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

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.

UK development stalwart Team17 is preparing to enter its 17th year in the games industry with a next-gen project on the way and a major recruitment drive in the pipeline.

A Mumbai-based media company has shown its interest in games development by acquiring 70 per  cent of UK development studio Ignition and buying over half of India's big mobile games studio Indiagames.