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

The EU Commission must talk to UK games firms before taking drastic action against the controversial free-to-play business model, says UKIE. The microtransation model has come under fire in recent months, facing accusations of misleading customers, particularly children, over the real cost of ‘free’ games. It sparked an investigation by …

New level of detail tool Decimator also going live for subscribers at GDC

UK developers have hailed Steam’s decision to let them hold their own sales. Creators can now introduce custom discounts to their games on the PC download platform, schedule future sales and even opt in for the Steam’s week-long sales. And developer Garry Newman of Facepunch Studios has played down concerns …

Print magazines can still attract the millions currently getting their gaming news from YouTube. That’s according to the team behind One Gamer Interactive, who hope to attract a digital-savvy audience with this new iPad publication. It’s no big secret that print magazines don’t have the strong mainstream presence that they …

The story of Chips summarises the pressures that has faced games retailers over the last three years. Price competition from supermarkets and online retailers, coupled with a shrinking release schedule and a rising digital market place, has made selling games in the UK an incredibly challenging job. We’ve seen mass …

A significant update to 22Cans’ Godus has gone live on Steam. It was announced by creator Peter Molyneux on Twitter, along with an apology for what the developer now sees were imperfections with the game’s initial build. We collated all your feedback and realised we needed to make these vast …

There’s a host of new gaming bundles available to customers who splash out on Nvidia’s top hardware. The GPU maker has detailed two new bundles for its GTX GeForce graphics cards and GTX-powered notebooks, which includes a digital code for Daylight or 90 of in-game currency for Heroes of Newerth, …

PlayStation 4 is still the best-selling games console in Japan. Information supplied to MCV from Famitsu shows that the hardware’s install base now stands at 405,546 units strong three weeks since it launched. The hardware is so popular that most stores are now starting to run out of stock and …

Apple’s App Store now displays in-app purchase warnings in its search results. Following the iOS 7.1 update, a message appears next to the game’s title to state it "offers in-app purchases". Previously this text had only been displayed on the app page. The intensifying focus on free-to-play and in-app purchases …

Sales of computers pre-installed with Windows 7 are to end in October this year. Microsoft’s lifecycle fact sheetwas recently updated to state that computers pre-installed with the Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate versions of the operating system would be halted on October 31st 2014. Windows 7 Professional is yet …