MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Walt Disney Company has obtained a controlling stake in UTV including the media firm’s games publishing arm UTV Ignition. Disney will be complete the acquisition shortly via a delisting action which will see UTV’s shares removed from local stock exchanges. It will start this process from February 6th, according …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Microsoft Flight
Flight simulators have been around since the early days of computer games, with the first one landing around 30 years ago. Technology and business models have advanced dramatically, but flying sims have always remained a more traditional part of the market. Lucrative, too: Microsoft releases new version, third-parties sell extra …
Read More »Ezio sharpens Calibur’s chances
Assassin’s Creed icon Ezio will attract fans of other games to Soul Calibur V – and future fighters – says Namco Bandai. The Ubisoft character is playable in the fighting title as part of a collaboration between the two publishers. With the Creed franchise generating over 31m unit sales worldwide, …
Read More »Bigpoint hits 250m-player milestone
More than 250m users have signed up for Bigpoint’s free-to-play PC browser games in the ten years it has been producing them. The online games giant now has over 1,000 game portals across social networks and media sites. Plus, a quarter of a million new players are drawn to its …
Read More »Bungie passes Halo duties to 343 next month
All Bungie-developed Halo games will have their online data handed over to Microsoft’s 343 studio on March 31st. 343 Industries will be responsible for game stats, player service records, hosting user-generated content and operating the in-game ‘Pro Service’ moving forwards. This also means things like Halo Reach’s daily challenges and …
Read More »Jurassic Park extinct on Xbox 360
Jurassic Park will not be coming to retail on Xbox 360. Publisher Kalypso Media told MCV that the movie tie-in will only arrive as a boxed PC release. It was previously due to hit shelves on Xbox 360 as well as PC on February 24th. Jurassic Park: The Game first …
Read More »Stratford becomes Mario Land next month
London’s Westfield Stratford centre will be transformed into Mario Land in February. Nintendo is kicking off a sampling event called ‘Mario is coming to town: Half-Term Heroes’ in a bid to get children, families and gamers playing the latest titles. Shoppers will be able to go hands-on with a range …
Read More »Games advertising jumps year-on-year
An upbeat start to 2012 has seen games and consoles TV advertising increase 28 per cent year-on-year. This growth has been stimulated by six extra campaigns compared to 2011 (22 versus 16). Health and fitness related titles have contributed the lion’s share of 2012 activity, with five games on air …
Read More »Software Sales Monitor: Market drops 13.6%
The UK games retail market generated 12.1m for the week ending January 21st – a 13.6 per cent decrease over the 14m made the week prior. Unit sales also slipped 13.9 per cent from 662,463 to 570,388. FIFA 12 continued its fine run of form with its fifth consecutive UK …
Read More »NCsoft lawsuit seeks to block MMO in US
Online games publisher NCsoft has filed a lawsuit against the developer of MMO game Tera in a bid to block its launch in the US. According to court documents, NCsoft has taken court action against South Korea-based Bluehole Studio for trade secrets and unfair competition, reports MMO Culture. The publisher …
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