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

As many as 100 staff at independent studio Day 1 have been made redundant, an alleged source close to the matter has said. The Chicago studio is claimed to have axed a significant portion of its workforce after a project funded by Japanese publisher Konami fell through. But a purported …

Mark Pincus, the chief executive of social games giant Zynga, has begun pitching his company to key investors in preparation for its upcoming IPO. VentureBeat reports that Zynga’s IPO will value the company for between $8bn and $9bn – slightly less than the already down-sized $10bn valuation touted last week. …

Danish toy giant LEGO has announced possible plans to release an official toy line based on Minecraft. The possibility cam about when users were given the opportunity to vote for the tie-up on LEGO’s Cuusoo website, where the public are invited to vote on pitches for new ideas submitted by …

Jo Bartlett has been named as the new head of UK communications at Nintendo. She fills the role left by Rob Saunders who left Nintendo for Apple earlier this year, as exclusively revealed by MCV. Bartlett will work alongside existing team members Lewis Digby and EmilyWoolliscroftand will oversee all press …

Smartphone app allows players to browse, control and purchase Xbox media

The government has admitted the way schools teach computing is flawed – now the UKIE-backed Next Gen Skills campaign wants games firms to help change the National Curriculum. Earlier this week, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)?published a response to the Livingstone-Hope Next Gen report, which criticised how …

Popular Rosemary Buahin has returned to Sony Computer Entertainment UK as head of trade marketing. She rejoins after a three-year term at Warner Bros. Interactive. Previously, she was trade marketing manager at Sony for four and a half years. She now reports directly to Alan Duncan, SCE UK marketing director.Duncan …

US giant GameStop is already making waves in the UK with its local estore after a hugely successful day of Black Friday deals. The online specialist kicked off its day of promotions by selling Uncharted 3 for 22.97, which caused the site to crash almost immediately. But the firm managed …

Retailer GAME will exclusively sell the Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector’s Edition. The PC?MMO’s 129.99?special SKU includes a statue, map, metal case, journal, soundtrack CD and extra in-game content. Although EA previously listed GAME, Gamestation, Amazon, Play.com, Zavvi and ShopTo online as retailers stocking the Collector’s Edition, the listings …

Just how far can EA push the freemium model on smartphones? Last week MCV revealed that the publisher had released a new version of Tetris on iOS that offered the option of subscribing to the game for extra perks and content. Now AOL reports that a new version of RTS …