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

Euphoria, the animation engine produced by Oxford-based NaturalMotion, has been licensed by Grand Theft Auto creator and publisher Rockstar Games for use in its next-gen games.

Acclaim has thrown the wraps of its latest David Perry-produced MMO revealing that development of the game will be influenced by direct contributions from its player community.

Publisher SCi continues to bolster its development resources, having just acquired British casual and mobile games developer Rockpool games.

The reformation of Climax continues – according to Develop's sources the firm's Santa Monica development office in the US has today been closed, which leaves the company with two UK studios.

The University of Abertay's popular computer games design competition for students, Dare to be Digital, has launched for an eighth year with a significantly expanded schedule and a call for entries.

Just days after Eidos announced plans to open a studio in Montréal, and a week after Ubisoft said it would grow its own team in the city, QA specialist Babel Media has confirmed plans to grow its own Quebec base to 500 staff.

Its senior management is currently denying it, but reports on the web today say that Circle Studio, opened by former Core founders Jeremy and Adrian Heath-Smith, has closed.  

Reports emerging from the Irish press are claiming that US publisher Activision is on the verge of acquiring Dublin-based middleware firm DemonWare.

Cambridge-based technology company Geomerics has announced that its Enlighten lighting tool has joined Epic's Integrated Partners Program for Unreal Engine 3.

Studio management team ISM has teamed up with GDC organiser CMP to put together the conference's first charity poker tournament, supporting the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation.