MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld two complaints levelled against on of Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ads. The ad showcased a number of the countries featured in the game and, in the words of the ASA, contained computer-generated scenes of New York under military assault, with buildings …
Read More »Confusion over European second-hand download ruling
Digital download retailers have called in the lawyers following a shock EU decision that could legitimise second-hand sales in the download space. The ruling followed a dispute between Oracle and UsedSoft. UsedSoft was selling second-hand licences for Oracle software, so Oracle took the firm to the European Court of Justice. …
Read More »Valve has "no plans to change" despite Euro ruling
Steam will not introduce any functionality to allow gamers to sell on products they buy digitally, it has said. We don’t have any plans to change,” was the stark response given (twice) to PCGamesN by Valve’s business development director Jason Holtman. The comments come following last week’s revelation that the …
Read More »Legal concerns decimate DeNA and Gree share price
Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency has announced an investigation into how social games firms sell their microtransactions in Japan, causing shares in the country’s two major players to nosedive. Nikkei.com reports that shares in both DeNA and Gree – the two major players in Japan’s social gaming scene – plunged to …
Read More »ESA, ESRB welcome court victory
Following the video games industry’s key legal victory in the US yesterday, American trade body the ESA has celebrated the very important decision. This is a historic and complete win for the First Amendment and the creative freedom of artists and storytellers everywhere," a statement from president and CEO Michael …
Read More »Games industry wins US court battle
The American video games industry has today emerged victorious in its six-year battle with Californian authorities. The US Supreme Court today ruled in favour of gaming in the case entitled Brown, Governor of California et al vs Entertainment Merchants Association et al. This means gaming is now safe from the …
Read More »PSJailbreak team dismiss Sony injunction
The company behind the controversial PSJailbreak, a device that allows users to play homebrew and pirated code on PS3 for the first time, has asserted its position in the face of Sony’s legal challenge to the product. Last week Sony was been granted a temporary injunction preventing the importing or …
Read More »Courts strike modchip blow
In a move that could prove an important milestone in the battle against console modding, the Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Worcestershire-based modchip seller Christopher Gilham. Gilham was found guilty of selling modchips in late 2008 but later challenged the assumption that playing copied games on a …
Read More »PEGI legal ruling is still on track
ELSPA has reassured the trade that the PEGI ratings system’s ascent to become law is still on track – despite the discovery that current age classification is legally unenforceable. A recent review of the 25 year-old Video Recordings Act discovered that the selling of adult videos and games to minors …
Read More »DIGITAL BRITAIN: The industry responds to PEGI ruling
A number of the most senior figures in the UK video games industry have responded to the government’s move to grant PEGI the sole power of video games classification. We’ve got comments from Nintendo’s UK general manager David Yarnton, Ubisoft MD Rob Cooper, Sega president and CEO Mike Hayes, EA …
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