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

LA-based Majesco Studios to focus on casual games

Casual game developer plans aggressive release schedule

Echoing Nintendo president Saturo Iwata’s claims earlier this week that the traditional ‘four year console life cycle’ may be a thing of the past, Microsoft’s chief financial officer Mindy Mount has stated that the Xbox 360 will be around for far longer than its predecessor. Reuters reports that Mount told …

Atari has finally filed its report for its first quarter, which shows the company suffered a net loss of $11.9 million in the period. Losses grew by $4.6 million from the same period a year earlier, whilst net revenue for the quarter, which encompassed the three months to June 30th, …

Develop reports that Harmonix has released a new game for iPods. Called ‘Phase: Your Music is the Game’, the title uses the familiar UI seen in the likes of the studio’s Frequency, Amplitude, and Guitar Hero games, generating levels on the fly from the MP3s stored on each users’ iPod. …

Cory Barlog, the director behind SCEA Santa Monica Studio’s God of War II, has left the firm, it has been confirmed. "We can confirm that Cory Barlog, game director for God of War II, is leaving the SCEA Santa Monica Studio and we are grateful for his work and creative …

MCV sister site Develop reports that more City of Heroes games are due from NCsoft, but the MMO firm will no longer be just the publisher of the games – it has opened a new development studio in North California to work on the games. The move comes following the …

Lovefilm.com, one of the internet’s leading DVD rental firms, has made its first step into the games market by teaming up with French publisher Ubisoft to promote the highly anticipated next-gen title Assassin’s Creed. The game will featured in the website’s weekly Friday newsletter, which has half a million subscribers, …

Buys City of Heroes IP from Cryptic for new US team to work on

The fall out from EA’s corporate restructuring continues, as the publisher confirms its Chicago studio is being closed, MCV sister site Develop reports. EA Chicago had worked on a number of key technology-driven titles for the publisher, including new Fight Night and Def Jam games. The studio was officially opened …