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

Every Electronic Arts game over the past two years has included an Online Pass, but the upcoming Syndicate reboot will buck this trend. This is because the publisher wants more players to enjoy the online multiplayer modes – the sort of feature EA usually locks with a one-time code included …

Global social network Facebook has filed for a $5bn initial public offering which could value the company at $100bn. Facebook filed for the IPO with the US Securities & Exchange Commission yesterday, which will soon see the company float on the stock market and its shares made available to buy …

BioWare game picks up 1.7 million subscribers in just over a month

The average price of a boxed video game falls by almost a quarter after just 30 days on sale. New retail research – which includes pricing data from over 50 retailers – shows that games prices dropped 23.5 per cent after 30 days, 30.8 per cent after 60 days, and …

Digital platform makes $100 million in twelve months

HMV won’t turn its back on games, CEO Simon Fox has told MCV. But it will cut in-store space given to the category following a year where it lost market share. Fox said nervous games firms did not back HMV enough last year – unlike ‘highly supportive’ music and DVD …

British publisher System 3 is making waves in Japan – by going digital. The firm’s new Japanese office – headed by Takeshi Shimizu – launched Ferrari: The Race Experience late last year. It was the publisher’s first release in Japan, it shot straight to No.2 in the PSN charts for …

Quarrel's new publisher now owned by the House of Mouse

FarmVille, CityVille and the rest of Zynga’s portfolio are well-established as Facebook’s money-makers and now we know how much they are truly worth. Paperwork filed by Facebook ahead of its IPO shows that the social games firm accounted for 12 per cent of the $3.7bn revenues the site took in …

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 …