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

The emergence of a new super-publisher that is similar in stature to former industry-daddy EA might force the US giant to re-evaluate its operations, an analyst from Soleil-Hudson Square Research claims. The Dow Jones Newswires quote Daniel Ernst as stating: "EA is currently not performing at its best. Though it …

Kynogon's AI tool gets tech for Nintendo platforms

There were some who thought that Need for Speed: Pro Street’s weaker than normal arrival in the ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 last week meant it could be time for a change in the annual Christmas battle – but such folk will be eating their words this week as EA’s …

LOTR and Heavenly Sword mocap actor Andy Serkis to launch Games Eden

John Riccitiello, the increasingly talkative CEO of the now second biggest games publisher in the world EA, has said that he believes the huge sales enjoyed by all three next-gen games consoles in the US through Thanksgiving proves that the transition to the next generation of consoles is now over. …

Silicon Knights head reiterates his theory behind 'single format future' prediction

Though both the DS and PSP have become firm favourites in the homebrew content scene owing to the ease in which hackers have been able to crack the systems, products such as the R4 are beginning to worry publishers – and now Nintendo seems set to make an official move …

Eidos-owned team explains implementation and usefulness of internal 'Shared Design Group'

French entertainment giant Vivendi is set to increase its stake in Activision from 52 per cent to 68 per cent within five days of the initial deal closing. The news comes following yesterday’s announcement about the ‘merger’ of Vivendi and Activision to create new games giant Activision Blizzard. In a …

Vivendi will also purchase 63 million shares of Activision common stock for $1.7 billion, leaving the company with around 685 million fully-diluted shares outstanding. The new company (Activision Blizzard) will then tender $4 billion for up to 146.5 million outstanding common shares at $27.50 per share. Vivendi has agreed to …