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

In a clear shift in regional priorities, Sony announced today that it will launch the PlayStation 4 in Japan on 22nd February 2014, three months after it arrives in North America and Europe. By contrast, the PS3 was first released in Japan, a few days later in North America, and …

Rockstar co-founder and vice president of creativity Dan Houser has briefly touched on the male-only character roster for Grand Theft Auto V. As the first game in the series to feature more than one protagonist, some observers have bemoaned the decision not to use this flexibility to introduce a female …

Square Enix has offered a generous freebie to console Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn players. The publisher says that it will allow those who buy the game on PS3 to switch to the PS4 version for free. Note that the beta for the PS4 version won’t go live until …

Intel Developer Blog: Softtalkblog discusses the reasons behind why software devs do what they do

Grand Theft Auto V – which is out NEXT WEEK, don’t forget – might be the most expensive game ever made. That’s if the numbers from a report in The Scotsman are correct. It reckons that Rockstar’s game has a combined development and marketing budget of 170m. In 2010 predecessor …

Atari founder says the Wii-maker is losing touch with gamers

The markets have reacted negatively to Nintendo’s efforts to rejuvenate its hardware offer. Nintendo recently cut the price of Wii U and revealed its new 2DS handheld, but the company today suffered an 8.4 per cent drop in its share price – the biggest it has suffered since July 2011, …

New microconsole allows users to play Vita games on their TV screen

Lighter, slimmer version of Sony's sleek handheld arrives in the Far East this autumn

Deal with Miniclip brings over 1 million DAUs to San Francisco startup's network.