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

Thompson looks over the merits of simple game design

Nickelodeon’s vice president for international video games, Arwed-Ralf Grenzbach, has departed the kids’ content firm, MCV can confirm. Grenzbach joined the firm in August 2007 following a successful stint as managing director for Take-Two Germany. He has also worked for media giants Disney and Sony Music. MCV understands that Nickelodeon …

Starcraft II, World of Warcraft and iPhone to drive digital growth in 2010

How AI can help your pursuit of creating realistic game worlds

During its post-fiscals conference call, Activision became the latest publisher to ring the death knell for big-bundle, hardware-based music games. The firm will release just two console games in 2010, across 10 SKUs. Music games accounted for 25 SKUs in 2009, when it launched the likes ofGuitar Hero 5 and …

No, it’s not a shocker: Activision has this evening confirmed that a new Call of Duty title will hit later this year. The publisher didn’t confirm if the game is a sequel to Modern Warfare 2 or, most likely, one of the historical versions of the franchise that visits famous …

Activision Blizzard has once again bucked the downward trend in the games industry by detailing better than expected Q4 and full year 2009 earnings. In fact the firm reckons 2009 was the most profitable year in the history of the company. For the full year Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues …

Peter Molyneux, Mark Rein, Alice Taylor and Joseph Olin set for keynotes at the Newcastle event

Future Publishing’s revenues fell in its latest quarterly financials, with games magazines hit hardest. But the firm is optimistic that it can benefit from increased consumer confidence post-recession. In a trading statement issued today for the three months ending December 31st, the firm said that its special-interest portfolio had protected …

Disney Interactive suffered an expected 29 per cent decrease in sales during the final three months of 2009. The Disney arm reported revenues falling to $221 million, while operating profit results showed a $10 million loss. Those losses, however, represent an improvement for the business, with last year’s losses as …