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

The publisher renowned for making most of its money online has pledged its future to bricks and mortar retail. Blizzard is best known for its multi-billion dollar MMO, World of Warcraft, which generates most of its money through subscriptions. But the firm says it couldn’t release its blockbuster titles without …

Wii and DS owners will soon be able to get their hands on the first game to be made by a hairdresser. Busy Scissors will be published in North America by new US publisher Little Orbit, with Namco Bandai Partners distributing the game in Europe this October. Unlike the plethora …

Apple is poised to buy a Chinese web game developer for almost $150m, according to a new report. A spokesperson for Handseeing in China claims that Apple is wants to acquire the firm. It would be Apple’s first acquisition in the country. Handseeing develops a number of PC web games …

Report from the Far East says iPhone firm wants web game firm Handseeing Information Technology

Development team for Ubisoft surprise hit goes from over 30 staff to almost 60

In a damning assessment of Activision’s quarterly financial report, analyst Michael Pachter has claimed that he fears Activision has begun to slip a bit” and that November’s Call of Duty: Black Ops will fail to match the performance of last year’s global hit Modern Warfare 2. The Q2 results were …

Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls has predicted that Nintendo could release an ‘upgraded’ version of the Nintendo Wii in the near future that would act as a stop-gap between now and the launch of a ‘proper’ successor to its home console some time in 2013. We expect the Wii to …

Publisher Activision has made one of the most blatant statements yet concerning its intention to tackle what many executives see as the pre-owned ‘problem’ in the video games market. Responding to a question from Wells Fargo Securities’ Jess Lubert in a call to investors, COO Thomas Tippl initially responded gently …

Japanese publisher and developer Square Enix has reported an impressive 814 per cent year-on-year increase in operating profit to YEN 5,434m for the quarter ending June 30th 2010. Recurring income was up 124 per cent at YEN 3,426m while net sales grew by 11 per cent to YEN 32,540m. Net …

In a nod to the ever growing importance of the casual games sector, it has been confirmed that social games publishing division Namco Networks America is to be merged with Namco Bandai Games America. Current Namco Networks CEO and COOKenji Hisatsune will subsequently become president and CEO of the new …