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

Microsoft has confirmed to CVG that all of the UK pre-orders for the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 have already been snapped up. The package includes the game, two bonus DVDs – featuring documentaries and remastered cinematic scenes from Halo and Halo 2 – a collection of Halo 3 storyboard …

Zavvi Entertainment Group, headed up by existing Virgin Megastores MD Simon Douglas and finance director Steve Peckham, will operate all of the existing 125 UK and Irish stores and its online operation. Zavvi will continue to be supplied by EUK, the company’s primary supplier. All UK stores will be re-branded …

The deal covers weekly and monthly UK games data compiled by ChartTrack on behalf of ELSPA. The new arrangements mean that MCV has secured publishing rights for the Top 40 weekly all formats chart across both its online and print portfolio. MCV will also carry the Top 10 weekly single …

Develop reports that Havok is to be acquired by Intel for an undisclosed sum. The middleware company’s new owner said the move will let developers working in games and digital animation "take advantage of Intel’s innovation and technology leadership". Havok’s tools, which cover Physics, Animation and character-focused Behavior modules, are …

Gamebryo vendor Emergent is riding a wave of expansion and announcements, recently unveiling a new online games platform and increased support for Wii in its game engine. We caught up with CEO Geoffery Selzer and new president Scott Johnson to find out more about the company's plansâ?¦

Surprise acquisition sees award-winning tools firm become subsidiary of computing giant

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has hit out at video games for existing in a ‘moral vacuum’ compared to television drama. According to Broadcast magazine, Grade said that TV could take the moral high ground over games because it enjoyed the ‘framework of a dramatic narrative’. Grade was responding directly …

Having continued to evolve throughout its 23-year history, Gem’s new logo is an indication that the ambitious company has raised its game once again, says managing director Chris Peacock. The logo is only an indicator of the changes that are taking place,” he told MCV. It was important that we …

Program designed to help new studios and service firms

Chief executive of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello has told some of the most powerful luminaries in television that games are no more violent a media than TV programmes. Speaking in a presentation to the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention, Riccitiello said video games were ‘unfairly demonised’ in the press for …