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

Amid all the buzz around Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise in recent weeks, something appears to have gone unnoticed this week. It’s being out-grossed by the Smurfs. Specifically, Capcom’s Smurfs’ Village iPhone game is ahead of Angry Birds in both the US and UK App Stores’ Top Grossing Games charts. That’s …

With a concrete release date now nailed down, retailer ShopTo.net has predicted that Gran Turismo 5 will be the biggest selling PS3 game of 2010. The game is currently the pre-ordered on the site, which is selling it for 34.85. This year’s first party release slate for the console included …

One of the most destructive and unequivocal commercial failures of the modern games industry is being given a second chance. APB, the 100 million white elephant that brought down Dundee studio Realtime Worlds, has today been confirmed as a new acquisition for the free-to-play evangelists GamersFirst. A trusted source close …

For a brief period yesterday iPhone and iPad owners were briefly able to download what to all intents and purposes was a functional portable version of smash indie PC hit Minecraft. Called Minecrafted, Gizmodo reports that the title was built without code or content from the original” but boasted more …

GamersFirst buys the IP for â??less than one per cent of original dev costsâ??

Microsoft has gone live with its brand new look and design for its Steam-rivalling Games for Windows Marketplace. Prices include BioShock 2 for 14.99 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or World at War for 19.99. Users can filter games by Windows Live compatibility. And as a Microsoft portal, users …

Develop talks to the firm that will bring RTWâ??s failed MMO out from the darkness and into free-to-play

A new casual online games portal has emerged driven by a host of industry veterans. TeePee Games will allow users to pull in games from Facebook, smartphones, websites and elsewhere, and customise their own individual homepage. The company and self-titled website has already secured $500,000 in seed funding, and is …

Microsoft will unveil a Gears of War title that is designed for Kinect at the Spike TV Video Games Awards, according to rumours on IGN. Coming from a reliable source”, the site claims not to know if it is a brand new title or an existing version of the game …

World of Warcraft and StarCraft developer Blizzard has moved to quash rumours that a version of Diablo III will be appearing on consoles. Chatter erupted yesterday following the appearance of a job listing for a Senior Producer – Console” in the Diablo III section. The vacancy calls for an applicant …