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

This week we look outside the UK and find jobs across the euro zone

MCV looks at what the arrival of the toughest game, Namco Bandai’s Dark Souls, ever says about the market… Expanding the games industry has had the inevitable effect of ‘dumbing down’ the more challenging elements of interactive entertainment. New interfaces and new audiences mean that games have to be accessible, …

A successor to the popular Transformers: War for Cybertron has been announced. As revealed by US mag GameInformer, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has been built very much around fan feedback from the last title, with Activision saying that developer High Moon Studios has gone back to the drawing board” for …

This week we’re going to look at playing habits for Call of Duty using the GameVision Brand Map. The Brand Map is available to download from the MCV?Reports page online. We asked 6,722 gamers about the games, of whom 1,789 had played one in the last six months; 556 of …

Studio head Brendan McNamara personally owed AU $250,000

There’s only a week left for you to make sure your favourite games industry rising star gets the recognition they deserve in this year’s 30 Under 30. Every year this hugely popular feature highlights the achievements and exertions of the industry’s younger execs working across the UK. It is sponsored …

Consumers prepare to die as the "toughest game ever" arrives on shelves, courtesy of Namco Bandai. Dark Souls is available today and follows on from the PS3 cult hit, Demon’s Souls. The game challenges players to navigate a series of boobytrap-laden dungeons where death is a varied and all-too-regular experience. …

The market value leaped 94 per cent week-on-week to 53.8m following FIFA 12’s release – the biggest week for games retail so far this year. Units are up 73 per cent to over 1.5m. FIFA 12 beat FIFA 11’s launch week with 18 per cent more games sold. And retail …

The first UK review of the UK-made Batman: Arkham City arrives on the doormat of GamesMaster subscribers today. And Future’s multi-format mag has awarded the title a colossal 97 per cent. The score is in line with much of the secretive industry chatter surrounding the title at the moment, with …

An online report suggests that Sony could be on the verge of an aggressive move into the mobile phone market by buying out partner Ericsson from their joint mobile business. The Wall Street Journal reports that the move will cost Sony between $1.3bn and $1.7bn. Sony Ericsson has been a …