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

Former MMO developer fronting Facebook studio Portalarium

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is about to make some serious noise” – that’s the claim of the game’s executive producer Karl Magnus Troedsson, speaking to MCV in an interview ahead of the release of DICE’s latest shooter. I couldn’t be more happy with the game – which the awesome team …

Call of Duty may look to have the first person shooter market sown up, but try telling that to EA. The publisher was once a market leader in the FPS genre with its Medal of Honor series. However, the company has since been eclipsed by the likes of Activision, Microsoft, …

AntiGrav Media saw its turnover increase 400 per cent for fiscal year 2009, and now the firm is intent on re-creating that success for 2010. The peripherals specialist attributes the sales triumph to its huge range of products and growing selection of licensed accessories. AntiGrav Media grew significantly in 2009,” …

Disney Interactive Studios is planning to work with stars from upcoming movie Alice in Wonderland in order to promote the accompanying video game. The publisher is once again joining forces with Disney’s Hollywood arm, following the successful collaboration between the teams when marketing last week’s release The Princess and the …

And only a third of developers want to see worker unions at studios

With violent games currently causing a stir in Australia, closer to home it has emerged that Switzerland is now considering banning violent video games outright in the territory. A resolution restricting the sale of mature games to minors has already been passed unopposed, according to Gamesmarkt, and will be now …

Sega has placed faith in an external indie developer to build on its treasured Sonic franchise. Osaka-based Dimps – developers of Capcom’s Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD – were hired last year to build the new episodic Sonic game. Develop has the full story.

While less than half believe that labour laws protect them from their employers

Famed MMO creator and father of Ultima Online Rcichard Garriott has returned to the games industry after revealing that he’s one of the founder of social gaming startup Portalarium. Joining him at Portalarium are the likes of Dallas Snell and Fred Schmidt, both of whom worked with Garriott at both …