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

The wave of free games available online can help best-selling retail games become bigger hits. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot this week told MCV the free-to-play category will convert non-gamers into paying gamers. On Tuesday the firm announced its fourth acquisition of a digital games firm in as many years, French …

A nation of children break up for school holidays next week. And they are breaking away from games, too. Disney and THQ warn that retailers and publishers won’t attract the next generation of gamers. Kids are switching off from consoles in favour of mobile, online and social games. For younger …

Internet connectivity and cabling giant to bolster global game server provider

Freeplay Independent Games Festival has put out a call for speakers to present at its August 20 and 21 event at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. Freeplay confirmed that a final program for the event is due in a little over a week, and are looking for speakers …

Although many more publishers and developers are still to come, EB Games has confirmed the attendance all platforms holders as well as THQ, Sega, Ubisoft, EA, 2K, Activision, Namco Bandai and several others for the EB EXPO in October. EB EXPO will take place on the Gold Coast on October …

THQ has revealed a zany pre-order offer for Saints Row: The Third with Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax. The pack will contain three pieces of downloadable content themed around the crazed stunt-cat: a ballistic man-a-pult (vehicle which sucks pedestrians into a roof-mounted cannon and shoots them back out), an …

Team Bondi’s management is actively working to learn from mistakes”, one dev at the company has said, weeks after it was revealed a controversial crunch culture had swept through the studio. David Heironymus, a programmer at the Australian indie studio, claimed however that allegations against Team Bondi have been exaggerated …

New money injected into Pub Fund; Sony internal studios also to benefit

[Sponsored feature] Intel offers advice on how to turn age restrictions to your advantage

The closure consultancy period for THQ’s UK development team has come to an end, and the publisher has indeed decided to shut the studio down, Develop has been told. Close to 36 will be made redundant effective immediately, with a transition team of 10 left to see the studio’s current …