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

EA has moved to acquire social and casual games specialist PopCap for a deal that could eventually be worth $1.3bn. The publisher has bought the firm – best known for hit casual titles Plants vs Zombies, Peggle,Bejeweled and Zuma – for $650m in cash plus $100m in stock. PopCap’s owners …

Peggle studio 'to accelerate EA push towards a $1 billion digital business'

HMV has recruited Michael Neil as its new commercial director. Neil was the recent commercial director at Waterstone’s, which HMV sold to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for 53m. Neil replaced Gary Warren, who has decided to leave the retailer to pursue new interest. Warren has worked for the entertainment firm …

Future Publishing has closed its on-console PS3 video magazine FirstPlay to make way for a new, free show. The new show – which is currently unnamed – will be free to eligible UK PSN account holders. It will be ‘aligned with SCE UK’s Access to PlayStation community strategy,’ and will …

Speaking to MCV earlier today, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has that his company has made its fourth casual gaming acquisition in two and a half years. The publisher has acquired Paris-based studio Owlient, developer of a number of free-to-play titles, owner of the Howrse IP and home of some 2m …

CEO Yves Guillemot tells Develop the firm is prepared to buy again in new online push

Codeplay's games technology director Colin Riley on iterative optimisation

Video games have the most devoted following of any entertainment medium.Gamers queue for days to pick up new blockbusters at launch. They furiously defend their favourite games from criticism. And they don’t just want to talk with developers and publishers – they want to get involved. Such passion is great …

As part of hisMicrosoft Worldwide Partner Conference speech, Microsoft chief exec Steve Ballmer has admitted that Windows Phone 7 is not flying off the shelves as fast as the firm would have hoped. While still enthusiastically explaining how successful Microsoft is, there were concessions to its trailing position in the …

But Gamification is growing in value, says Rick Gibson