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

Ad revenue 'to represent 6% of total market'; Asia 'to drive mobile business to $7.5bn'

Popular Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono says he will be ‘out of the limelight for a while’ following his hospitalisation. Ono was admitted to hospital last week after his physical condition "heavily deteriorated" during a game promotion tour across Asia. "I’ll be out of the limelight as fighting game series …

Record label EMI is suing the developers of music game Def Jam Rapstar in an $8m lawsuit for allegedly not obtaining song rights. EMI is seeking damages from the ‘theft of songs’ from artists like Kanye West, DMX and Lil Wayne, which were used in the game without permission, claims …

Namco Bandai takes its flagship racing series in a new direction this week in Ridge Racer: Unbounded. The street racing titlefocuses on destruction as players smash their way through city courses and drive their opponents off the road. It also features a track editor, allowing them to create their own …

Key executives resign as profits fall; New CEO says 'we cannot succeed if we try to be everybodyâ??s darling'

Beleaguered publisher THQ has cut some 120 employees from its game development network, as the company looks to streamline the business to ease costs. Some 80 positions will be made redundant at Texas outfit Vigil Games, while another 40 will go at Vancouver studio Relic Entertainment. The latest bout of …

A survey released by digital goods researching group SuperData predicts the mobile gaming market will expand to $7.5 billion worldwide by 2015—tripling the current representative market. At the moment Asia is the largest market for mobile titles, and is projected to hit $3.2 billion (grabbing 40% of the total market) …

Ubisoft has announced that, currently, Assassin’s Creed III is set to become the highest pre-ordered game in the history of the company. Assassin’s Creed III has already made some history in regards to North America, with pre-order reservations reaching higher than any of the previous Assassin’s Creed games; and this …

Voting has opened for Time Magazine’s annual 100 most influential people poll, with two notable gaming industry leaders making this year’s list of finalists. Irrational Games’ Ken Levine and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus are among the diverse selection of influencers described by Time as ‘leaders, artists, innovators, icons and heroes.’ …

Court documents claim Android brought less than $550m for Google since 2008