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

GameStop shares drop five per cent

Publisher reshapes executive team with new COO, director of marketing and executive producer

Activision’s UK and Ireland MD Peter Hepworth has left the Call of Duty publisher, MCV can reveal. Hepworth joined the company in 2005 and he replaced Andrew Brown as UK MD in August 2011. But he has decided to leave the firm to pursue new opportunities. Brown will now take …

Airtight Games creative director Kim Swift has called on women developers to tackle sexism in the game industry. In a newblog post, the Quantum Conundrum creator admitted that sexism is a common occurrence for many women in the game industry, and said that the recent furore over twitter on the …

Data points to new handset owners flocking to mobile hit

The global success that is Angry Birds enjoyed a blockbuster Christmas. Rovio’s game was downloaded an eye-watering 30m times between December 22nd and December 29th. On Christmas Day alone the game as purchased 8m times. With Flurry data suggesting that 17.4m new Android and iOS devices – that means there …

Charity the AbleGamers Foundation has named EA’s FIFA 13 as its most accessible mainstream game of the year. AbleGamers was established in 2004 and works towards helping those disabilities of quality-of-life issues use gaming as a way in which to improve their lives. Accessibility features in the title include remappable …

UAE-based studio now holds 25 staff, with plans to hire another 75 in the next five years

Pikmin may be one of the cutest IP on the planet, but don’t expect the next game to be a walkover. Speaking to GamesMaster (as reported by ONM) Nintendo development boss Shigeru Miyamoto has admitted that he thought the second game in the series was too easy going and that …

A new Flurry report reveals that a record-breaking 17.4m iOS and Android devices were activated worldwide on Christmas day. Also breaking records were app downloads, which reached an estimated 328m. The period between December 25th and December 31st was also record-breaking, with in excess of 50m iOS and Android devices …