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

Washington-based casual games stronghold PopCap has made the surprise acquisition of social dev ZipZapPlay. PopCap has for years been considered a buyout target itself, though in recent months rumours have spread the Bejeweled company is seeking stock market floatation. The combined dev workforce has improved PopCap’s expectations for Facebook game …

THQ has reported losses of $136.1m for its 2011 financial year. This is significantly more than the $9m loss posted for fiscal 2010. Revenue was down year-on-year from $899.1m to $665.3m. The company’s Q4 was more successful, however, thanks to the release of Homefront. The shooter has now sold over …

Electronic Arts has announced plans to acquire Australian mobile games developer Firemint for an undisclosed sum, with the deal expected to close within the next four weeks. Firemint is one of the most well respected mobile developers, having originally made its name developing racing games and other titles on a …

Nintendo has effectively cut the price of its Wii console by 50 with the launch of a new bundle. The Mario Kart Wii pack will arrive in two weeks, on May 20th, with an estimated retail price of 129 – a big drop on the previous price of 179. At …

It’s one of the most prevalent trends of the current generation, and speaking to investors even the president of the world’s most powerful gaming firm has admitted that Nintendo must increasingly look towards the West if it wants to succeed in the modern games market. "There was an era in …

[Sponsored Feature] Intel looks at the tools on offer

With tongues wagging about what Nintendo may have in store for its next machine, president Saturo Iwata has suggested that the Wii successor’s controller is unlikely to follow in iPad’s footsteps. Speaking of the popularity of gaming tablets, he told investors: "I think it is an interesting device if it …

Australian smartphone developer agrees to buyout

Saturo Iwata has claimed that there’s no evidence that the success of Xbox 360 Kinect has played a part in the slowing of international Wii hardware sales. "When we talk about whether Kinect contributed to significantly expanding the number of Xbox users, the number of Wii users has grown to …

Remedy CEO says he wonâ??t shed a tear if retail dies