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

Bestselling casual franchise gets merchandising deals

Investment to allow studio 'complete autonomy from the pressures of publishers'

Computing giant to focus on smaller, more localised events

Computing giant joins Sega and Nintendo in missing this year's event

Just over one year ago, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot fired a warning shot at EA and Activision. The resolute yet softly-spoken Frenchmen told MCV that Ubisoft was on a trajectory to become the No.1 publisher in the world. Today, he’s not so sure. The market is changing,” he says. We …

The Wii U will cost 199.99 and be launched on July 14th in the UK – according to Amazon.co.uk. In truth the release date, at least, seems highly unlikely. Were the console so close to launch then E3 would have included far more detail than it did, and third parties …

The vast German consumer and trade video game show Gamescom has not been shaken by Microsoft’s decision to miss the 2012 event. In a statement issued to MCV, organiser Koelnmesse says the event is still ‘on track, demonstrating stability and growth despite the difficult market situation’. Instead, the organisers say …

Explosive Alan Productions, the new venture from former members of the Inside Xbox team, has received more than $16,000 through crowd-funding. Dan Maher, Ashley Denton and Gareth Wild have put together a video calling to their loyal viewers for donations that will go towards Explosive Alan’s new multi-format show, codenamed …

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to receive legend award

Finnish mobile phone company Nokia has announced a fresh round of redundancies with some 10,000 workers facing the sack. The move brings the total amount of staff laid off by the company since the appointment of current chief executive Stephen Elop in September 2010 to 40,000. "These planned reductions are …