MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Leading MMO developer Blizzard has struck a deal with NetEase that will see the Chinese firm handle the studio’s MMO offerings in the region for three years. The pair had previously announced an agreement for servicing rights on both Starcraft II and Battle.net, but this new deal will see MMO …
Read More »Prototype release date smashes into view
Publisher Activision Blizzard has confirmed its ex-Vivendi free-roaming action title Prototype will be released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on June 5th in Europe – with American gamers having to wait until June 9th. Prototype takes the sandbox city formula and mixes up by granting players mutated shape-shifting super …
Read More »Call of Duty enjoys DLC success
Activision Blizzard’s powerhouse franchise Call of Duty racked up yet another success at the weekend with the news that the recent downloadable map pack for World At War was downloaded over a million times in its opening weekend. The number includes all sales of the DLC on both Xbox Live …
Read More »WoW players complete 16m quests a day
The whole industry knows that when it comes to MMOs that Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is the one to rule them all – but some recently revealed stats about the title offer a true glimpse into its scale. Kotaku reports that the game’s lead designer Jeffrey Kaplan stated at …
Read More »Modern Warfare 2 drops COD from title
Publisher Activision Blizzard has confirmed that ‘Call of Duty’ has been dropped from the title of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, suggesting that the series has now definitively been split in two. Since its move onto next-gen consoles, the Call of Duty brand has effectively been operating as two separate …
Read More »Zelda and Modern Warfare 2 trailers go live
Though traditionally GDC has not been a platform from which big-hitting titles are announced, Nintendo bucked the trend yesterday with its announcement of new DS title The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The name immediately suggested a title either based on music that’s good to drink to or paranormal trains. …
Read More »Kotick: "We’ll do better on Wii"
Bobby Kotick, the chief executive of Activision Blizzard, has admitted that his firm used to see Wii as a secondary platform compared to its publishing activities on Xbox 360 and PS3 – but that’s all about to change. Click here to read the full story on CasualGaming.biz.
Read More »Activision Blizzard considering further acquisitions
Activision’s president and CEO of publishing Mike Griffith has stated that the global economic crisis, and more importantly resulting deflated company values, could pave the way for his firm making further acquisitions. Griffith told Bloomberg: The combination of Activision holding a fair amount of cash and presumably prices being depressed, …
Read More »Gibson fails in Guitar Hero lawsuit
Famed guitar maker Gibson has seen its lawsuit against Guitar Hero publisher Activision Blizzard thrown out of court after it ruled that Neversoft’s game does not infringe any existing patents. Edge reports that Gibson had claimed its US Patent 5,990,405 for a system and method for generating and controlling a …
Read More »Activision Blizzard appoints new senior VP and MD
US publisher Activision Blizzard has appointed Thibaud De Saint-Quentin as its new senior vice president and managing director of European publishing, with the role commencing on March 9th. De Saint-Quentin replaces the outgoing Joerg Trouvain, and will be tasked with overseeing the company’s strategy for Europe. He will be based …
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