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

Video games violence and the economic worth of the UK games industry took centre stage at a heated debate in the House of Commons this afternoon, as Labour MP Tom Watson took it on himself to defend the sector from the types of accusations regularly thrown around by the press. …

Playfishâ??s price tag could peak at $400 million

Electronic Arts has confirmed plans to buy social games firm Playfish for over $250m. The news confirms reports from last month that the games publisher was acquiring the Facebook experts. Playfish will operate within EA Interactive, a division of EA focused on the web and on wireless – EA has …

Reports of $250m+ acquisition confirmed after weeks of speculation

In a move designed to strengthen the Japanese firm’s European standing, Namco Bandai has announced a number of top-end management appointments within the business development, international marketing and sales team. VP of marketing, sales and publishing Olivier Comte will head up the new team whilst Alberto Gonzalez Lorca becomes the …

The late Michael Jackson could be making a return to consoles sooner than expected with reports that 16bit Mega Drive release Moonwalker is being prepped for an appearance on Nintendo’s Virtual Console. The news comes from European regulator PEGI, as spotted by Videogamer, which lists the title for the Wii’s …

MCV’s vital weekly digest for UK games retail, Retail Biz, is available to view online and download now. The special mail-out includes today’s full All Formats and single format charts – including PS3, on which EA’s FIFA 10 reclaims the top spot from Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. Other vital …

They take with one hand, and give with the other… The Daily Mail has now done a bit of a U-turn on its anti-Modern Warfare 2 stance. While the previous story linked to earlier today pointed fingers at MW2’s violent content, the tabloid’s latest article about the game says it …

Epic Mickey project lead discusses Disneyâ??s new approach

The Wii has achieved its best weekly hardware sales of 2009, countering accusations that the console’s sales are flagging. For the week ending November 7th, the format enjoyed its best hardware sales so far this year, according to ChartTrack. This was attributed to a 57 per cent increase in sales …