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

Battlefield studio DICE has sent a stark warning to its competitors in the first person shooter space. The developer – which is working on EA’s Battlefield 3 – said its rivals had better watch out” for its upcoming game. Its biggest rivals include Call of Duty’s Infinity Ward and Treyarch. …

Zynga has begun a new charity initiative to help children affected by the devastating tsunami that has swept across Japan. The firm is introducing donation options within games such as CityVille, FarmVille, Zynga Poker, FrontierVille and Words with Friends. These games will have donation buttons appear as people purchase Facebook …

The Nintendo 3DS shifted 209,623 units in its first full week on sale in Japan, outperforming every other format combat. The handheld was released on February 26th, so it was only available for just two of the day’s covered by the previous week’s charts, reports GamesIndustry.biz. Nevertheless, it managed to …

So a real success for a new UK publishing team that didn’t exist until Christmas, when they moved into an office on Tottenham Court Road. Going from a standing start like that to a best-seller with its first game, in just two months deserves applause. Proof there’s still wiggle room …

Facebook games to include donation options

Two key console releases have seen their release dates pushed back in Japan following the terrible destruction suffered by the country at the end of last week. Andriasang reports that Sony’s Motorstorm: Apocalypse was scheduled for release this Thursday (March 17th) but has now seen its release date changed to …

Projects cancelled as stock plummets and game releases are abandoned

The Bank of Japan has pledged to pump in the region of 100bn into the Japanese economy as the nation wakes up to stock market instability in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the region last week. Upon closing the value of the Nikkei was down 6.18 per …

Dragon Age II is the UK’s new No.1, according to the latest chart info released by UKIE GfK Chart-Track. It’s EA’s third No.1 of 2011 and marks the fourth week the publisher has claimed a game at the chart summit. In doing so it bumps last week’s chart topper Pokemon …

Sega and its UK studio Sports Interactive have pledged to donate a portion of revenues to a Japan earthquake relief fund. All money generated from the iPhone app Football Manger Handheld 2011, over a seven day period, will be channelled to a charity aiming to help and restore the disaster-struck …