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

The latest release from inventive Japanese studio Grasshopper Manufacture has proved its most successful – but it’s not all good news. The studio’s CEO Yoshimi Yasuda has revealed that 2012 title Lollipop Chainsaw has become its most successful title ever, with global shipments having passed the 700,000 mark, Andriasang reports. …

Five independent game developers from around the world have joined the line-up of speakers for this year’s NASSCOM Game Developer Conference, the trade body has announced. Amongst those speaking at NGDC 2012 are: Richard Louis Vreeland from Disasterpeace (music composer for Fez) Stefano Gualeni (Tony Tough series) Nicolo Robinson Tedeschi …

Activision has revealed its intentions to become much more involved in the mobile space. The company’s mobile VP Greg Canessa emphasized to CVG the strength in the variety of brands Activision could consider for mobile efforts. "We have a rich thirty-year history from the Atari days to the Blizzard merger. …

Social and mobile games publisher Gree has revealed partnerships with a handful of North American-based independent developers. The four studios include Gamenauts, InfiniDy, Oceanside Interactive, and SkyVu Entertainment. SkyVu, best known for its Battle Bears mobile franchise which boasts over 18m users, will release its latest Battle Bears effort exclusively …

Mojang has announced the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft has sold 3.6m copies since its May launch. "Was really surprised to see that 3.6 million people have now purchased Minecraft for Xbox," Mojang’s Daniel Kaplan wrote on Twitter. Add to that over 7m sold on PC (as of earlier this …

COO to step in following layoffs and sale of cloud gaming company

Previous reports that said OnLive founder Steve Perlman would stay with the beleaguered firm are false – he’s leaving. The founder of the cloud gaming firm is moving on from the post of CEO and president. New investor Gary Lauder is to become chairman, with Charlie Jablonski, former head of …

The Uncharted film adaptation is going back to the drawing board in more ways than one. Variety reports Marianne and Cormac Wibberley will be rewriting the script of ‘Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.’ The two co-wrote Disney’s ‘National Treasure.’ The report adds Neil Burger is no longer onboard as director. The producers …

The World Ends With You – Solo Remix has landed on App Store, with Square Enix once again slapping a large asking price for one of its iOS ports. An errant listing on the company’s site last week all but unveiled the DS title was heading to the platform, though …

Just what is going wrong amongst UK games retailers? A number of senior trade execs have told MCV the market slump has left them perplexed – compounded by a seeming reluctance from some corners of retail to do anything about it. In the last few week’s MCV has reported on …