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

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 …

What’s new for this year’s Festival?We’re in a new venue this year, the Corn Exchange. It’s certainly going to be funkier than in the past. It has nice features and we’re trying it out. It has the same benefits for attendees, but might be even more fun. Also, this is …

I read with interest your cover story last week (‘Can recession end price war?’ MCV 24/7). It was an interesting take on things, and appears to make sense: as games retailers’ margins become more and more squeezed, and Argos leads the way by putting up its prices, many more of …

Following its recent financial posting, publisher EA has confirmed that The Sims 3, which was released in June, has now sold 3.7m copies worldwide, becoming the company’s top selling title in both North America and Europe for the three months ending June 30th. CasualGaming.biz has the full story – click …

Sega’s upcoming FPS Aliens Vs. Predator will arrive in Europe in February next year. As spotted by VG247, the game’s date has appeared on Sega’s official website, and will ship simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Aliens Vs. Predator is developed by Rebellion and invites gamers to play as …

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days will be released in the UK on October 9th. The title is the first DS instalment in the long-running RPG series that combines the locations and characters of Final Fantasy and Disney, which has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. 358/2 Days explores the story …

Japanese firm wants to harness reduced labour costs for production

Electronic Arts has seen both its losses increase and its revenue fall for its fiscal Q1 ending June 30th 2009, with boss John Riccitiello admitting that the video games market has proved weaker than expected. Losses for the period climbed from $95m in the same period in 2008 to $234m …