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

Nikitova has grown its European business further with the opening of a London office.

It seems the episodic version of SiN has been abandoned after just one instalment following a recent shake up at developer Ritual.

It’s existed for barely a month, but Namco Bandai Games Europe has revealed to Develop sister magazine MCV that it already has an eye on setting up a new European development studio – and branching out into ‘western’ genres.

Leamington Spa-based Blitz has recieved two awards in as many weeks, with co-founder and CEO Philip Oliver named Best Industry Player by Tiga this week, and the company being given a Special Achievement Award by Warwick Council.

A German investment group has made a £4.4m offer to buy developer Kuju.

The CEO of Havok has said the company is considering adding other complementary tech firms to its stable as the physics and animation firm looks to grow.

Certain Affinity in Austin, US has today opened, revealing that it has scored a hot deal as its first project, producing Halo 2 multiplayer maps that will be exclusively released for Xbox 360.

Hellgate: London developer Flagship studios is already expanding, ahead of its first games' completion, with the opening of a new office in Seattle.

A direct-to-consumer, publisher-free agenda is on the cards for Realtime Worlds after an investment boost, says chairman Ian Hetherington.

Who needs triple-A titles? That's the message from studios as the support for digital distribution swells, but beware: games for such platforms are now more complex – and more expensive to make.