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

Lady Gaga has successfully taken out an injunction against the creator of manufactured character Lady Goo Goo – preventing any music being officially released from the virtual pop star. Goo Goo, created by global kids community site Moshi Monsters, enjoyed around a million views per month on YouTube for would-be …

Activision brings the worlds of toys and video games together with today’s release of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. This ambitious title lets players use special figurines to activate characters in game by placing them on the Portal of Power. These figures will then remember their progress, regardless of what platform they …

Publisher Warner Interactive has confirmed exactly what content is has locked behind the Online Pass included in new copies of Batman: Arkham City. Inputting the code will grant access to the playable character Catwoman, who comes complete with her own moves, weapons and four additional story scenes. She’ll also be …

Court ruling 'a huge disappointment' says Acton Smith

Drawing on every gaming clich under the sun, the UK’s leading tabloid has this morning thrown yet another spectacular accusation at video games. This time the claim is that video games and Facebook can lead ‘lead to temporary dementia’. Neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield urged youngsters to turn off their computers, go …

Free has emerged as a dominant method for generating revenue from digital games, but it is only the beginning...

Big money being pledged on Q4 drive; Bethesda is reaching the mainstream There’s just a 16m difference between 2011’s big games marketing pot and 2010’s.With at least 165m set aside to promote the big Q4 games this year, you’d be forgiven for thinking we haven’t just come out of some …

Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games says its big adversary is Modern Warfare 2, not Battlefield. Studio head Glen Schofield has played down Modern Warfare 3’s rivalry with EA’s Battlefield 3, insisting his main focus is to live up to the 2009 FPS predecessor. We have a lot of respect …

The Q4 marketing blitz revealed by MCV this morning follows a slow six months for new game releases – so maybe the industry will learn its lesson for 2012. Certainly, GAME thinks things would be better” if new releases were spread out across the year. It strikes me that there …

The UK games industry is digging deep in a bid to turn around a difficult year for boxed sales. Publishers, retailers, developers and platform holders are splashing 165m on advertising over the next three months, MCV research has found. That amount will fund a deluge of TV ads, mall tours, …