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

PC GAMING WEEK: Valve has been transforming the PC gaming marketplace. While the firm hasn’t been making – or at least releasing – third installments in its highly popular game franchises, it has been busy taking over PC retail with its Steam store. In October 2013 it was estimated that …

The upcoming Fable Legends is the first step in a process that is transforming Lionhead into a games-as-a-service studio” according to its new boss. John Needham, a veteran of Gazillion Entertainment and Cryptic, was named as Peter Molyneux’s successor at Lionhead in April of last year. Now he plans to …

Former Cryptic Studios CEO says the Fable will become a platform for all kinds of experiences

Super Hexagon and VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh has released a free Flash tribute to the ill-fated Flappy Bird. It’s called Maverick Bird and adds Cavanagh’s trademark brutal and simplistic visual style to Dong Nguyen’s one-button twitch gameplay. It also features a track called Vietnam by electronic music artist Kozilek And …

UK despair specialists Radiohead have released what is described as an experimental mobile game” on iOS and Android. CVG reports that the game, called PolyFauna was made in collaboration with UK design firm Universal Everything and sees players traversing a succession of abstract environments. Player creations from within the game …

The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V are among the titles put forward for the most awards in this year’s British Academy Games Awards. Naughty Dog’s title has been nominated for ten awards including Action and Adventure, Game Design and Best Game, while Rockstar’s blockbuster crime title has …

Yes, Goat Simulator. Originally created as part of a game jam, the flood of goodwill online for Coffee Stain Studios’ alpha footage of Goat Simulator has led to the title being pencilled in for a full digital release, Kotaku reports. The Sanctum developer had originally described last week’s footage as …

Microsoft’s PC games guy Jason Holtman has apparently moved on, a move that comes after less than six months on the job with the firm. VG247 points to an update on Holtman’s LinkedIn profile, indicating the industry veteran left Microsoft at some point last month. Holtman was hired on by …

NPD has revealed new US sales figures for games in 2013 – and this time around, the research group has included digital revenue and second-hand sales in their findings. Following its 2013 US retail report – which showed a 2 per cent year-over-year decline in industry sales – NPD has …

Microsoft has invested in location-based social networkFourSquare to reportedly help develop the firm’s rumoured voice-activated assistant app, Cortana. The investment was confirmed by FourSquare CEO Dennis Crowley, but no details were disclosed at the time. However, Bloomberg cities an anonymous source who claims the deal is worth $15m and was …