MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Ubisoft’s The Smurfs & Co has become the fastest-growing Facebook game in the past two weeks, picking up 4.1m monthly active users. The town-building adventure game went live on July 29th and is currently the No.1 licence-based social game in the world, according to AppData. The Smurfs & Co will …
Read More »BBC Worldwide releases Doctor Who Android title
iOS port marks first excursion of lucrative BBC IP to Google platform
Read More »Zelda, Mario Kart, Mario 3DS dated
GAMESCOM: Nintendo has dated a number of potentially blockbuster games as part of its Gamescom press avalanche. Chief amongst them is Wii title The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which will be released in Europe on November 18th. The company has also confirmed that Super Mario 3D Land will hit …
Read More »Zynga buys Astro Ape
LinkedIn profiles reveal purchase, company name change to Zynga NY
Read More »Catherine finally heading for Australia / New Zealand
Japanese puzzle game Catherine has already been released in North America and Japan, but now looks like it’s heading down under as well. GAME and EB Games have both listed Catherine on their web sites, carrying a release date of some time in October, and distributor QV Software has the …
Read More »Tiga calls for higher EU dev funding emphasis
UK trade body sides with European Games Developer Federation on funding initiative
Read More »Wii gets a makeover, loses GameCube compatibility
GAMESCOM: Nintendo has announced, via a tiny snippet at the end of its Gamescom press release, that it is to launch a new version of the Wii console this Christmas. Simply referred to as the Wii Bundle”, the new hardware introduces a streamlined Wii console with a slightly altered configuration**, …
Read More »Virgin Gaming ups prize fund to £2.6m
A whopping €3m (2.6m) in prizes can be won by Virgin Gaming members this year. It’s a huge increase over the tournament firm’s first year, where $1m (620,000) in prizes was on offer. The company says key to its ability to increase the prize fund is its new Series Tournaments. …
Read More »NCsoft’s new MMO Wildstar looks to shake up genre
GAMESCOM: MMO specialist NCsoft has lifted the lid on a brand new MMO from developer Carbine Studios – Wildstar. The game takes a different design approach to rivals in the MMO genre by offering significantly different gameplay styles depending on the player’s chosen speciality – Explorer, Soldier, Scientist or Settler. …
Read More »AU/NZ pricing details on Sony’s Gamescom announcements
Sony has officially announced the Australian and New Zealand prices for the PSP-E1000, 24" 3D Display and the new price of the PS3. The 160Gb PS3 model will move from AUD$499 to AUD$349, and NZD$599 to NZD$479.The 320Gb PS3 will see similar price drops, moving from AUD$499 to AUD$349, and …
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