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

'We’re taking an approach closer to that of a developer than a publisher,' says president Ian Howe

The latest Game Developers Conference State of the Industry Survey has revealed a spike in interest in virtual reality within the games development community. In last year’s survey, seven per cent of developers said that they were working on VR projects. This year, that has more than doubled to 16 …

Casual specialist working on potential rival to Clash of Clans and Game of War

Publisher 505 Games says it is determined to develop its own brands going forward. The firm, celebrating its tenth birthday this month, traditionally partners with other studios’ titles, and has helped turn Terraria, Cooking Mama, Payday and Zumba Fitness into smash hits. 505 boss Ian Howe told MCV that he’s …

Watch out Supercell, casual mobile games giant King is making a move into the ‘mid-core’ sector. King currently specialises in casual titles such as Candy Crush and similar match-3 puzzle games. Meanwhile, rival mobile giants such as Supercell and Machine Zone are generating significant revenue from ‘mid-core’ games such as …

Investment in the nascent technologies has grown continually for the last year and a half

Curve Digital Entertainment boss Dominic Wheatley says movie licences could be a huge opportunity for smaller publishers. Referencing the absence of a James Bond game to tie in with last year’s Spectre movie, Wheatley says that as companies like EA and Activision focus on their own IP, that leaves an …

Accruement of British chef’s likeness follows massively successful mobile game based on Kim Kardashian

A plotline that sees a lesbian drugged and tricked into falling in love with a man – yes, really – will not be included in the Western version of 3DS RPG Fire Emblem: Fates. In the Japanese release lesbian character Soleil is depicted as being so hopelessly attracted to women …

In this week’s MCV we sit down with Curve’s new CEO, Dominic Wheatley and Chairman Stuart Dinsey to find out about the publisher’s merger with Kuju. Is this merger an act of noble ambition or is it a desperate move in an increasingly challenging indie games market? We also talk …