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

Digital Agenda Initiative proposes tax credits on production and national distribution

Fight My Monster has become the UK’s fastest-growing online game for boys after reaching 1m players. The Moshi Monsters rival launched in 2011 and has gone on to achieve an average game session time of 40 minutes per player. The company claims this is almost twice as long as a …

Console giant opts for event alternatives post E3

There will be no early look at the Wii U at this year’s Gamescom 2012, the platform holder has announced. The company last year used the event to announce a number of release dates for key Wii and 3DS titles and has had a presence of sorts at every Gamescom …

Namco Bandai has confirmed that the PC version of Dark Souls will be released on August 24th. The SKU – called Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition – will utilise Microsoft’s Games for Windows Live. And it seems that the move has already proved unpopular with fans. In fact, a …

A free-to-play browser game based on the Ice Age franchise is on the way from Bigpoint. The web specialist has reached an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox to produce the game, which will feature characters and locations from the franchise’s four movies. Players will assume the role of a sloth …

Movie tie-in to include social features such as friend lists and leaderboards

Playfish Beijing to operate Asia-targeted title; Tencent to host

Bethesda’s smash hit RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is to introduce Kinect compatibility on Xbox 360 later this month. The update will be released via Xbox Live before the end of the month. Once installed it will introduce Voice Commands into the game. These can be used to access …

Rovio’s smash hit Angry Birds series has received perhaps the very highest praise available in the world of games development. Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary designer of Nintendo classics such as Mario Bros and Zelda, has admitted that he wished he had come up with the idea for Angry Birds himself. …