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

Upcoming PC shooter Planetside 2 will adopt a free-to-play model following the long line of MMOs that did so earlier this year. The FPS MMO sequel from Sony Online Entertainment will include free-to-play in some form, but concrete details have yet to be determined, reports VG247. The developer’s studio head …

Despite a number of challenges in its first week on the market, Deep Silver’s Dead Island has capitalised on the hype it created earlier this year to claim the No.1 in the UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 40. It triumphed despite the presence of four new entries in the …

Take one pub quiz, remove everyone apart from Martin Hollis, and ask six questions on a game he made. How do you think he scored?

The latest Professor Layton DS puzzle adventure game will hit shelves in the UK and Europe in time for Christmas. Nintendo says Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call – the fourth full game in its series – will feature new puzzles that will challenge and delight both seasoned Layton fans …

Keith Fuller, the founder of Fuller Game Production, weighs in on the crunch debate

EA title The Sims Social has seen its MAUs surpass that of Facebook giant Farmville on the social network. In total it now has an MAU base of 36m users. VentureBeat reports that EA’s title picked up 1.7m new users yesterday alone, taking its weekly MAU gain over 8m users. …

Gaming news and reviews website Electronic Theatre has relaunched after reaching a new monthly user milestone. Since launching in 2003 the site now reaches over 300,000 unique visitors per month. The redesign is part of a bid to draw 500,000 monthly visitors by April 2012. The new website has received …

Leading independent online games retailer ShopTo.net has doubled its warehouse capacity as we enter the busy Q4 period. It means that in the region of 1,600 items are now available in its under five minute dispatch” offer. It says that system makes ShopTo the fastest dispatch company in the games …

One of the worst kept secrets in the games industry is out – developer Starbreeze is indeed working on a brand new Syndicate game for EA. The publisher has given it a release date of early 2012 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Coming in the wake of Deus Ex’s …

A slightly slower time at retail than the Deus Ex-fuelled week last week, but El Shaddai, Star Fox 64 3D and Rise of Nightmares are keeping the core games coming. Star Fox 64 3D is the 3DS reimagining of the classic franchise for Nintendo’s handheld, and is available on Thursday …