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

Twitter UK MD Bruce Daisley says the social media platform is the most effective way to drive games sales. Addressing those in attendance at this year’s LGC Conference, the MD detailed how positive interaction on Twitter proved more effective at driving game sales than increased marketing budgets. Drawing on research …

GAME boss Martyn Gibbs said the firm has hired 4,500 temporary staff for the peak Christmas period. He revealed the number live on stage at London Games Conference 2013. He said that customer support is one of the most important roles retailers can play in today’s games industry, and it …

GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs has revealed the role he believes the specialist retailer can have in a digital world. On stage at London Games Conference 2014, the retail veteran said that 2m individual people have bought digital content from the High Street chain. He told attendees that video games is …

A new promotion from Green Man Gaming entitled Indie Love is promising to give 100 per cent of its proceeds to the game’s creators. Customers will be able to choose from three price points for each title in the deal. Games on offer include The Binding of Isaac, Kairo, Gun …

EA’s military shooter Battlefield 4 has become the surprise game to knock Nintendo’s Pokemon X & Y from the top of the Media Create charts. The 3DS RPG pair had been in the top spot for four weeks. However, 121,699 sales of the PS3 version of EA’s game was enough …

Microsoft has announced that former SCEA social media manager Jeff Rubenstein has been appointed as social media director at Xbox. Rubenstein is credited with shaping much of Sony’s modern social media strategy, helping to create the likes of the PlayStation Blog I’m beyond thrilled to be joining the Xbox team …

Microsoft has said that over 10,000 retailers across the globe will be opening their doors for the launch of Xbox One on November 22nd. UK retail partners include GAME and Tesco. Although there’s of course the small matter of PS4’s North American launch on November 15th (Friday) to get out …

A second of PS4’s launch game has been added to Sony’s free Instant Games Collection. Colourful shooter Resogun (which, judging by the recently lifted PS4 review embargo, is very much the pick of the console’s launch titles) joins Contrast is becoming freely available to PlayStation Plus members from November 29th. …

Venture capitalists view investing in the digital games market as a throw of the dice”, says former Sega boss Mike Hayes. Hayes joined investment firm Mercia Fund Management in September with a remit to identify potential video game companies to invest in. And he admitted to MCV that the lack …

Hopes of Oculus Rift being compatible with PS4 and Xbox One appears to have vanished. "Consoles are too limited for what we want to do," Oculus inventor Palmer Luckey told TechRadar. "The problem with consoles in general is that once they come out they’re locked to a certain spec for …