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

The founders of veteran UK studio Rare, Chris and Tim Stamper, have left the company to “pursue other opportunities”.

The Video Games Live music concert returns to GDC this year for an event in San Francisco.

North East games development association Game Horzion plans to lift the lid on the business opportunities presented by the PlayStation 3 at an event taking place next month.

SPECIAL REPORT: Rising budgets, new studios and surprise deals have brought 2006 to a tremendous close for Western games production – $600m was invested in European and North American studios over the last 12 months, taking the year’s spending past the $1bn mark.

Warner Bros' big money deal with Eidos-owner SCi will help the UK publisher expand its development base, with expansion into China and Canada plus new acquisitions, a priority.

Llamasoft founder Jeff Minter will open GDC's Casual Games Summit as keynote speaker, organiser CMP has announced.

Burger King's range of value meal video games, developed by a team at UK's Blitz Games, have sold over two million units in the US.

Develop Award winner Natural Motion wants to inspire students to think about next-generation games development thanks to its Academic Partner Progam which offers animation tools at cut prices to educators.

US start-up Riot Games has been boosted with a $1.5m investment that will help production of the team's first game.

Hot on the heels of Double Fusion's announced expansion, rival IGA has confirmed a partnership with Valve for advertising in Counter-Strike - and the two claim it's one of the industry's biggest in-game ad deals yet.