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

The success of Nintendo’s DS knows no bounds in Japan, with the console’s software sales hitting a stonking 100 million units in the territory since launch. As IGN points out, Nintendo software is now as popular in Japan as ‘The Sims is in the entire world’. The top ten best-selling …

A new research book into the global video games industry, which was produced with $1.5 million of US Government money, has concluded that video games actually help give young people ‘social confidence’. Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Video Games And What Parents Can Do, penned by Lawrence Kutner …

Speaking ahead of Take Two’s annual general meeting later today (US time), Janco Partners’ Mike Hickey has stated he believes the Redwood publisher will need to up its bid by $4-per-share to $30 in order to be sure of completing an acquisition. Hickey also believes that at the current offer …

As the countdown to Take Two’s annual investors’ meeting begins, it’s a timely opportunity to look back on just why EA’s $2 billion bid for the company has come to dominate the headlines of the global games business press this year. It all kicked off on February 24th, when EA …

According to Kotaku , a Take Two shareholder has filed a class action suitalleging thatthe circumstances surrounding the publisher’s refusal to sell to Electronic Arts were fiscally irresponsible. Take-Two disclosed the news in a filing to the Securities Exchange Commission. The stockholder, Michael Maulano, filed the complaint on April 11th …

Electronic Arts has received a second request from the Federal Trade Commission in relation to its proposed $2 billion purchase of Take-Two. According to Yahoo’s finance pages, EA said that while it believes the proposed acquisition would not be anticompetitive, the FTC hasn’t yet come to a conclusion – and …

Midway is set to take the wraps off its new Mortal Kombat title today at the publisher’s Gamers Day event in Las Vegas. MCV understands that a new version of the classic beat ‘em up franchise will be a key announcement for the company today – along with further updates …

The new online specialist believes that current attempts to bring gamers together online have failed – and it is looking to rectify that with a range of new titles employing a strong social networking theme. Popular sci-fi franchise StarGate will be the first title to emerge from the new firm …

MCV understands that the team behind the event’s recent success has recognised that the show is too close to the busy Christmas period, which means that some publishers will be unable to submit game code for the judging process. In the past this has meant that some key titles have …

Ubisoft’s massive Tom Clancy franchise has now shifted over 50 million units at retail – and in the year of its tenth anniversary too. Neil Long reports on the series that has become synonymous with Ubisoft – and what’s next for the franchise going forward… Can you get too much …