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

Publisher Majesco Entertainment will release a follow-up to the popular dance title Zumba Fitness in the US. The original – which is currently top of the UKIE/GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 chart – is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. It has claimed the No.1 spot three times. …

Players of Capcom’s hit iOS title Smurf’s Village will, once having installed the latest update, find that the game has introduced a cap on the game’s micro-transactions. From this point on the game will limit users to five in-game purchases every 15 minutes. PocketGamer reports that the move has been …

Chillingo are publishing the technically impressive episodic 3D third-person shooter MUSE for mobiles.

Sequel to the dance-fitness sensation to arrive by year-end

Though the 11.4m subscribers to Blizzard’s world-conquering MMO World of Warcraft make for some impressive reading, it actually represents nearly a three year low for the game. The current number was revealed in Activision’s financials last night, Kotaku reports. The game reached its highest point in October last year as …

UK independent studio Jagex has scored a global publishing deal with social MMO New York children’s media firm Herotainment. The Runescape studio will use its online games expertise to publish Herotopia, an award-winning social online game for children”. The landmark agreement makes Herotopia the second third-party game released by Jagex’s …

Publisher Bethesda has said that will not alter plans to release multiplayer shooter Brink this Friday despite the fact that PSN may well not be back online in time for gamers. The game hit US retail today. It remains to be seen if the ongoing PSN outage, which for the …

But the firm says it won't tighten submission standards, and calls for more indies

German studio to adopt engine for multiplatform title Dead Block

Zynga’s has made a significant extension into the smartphone games space by hiring key contributors of open-source mobile tools. In a delicately arranged acquisition, Zynga has essentially taken some control of the open-source iPhone tool Cocos2d. It has achieved the feat, however, whilst keeping Cocos2d open and free to all …