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

Social gaming outfit Playdom has acquired Acclaim Games as part of its ongoing expansion operation. The move continues Playdom’s aggressive takeover strategy, which has in recent months seen the Californian group acquire Three Melons, Offbeat Creations, Green Patch and Trippert Labs. Acclaim will now join that fleet of studios, and …

TIGA points to research claiming 93% of Scottish households play games

British publisher System 3 has taken a major step towards global expansion with the opening of a dedicated Japanese office. The new subsidiary will operate out of Tokyo and handle the launch of back catalogue and future releases in the region, starting with Williams Pinball Classics. System 3 Japan will …

A Pre-E3 ‘Level Up’ event in Barcelona showcased some major new releases from Namco Bandai for Q3 this year.The third in the publisher’s popular Family Trainer series will launch for Nintendo’s Wii this autumn. Entitled Family Trainer: Treasure Island, the game features 70 missions, a party mode for up to eight …

Extraordinary prediction from publishing boss

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will not reach shelves before Christmas. That’s according to Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot who revealed that the game has slipped to a Q1 2011 release during a recent financial call to investors, according to Kotaku. Guillemot attributed the delay to a very competitive environment” …

The Halo: Reach Xbox 360 beta attracted more players on day one than Halo 3 did during its complete beta period, it has been revealed. A Machanima video featured official stats from developer Bungie which included the claim, according to Destructoid. On the first day of the Halo: Reach beta …

Ubisoft is likely to be the next major publisher to deter consumers from buying pre-owned games with DLC incentives. Speaking about downloadable content during yesterday’s fiscal earnings call, the publisher cited rival EA’s $10 solution as an example of how they could generate revenue from second-hand sales, according to Kotaku. …

Rockstar’s latest sandbox action title Red Dead Redemption could sell 4m copies globally within its first year on sale. Analyst Doug Creutz from New York financial services company Cowen Group raised his sales estimates for the game from 2.2m to 4m, according to a report from Gamasutra. Creutz says this …

Triple-keynote from key players behind the new Doctor Who games set for Brighton event