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

The Walt Disney Company has acquired kids online virtual world Club Penguin. Club Penguin launched in October 2005, and now has over 700,000 paying subscribers and 12 million activated users – mainly in the US and Canada. The site is based on animated penguin avatars on a snow covered virtual …

World premieres for Guitar Hero III, Rise of the Argonauts and Turning Point

According to Marketing Week , Nintendo and Karmamara are in the final negotiations of an advertising contract after the latter won the pitch against rival agencies thought to include Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, and CDP. The battle followed a review, which was called in May after …

The shortlist for Future Publishing’s Golden Joystick awards has been revealed, along with the announcement of a new host – David Mitchell, best known for his role as Mark in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show. The event will be held at London’s Park Lane Hilton Hotel on Friday October 26th, …

Unreal Tournament, Assassin’s Creed and BioShock are also set to feature at The Edinburgh Interactive Games Screenings on Tuesday August 14th at the Odeon Cinema on Lothian Road. Alongside the games line-up, students will be able to sample the action and get advice on how to get into the games …

THQ has posted its fiscal results for the first quarter of FY2008, revealing a year-on year drop in sales of $34.3 million and a net loss of $9.3 million. The California-based company generated sales of $104.5 million for the period to June 30th, down from the $138.8 million made in …

The news comes following the recent announcement that the company has bought back from Atari the digital gaming rights to its key franchises, including Monopoly, Scrabble and Risk. It could see Hasbro Interactive return to the market after an absence of six years, when its games division was sold to …

So why quit a big job running several territories for EA? What appealed to you about Activision? We have a tremendous opportunity. The company is stronger than ever and with stronger European appeal than ever. Things like Guitar Hero having localised content and the deal last year for James Bond …

Particle effect SDK now certified for 360 development

Giants – and fierce rivals – Hasbro and Mattel had just established Interactive divisions in order to take their key brands to the exciting new ‘multimedia’ PC CD-ROM format. And we revealed that Lego, Vtech and Tiger Electronics were considering similar moves. They were exciting times. The market was looking …