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

Online games provider Bigpoint has today acquired console sports entertainment studio 49Games. Over 40 full-time employees will now become part of the publishing giant’s international team and will be developing online games instead of console titles. Current projects at 49Games will be completed before the switch, Bigpoint has said.Rights to …

Smartphone project now in full production; Studio says overwhelming response has energised the team

There’s proof that farming isn’t just popular with casual gamers – Farming Simulator has sold 500,000 copies worldwide. The specialist PC series has sold 300,000 units in Germany alone following the release of Farming Simulator 2011 last November, which also broke into the PC Top Ten in the UK. And …

QA and localisation firms are generating more money from social and mobile titles than triple-A boxed games. Several companies have told MCV they have had to expand their testing teams to cope with the strong demand for social, casual and downloadable games. Over the last eight months or so, digital, …

Retail will hope the worst is behind it as August game sales plunged to new lows. The boxed games market did enjoy a late sales spike with Deus Ex, which reached No.2 in the Chart-Track monthly charts despite just two days on sale. But this only highlights what a weak …

Fourth buyout in 18 months for browser games giant; More acquisitions planned

A new study into scary console claims has named EA’s Dead Space 2 as the scariest game on Xbox 360. The Vertical Slice study, published on Gamasutra, also drew a number of other conclusions about the nature of scary games and the most effective means of frightening players. For instance, …

The date has been set for the trial that will settle Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella lawsuit against Activision. The case will officially got to court in Los Angeles in May 7th, where the pair will sue its former employer on fraud allegations, according to Gamasutra. The …

Developer Sports Interactive has announced an official release date for Football Manager 2012 in the UK. The game will arrive on both PC and Mac on October 21st. Over 800 new features are promised in this latest instalment of the series. Heavy revisions have been made to the transfer market …

Keep selling second-hand games and new retail releases will diminish, studio boss warns