MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Console manufacturers could be on the verge of a potentially very significant payday. The Guardian reports that talk coming from China suggests the state is preparing to lift its decade-long ban on the sale of games consoles. The ban was introduced in 2000 to safeguard children’s mental and physical development”. …
Read More »One moaning git leads to Wii U TV ad ban
A single, solitary and most likely lonely person has led to the banning of a Nintendo Wii U TV ad. The ASA bizarrely chose to uphold the complaint that drew issue with the depiction of how the console switches from TV gameplay to GamePad gameplay as the short did not …
Read More »Motorola fails in attempted Xbox 360 ban
A US judge has thrown out Motorola’s attempt to ban the Xbox 360 over an alleged patent dispute. The BBC reports that Motorola was attempting to claim $4bn a year due to an alleged breach of its connectivity and video-coding patents. The judge argued that the patents have been recognised …
Read More »Sony smacks PS3 pirates with PSN bans
Consumers who use the new PS3 lv0 bootloader key to play games illegally online are being banned from PSN. Unauthorised software for the PlayStation 3 system was recently released by hackers,” a Sony statement reads. Use of such software violates the terms of the ‘System Software License Agreement for the …
Read More »Russia ponders violent games clampdown after Moscow shooting
Violent games could be facing a potential clampdown in Russia after authorities linked them to a recent shooting. Last week Russian office worker Dmitry Vinogradov shot dead five former colleagues with two more admitted to hospital, one of whom was a former girlfriend of Vinogradov. However, as is sadly too …
Read More »Chinese home console ban could be scrapped – platform holders have kittens
Sony’s PS3 has reportedly received a certification of quality from a Chinese safety standards body, leading to speculation that the world’s most populace country could be about to lift its ban on home consoles. The super-state banned such hardware in 2000 amidst concerns about their potential effect on the country’s …
Read More »Microsoft perma-banning Halo 4 pirates
Permanent Xbox Live bans are being handed out to Xbox 360 owners who have illegally pirated Halo 4. The game became available online over the weekend, but can only be played by users who have modded their Xbox 360 console to run pirated code. And have then been daft enough …
Read More »Apple seeking US sales ban on eight Samsung smartphones
Its high-profile legal loss to Apple over the weekend could be just the beginning of the problems for Samsung. Apple has now file papers with the US courts in a bid to pull eight Samsung smartphone handsets from sale in the US, including the Galaxy Prevail and a number of …
Read More »Now BT blocks The Pirate Bay… but site reports increased UK traffic
BT has finally caved to legal pressure and blocked access to The Pirate Bay for its UK customers. It was the last ISP to cooperate with the High Court’s demand to revoke access tot eh portal, with others such as TalkTalk, Virgin, O2 and Sky having already implemented bans. However, …
Read More »ESA urges against US Xbox ban
American trade body The Entertainment Retailers Association has urged against a possible ban on sales of the Xbox 360 in the US. An International Trade Commission judge last month recommended that the machine should no longer be imported into the US and all sales of unsold stock to be blocked. …
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