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

Baird Equity Research’s Colin Sebastian has claimed that sales of PS4 and Xbox One are neck-and-neck. Microsoft just announced global sales of 2m units for Xbox One throughout the machine’s first 18 days. That’s roughly the same as PS4’s sales throughout its first 18 days, although it was only available …

Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox One has sold 2m units on its first 18 days of availability. That equates to a daily average of 111,111 unit sales, which represents a new record for the Xbox brand. We continue to be humbled and overwhelmed by the positive response from our fans,” …

Last year one of the questions was whether free-to-play was really a legitimate business model or a temporary fad? One year on and we have our answer. It is definitely here to stay. And the model has evolved and changed even further. From its humble beginnings on PC with the …

Jagex is one of the oldest names in free-to-play games, having launched RuneScape in 2001. MCV talks to the firm’s Tim Hodges and Neil McClarty for their insight into the modern free-to-play gaming market the modern free-to-play market… We’re in the midst of the F2P boom. How do you make …

If you listen to everything the media has to say on the MMO genre then you’d be led to believe it’s in a state of decline. The vast majority of games in the space are now turning F2P while only the market leaders maintain their subscription models. One example is …

It’s been a tough year for free-to-play. Of course, the number of people playing these cost-free games continues to rise at a rapid rate. But free-to-play has certainly taken a beating in the media. When the UK’s red tops aren’t leading a witch-hunt against the likes of Grand Theft Auto …

Shops can help sell free games, says free-to-play specialist Jagex. The firm predicts stores will experiment with selling add-ons for games such as Killer Instinct, a free-to-play launch title on Xbox One. I think there are plenty of opportunities for retail to be involved in F2P,” said Jagex marketing director …

The industry’s most popular games revolve around death – but are they making light of it? Develop discusses how developers can and should tackle the themes of violence and war as we enter a new generation of realism

Free games are not a threat to triple-A console releases. That’s according to experts from the biggest free-to-play companies. Execs at CCP and Wargaming dismiss the idea that all games in the future will be free, but tell MCV that free-to-play is a great way to break new IP. It …

Video creators who have suddenly been hit with copyright claims on their YouTube videos are being offered a helping hand by publishers. Google’s use of a new audio detection software that is scanning its content has led to hundreds of video game YouTube users having their content removed. The implementation …