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

EA boasts that The Sims Social has redefined the Facebook games market. The franchise has gone from being one of the top-selling boxed games to also become one of the biggest social online titles in less than a month. Over 40m monthly active users have flocked to the new Facebook …

Over THE past few weeks we’ve reported on managerial role changes at Microsoft, Activision, HMV, Disney and Comet. But the biggest move we broke on MCVuk.com last week: the appointment of top Asda man Fergal Gara as new chief of SCE UK.He’s signed up for a closely-watched gig. Only weeks …

Ubisoft has teamed up with some of the biggest dancing, singing and make-up brands around to ensure Just Dance 3 is another smash hit. It has partnered with cosmetics chain Superdrug to get display units in front of thousands of potential girl gamers. These will appear in 880 stores across …

Microsoft has announced a range of midnight and breakfast launches for Gears of War 3, with the primary event being held at EB Games MacArthur Square. The event will be for media and consumers alike, and will take place from 10pm on 19th September. There will be gift bags for …

Cranberry Production’s new PC game The Lost Chronicles of Zerzura to be distributed by Lace Mamba Global in ANZ, UK and more. The Lost Chronicles of Zerzura is a medieval point-and-click adventure game, set in 1514 against the backdrop of the Inquisition, and follows on from Cranberry Production’s Black Mirror …

Macquarie University’s Interactive Media Institute and Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre have announced details on GAME, its upcoming 3-day videogames event. The event will consist of a public debate about videogame politics and policy, an academic conference and a games festival, and promises an ‘exploration and celebration of this exciting new …

Gameplanet is reporting that Outsmart, developer of browser-based Small Worlds, has received NZD$1.8 million in government funding. Small Worlds, originally launched in 2008, is a 3D environment played inside your browser which presents content from web and media sources, online games and more. Outsmart is promising that the funding will …

The weekly games software market value hit 17.6m this week – up 28 per cent over the 13.7m generated last week. Game unit sales leapt 11 per cent to 687,610. It’s the best performance for the boxed games industry in the past month, with Dead Island and Warhammer 40,000: Space …

With the Move patch for LittleBigPlanet going live recently, GameVision looks at the ongoing success of this relatively recent IP. With our GameVision survey we asked 6,646 people about the game, of whom 657 had played it; we went on to ask 291 of these about their experience of playing …

PC game downloader Green Man Gaming has teamed up with GlobalCharge to offer its customers mobile payments. Customers can now update their store credit from their mobile bill or pay as you go credit. Many other distributors already offer mobile payments. The movie payment market is expected to be worth …