MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The London Police force has been given approval to establish a new unit designed specifically to target the perpetrators of online hate crimes. The BBC reports that the new team will consist of five officers. The Home Office is to contribute 452,000 of the two-year pilot’s 1.7m cost. Essentially the …
Read More »Parents of underage kids who play 18-rated games could be reported to police
Headteachers from a group of schools in Cheshire have issued a warning to parents who allow their children to play violent 18-rated video games. The Guardian reports that the Nantwich Education Partnership says it will inform the police of parents who allow their sometimes primary aged kids to play games …
Read More »Is Battlefield: Hardline EA’s new police-focused FPS?
Rumours that the next Battlefield title will ditch the military in favour of a police-based setting have intensified with the discovery of new assets. CVG reports that fansites have unearthed a host of details tucked away on EA’s Battlelog servers which point to a title named Battlefield: Hardline that is …
Read More »Scottish Police chief blames violent games for teenage stabbing
A knife attack in Clydebank has been blamed on the offender’s access to violent video games. The games-loving Daily Mail reports that an unnamed 13-year-old (who is apparently already a father) slashed the throat of a 14-year-old friend whom he met via Gears of War 3 online. The victim reportedly …
Read More »Xbox Durango leaker claims police raid
The man behind many of the recent Xbox 720 leaks claims to have been raided by police. SuperDaE shot to prominence when he listed what appears to be a genuine Xbox 720 dev kit (codenamed Durango) on eBay. The listing has now ended with the winner paying AU $50,000 ($33,400). …
Read More »Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom makes police brutality claim
The controversial figure behind file-sharing site Megaupload has claimed that he was assaulted by police when he was arrested in January. Kim Dotcom is currently fighting extradition from New Zealand to the US on piracy related charges. "And then they were all over me,” he said of the moment when …
Read More »Police commissioner blames games for knife crime
Violent video games are directly to blame for an increasing acceptance of violence in everyday society, an Australian police commissioner has claimed. The comments come in the wake of an apparent wave of stabbings amongst the younger communities of Sydney. There is nothing more potentially damaging than the sort of …
Read More »Police threatens file sharers with ten-year imprisonment
The Serious Organised Crime Agency has closed down music website RnBXclusive.com and says those who used it could be fined and imprisoned. SOCA threatened users with an ‘unlimited’ fine and up to ten years imprisonment as it claimed the music site shared files that were ‘stolen from the artists’, resulting …
Read More »Battlefield 3 police shooting likely to spark outrage
Modern Warfare 3 has its London Underground level, and now it looks like Battlefield 3 has found its point of controversy. The game’s listing on the website of American rating’s body the ESRB says that: "In one sequence, a restrained character’s throat is slit (off-screen); in another, players shoot police …
Read More »LulzSec spokesperson arrested
The Metropolitan Police has arrested an 18-year-old man believed to be the spokesperson of hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous. The man – known as ‘Topiary’ – was tracked by the police’s e-crime unit and has been transported from an address in the Shetland Islands to London.He was arrested under section …
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