publisher and developer Atlus has been confirmed as an official third party publisher, Next-Gen reports. Atlus USA will specialise in bringing niche Japanese-produced titles to Microsoft’s system, the first two of which will be RPG duo Operation Darkness and Spectral Force 3, both of …

IGN reports that according to data from Media Create Nintendo’s popular handheld console the DS has now sold over 20 million units in Japan. The original model succeeded in shifting 6 million units in the first 14 months on the market, but since the arrival of the redesigned DS Lite …

Developer-centric PR agency grabs first client

Develop reports that Sony has cut the price of PlayStation 3 development kits in a bid to ”contribute to cost-saving measures of the development community". SCEI said the prices for the PS3 SDK will be reduced to $10,250 in North America, 950,000 Yen in Japan and €7,500 in Europe. At …

Australian game development trade association announces new board of directors as well