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

EA has announced that two of England’s biggest footballing stars will be joining Manchester United’s long-tine FIFA mascot Wayne Rooney on the cover of the upcoming FIFA 10. Former West Ham star and current Chelsea midfield boss Frank Lampard will appear alongside former Southampton FC striker and current Arsenal hopeful …

20 per cent of current workforce based in cheap labour regions â?? and publisher wants more

Electronic Arts has revealed that it has completed 92 per cent of the redundancies it has planned for this fiscal year. The firm announced last night that it had laid off 158 staff in the three months to June 30th. The redundancies were part of a cost-saving restructure put in …

The App Farm reports nine per cent global conversion rate

Although there has been plentiful speculation about O2 losing its iPhone exclusivity over the last few weeks, MCV’s sister site Mobile Entertainment has seen documentation that states it will end officially on October 9th. Orange and T-Mobile have been linked heavily with iPhone over the summer, and both networks already …

Developer axes 15 staff as work on engine building concludes

Whilst it was the Wii, thanks to the success of EA Sports Active, that really shone for EA in its latest fiscal quarter, just as big a surprise is the fact that the publisher’s PS3 returns far outstripped those coming from Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Wii revenues lead the charge at …

Proving that third parties can still succeed on Nintendo platforms, EA has revealed that its EA Sports Active has to date sold 1.8m copies worldwide. Its success has not only validated EA’s earlier statement of intent to increase its focus on Nintendo’s home platform but also propelled the company to …

Namco Bandai is increasing its efforts on iPhone, promising to announce a new title every week in order to be a part of the format’s ongoing gold rush”. The publisher has hired Jonathon Kromrey, a former iPod and iPhone games producer and designer at Apple, to lead its own development …

Co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde, has announced via his blog that he is to leave the file-sharing portal. Sunde has been the spokesperson for the website, and is currently facing a year in prison for infringing copyright – although this conviction is under appeal. The departure could allow …