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

GAMEFEST: Landmark legal move allows consumers free use of Halo, Forza and Viva Piñata assets in homebrew works

In his keynote at Microsoft’s Gamefest event, XNA general manager Chris Satchell unveiled the latest version of XNA Game Studio – and announced a new strategy for the product, reports MCV sister mag Develop . Previously planned to be split into two packages – Game Studio Express for hobbyist users …

Only Activision, EA and 505 Games manage to break Nintendo’s stunning summer run of sales in this week’s ChartTrack all formats top ten. Heavy promotion on TV and the small matter of an accompanying blockbuster movie help Activision’s Traveller’s Tales-developed action title to fight off the march of Pokemon on …

GAMEFEST: Xbox Live support to be available for both pro and amateur developers

Nvidia has recorded a landmark increase in revenue in its second quarter results – a rise of 36 per cent year on year thanks to strong demand for its chips. Nvidia said it has earned $172.7 million (85 million) during the quarter – a figure that mean it had seen …

A report in the New York Post today claims that Apple is secretly gearing up to push its iPhone – and perhaps its new Apple TV device – as gaming platforms. Taking last week’s furore over Nintendo filing for a patent for a motion-sensitive DS-style device as its queue, the …

SCEA has confirmed that PSP’s newly found ability to run games using the full 333Mhz power of its CPU compromises the machine’s wireless functionality – meaning developers will have to choose between full-blown processing power or wireless multiplayer. The PSP’s processor had until recently been limited to a speed of …

Online retail giant Play.com has signed a one month exclusive deal with Commodore Gaming for its latest high-end gaming PC, reported Digital Spy . The CommodoreG gaming rig, loaded with an Intel Core 2 quad processor and 2GB of RAM, will only be available to purchase from Play.com during this …

Patient fans of Sony’s seminal racing franchise Gran Turismo have received a double-whammy of good news today – with the apparent confirmation of a July ’08 release for the GT5 in Japan and the news that the PSP version GT Mobile will see the light of day even earlier. Unfortunately …

Following the tremendous success of Microsoft’s slightly delayed and hugely popular Halo 3 multiplayer beta, word has spread that a second beta may already be underway. Dubbed Halo 3 Epsilon, eagle-eyed 360 gamers have spotted others playing the game on their Xbox Live friends lists. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the …