MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Unsurprising, Adele’s 25 album was the UK’s biggest entertainment product of 2015 with 2.6m sales, according to retail trade body ERA. But it was very close between the smash hit album and the video game FIFA 16. FIFA 16 sold over 2.5m units, and was on sale for a much …
Read More »UK digital game revenue is double that of physical, says IHS
Forget yesterday’s GfK Chart-Track figures, UK game revenue actually grew by 10 per cent last year. Sales of physical disc-based games dropped 2.2 per cent in revenue year-on-year to 927.6m. But according to IHS estimates, digital game revenue was up 17.1 per cent last year, rising from 1.622bn to 1.899bn …
Read More »Square Enix’s cloud gaming arm Shinra Technologies closes
The prospect of cloud gaming has been dealt another blow. Square Enix opened its cloud-focused division Shinra Technologies – named after the eponymous company in Final Fantasy VII – back in September 2014, with former Square president Yoichi Wada taking the reins. Among the firm’s aims was the creation of …
Read More »Global VR market to reach £3.5bn in sales in 2016 – report
Virtual reality is almost upon us now, and research firm SuperData reckons that the market for the new tech will reach $5.1bn (3.5bn) by the end of the year. That’s according to the company’s ‘Virtual Reality Market Brief‘, which also predicts that the install base of VR in 2016 would …
Read More »Can Activision Blizzard create the ESPN of eSports? Gamers are skeptical
Major League Gaming, a professional eSports organization,announced on Mondaythat it was acquired by video game publisher Activision Blizzard for a reported $46m, bringing MLG’s assets and infrastructure under Activision Blizzard’s Media Network. This is the latest event in a timeline that begins on 21 October, when the publisher announced it …
Read More »Latest HTC Vive Pre dev kit includes front-facing camera
‘Big technology breakthrough’ blends physical and virtual reality
Read More »HTC Vive’s ‘big technology breakthrough’ in an integrated front-facing camera
The addition of a camera system has been revealed as the technological ‘breakthrough’ that has held up the launch of the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. HTC revealed just before Christmas that the Vive would miss its 2015 launch date due to what was described as a very big technological …
Read More »Free Oculus Rift for early dev kit Kickstarter backers
The earliest and keenest supporters of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset have just had some very good news. The company has confirmed that those who backed the Oculus Rift during its Kickstarter campaign at a high enough tier to get a development kit – some 6,955 people – will …
Read More »Guillermo del Toro to present Kojima with DICE Hall of Fame Award
There’s not a lawyer in the world that can stop Hideo Kojima from accepting his next award in person. It has been confirmed that the Metal Gear Solid creator will become the 21st member of the DICE Hall of Fame at the 19th DICE Awards on February 19th. Furthermore, film …
Read More »200m installs and counting for Windows 10
The growth of Windows 10 continues with the operating system now installed on more than 200m devices. The milestone was revealed by astatement from Yusuf Mehdi, corporate VP for Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group, in which he stated that more than 40 per cent of new Windows 10 devices become …
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