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

In an interview with Develop, Gamecock's Mike Wilson has spoken out against studio acquisitions, branding them nonsensical – and he doesn't think digital distribution is the short-term quick fix everyone says it is, either.

The doors haven't even opened at the Moscone Center for 2007's showing yet, but show organiser CMP has already confirmed the timings for GDC 2008.

Sony Computer Entertainment has fired up its GDC hype train, two days ahead of its conference-opening keynote, detailing the  tech on show and offering hints about its announcements regarding online strategy.

As it announces a number of new developer initiatives, Microsoft has made a bold - and perhaps questionable - claim, saying that three-quaters of games in development are being devised first for its platforms using its XNA tool.

GarageGames, the company behind the Torque games engine, has opened a new social networking site for indie games developers and players at GreatGamesExperiment.com.

Just a week after announcing his community-driven MMO, former Shiny boss Dave Perry has taken the wraps off another community-oriented project, this time asking games professionals to collaborate on a map of their industry.

As GDC 07 kicks off, Microsoft has officially incresed the size of files available over Xbox Live Arcade, up from 50 to 150 megabytes.

The Nordic Game Program has doubled its government support grant for 2007, with 5m Danish crows (DKK), or €670,000 (£454,000) available for games companies in the countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

On Monday, the Game Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco. Develop will be there offering live coverage and email flashes of the biggest announcements. In the meantime, we've put together a list of what our editorial team thinks are the 20 most important and/or intriguing sessions…

Development on Warner Bros' next-gen Dirty Harry game has been moved from Foundation 9's The Collective meaning a number of staff are now without work at the South California studio.