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

Publisher assures fans series will not be tackling online-only play

The Upper Echelon and Jack of All Trades bonus packs will be available for Splinter Cell: Blacklist buyers in India, distributor E-xpress Interactive has announced. Preorder customers will receive the Jack of All Trades pack, which includes the elite digital ghillie suit and early access to 416 assault rifle. The …

Climax Studios has appointed industry veteran Chris Eden as its new business development manager. Chris has over 20 years worth of industry experience under his belt and joins Climax from the Sheffield-based Sumo Digital, where he worked for three years. I’m delighted to be returning to Climax, the studio has …

Quick – there’s just one table left for the first Xbox 360 MCV Quiz of 2013. Costing just 349, a table seats up to five contestants and includes free food and plenty of drink, a great networking opportunity, the chance to win some fantastic prizes and a really fun night. …

Havok is attempting to shift the balance of power with its game engine for mobile and indie devs

Zapak Mobile Games has released a new arcade free-to-play game for Android, titled Brainbots vs Zombies. Despite its post-apocalyptic theme, this a game primarily targeted at kids with casual arcade gameplay The premise involves a herd of zombies plotting its attack on the last settlement of brains. Players must protect …

Deep Silver’s Dead Island: Riptide has topped the UKIE GfK Chart-Track UK All Formats Top 40 for the second week in a row. All in all it’s a largely uneventful week in the listings with the highest new entry at 26th – Sony’s Vita title Soul Sacrifice. There are re-entries …

SimCity studio Maxis has revealed that The Sims 4 is in the works. EA’s press release waits until only the second sentence to confirm that The Sims 4 will be a SINGLE PLAYER and OFFLINE game. A bit eager, you may argue, but with Maxis’ name currently proving pretty toxic …

US subsidiary of Marvelous AQL acquires Atlus Online

A month after closing LucasArts, Disney has signed a multi-year publishing deal with EA, through which the latter will create Star Wars games for the core gaming audience (read: console and PC). EA will rope in the talents of in-house studios DICE (Battlefield), Bioware (Mass Effect), and Visceral Games (Dead …