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

The Entertainment Software Association has confirmed that Activision has re-joined the trade body. The pair originally parted ways back in May 2008, with an Activision rep telling GameSpot at the time: "After careful consideration, Activision has decided not to renew its ESA membership for business reasons and will not be …

Valve’s idealised ‘flat management’ structure is not all it’s cracked up to be, according to one of the developers fired from the studio earlier this year. Hardware hacker and former head of Valve’s hardware division Jeri Ellsworth has characterised secretive Valve’s purportedly utopian structure as masking ‘hidden management’ cliques that …

Namco Bandai has announced a Western release date for RPG sequel Tales of Xillia 2. The PS3-exclusive RPG will be released in Europe and Australia in 2014. Which – obviously – means it arrives after the launch of PS4 at the end of the year. Tales of Xillia 2 is …

Don Mattrick lead an attempted acquisition of Zynga for then employer Microsoft in 2010, it has been claimed. Bloomberg reports that negotiations took place between Mattrick and Zynga founder Mark Pincus. Microsoft had hoped to add Zynga’s then hit titles to its Xbox Live service. Although no concrete reason was …

Long reunited with Richard Garriott for crowdfunded MMO

One of the most maligned pieces of gaming hardware ever revealed will not now be released. In truth, any potential release for the Wii Vitality Sensor would have come as a shock. But the reason for the peripheral’s demise has certainly come as a surprise. After a large-scale test of …

Reducing the staff count may lower overheads but it also comes at a cost, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has claimed. If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results employee morale will decrease and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will …

22Cans lead programmer discusses how his studio established a new development pipeline

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Mobile firm to close London office due to 'challenging economic climate'