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

Licensing firms have already rushed to back Watch Dogs – even before the game has launched. Gamers can already order Watch Dogs books, t-shirts, scarves, caps and hoodies. It’s great to have a game as highly anticipated as Watch Dogs out this year and observe the number of licensed deals …

Electronic giant Dixons hopes to become a major player in smartphones via a proposed merger with Carphone Warehouse. The firm is already a major player in other electrical goods and one insider told MCV that should the deal go through, Dixons would consider turning its guns on gaming. Dixons is …

Halo’s AI sidekick to be Microsoft’s answer to Siri

Electronics and games retailer RadioShack has announced significant US store closures. The news follows a 20 per cent sales decline in the last quarter and the company’s eighth straight quarterly loss. Net losses tripled in the period to $191.4m. The closures equate to around 1,100 stores (20 per cent of …

Coffee Stain Studios’ deliciously bizarre Goat Simulator has now got a release date. The game will be released on April 1st – and yes, we realise that’s April Fools’ Day. The PC-only game will offer Steam Workshop support so players can make their own goats, missions, levels and more” although …

Rocksteady Studios will return to the helm of the Batman series this year with the release of Batman: Arkham Knight. Arkham Knight will be series creator Rocksteady’s final Arkham title, and the iconic Batmobile will be at the core of the new game, including Riddler’s challengers. The game will take …

New SDK allows users to broadcast and capture footage from smartphone titles

Twitch has revealed its software development kit for mobile game broadcasting. The SDK allows the capture of footage and audio from both the game and the devices camera and microphone. Furthermore, videos can be uploaded straight away at a variety of qualities. It seems that this kit is more for …

Three indie games have signed digital publishing deals with Namco Bandai Europe. The first is team-based space combat simulator GoD Factory: Wingmen from Nine Dots Studio, which will be released on PC, Mac and Linux. Then there’s Magiko Soft’s retro outing Platformines. That will be released for PC on Steam …

Rocket Rainbow’s puzzle game Hay Ewe is the first third-party mobile title to be published