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

Climax's Sam Barlow on how a strong narrative can drive user retention and monetisation

A 74 per cent week-on-week jump in sales has seen Microsoft’s Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition claim its first No.1 in the UKIE GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40. In doing so it forces Nintendo’s latest Wii U release Pikmin 3 to settle for second place in its debut week. The …

Valve is being urged to state whether subtitles are included in any given title on its listings page. The issue is being pressed by Manchester’s Kristina Barber, who herself has suffered from severe hearing loss for the past seven years. Krissy, whose Steam collection numbers over 700 games, told MCV …

Meteor Entertainment argues word-of-mouth is the best way to sell a game as a service

Slitherine Group claims victory for premium priced games on tablets

Self-publishing games on Xbox 360 –and subsequently XBLA – will soon be a reality, at least according to one developer who claims to have heard the info directly from Microsoft. Posting on The Pinball Arcade’s official Steam community page, developer FarSight Studios states that Microsoft has confirmed its intentions to …

Polytron's sequel canned as developer declares departure from games industry

Blizzard's longstanding MMO World of Warcraft sees player tally drop to 7.7m

Fez creator Phil Fish has announced the cancellation of his title’s recently-revealed sequel, along with his decision to take an indefinite leave of absence from game development. The Indie Game: The Movie star shut down his latest project following a heated spat with several users on Twitter. The argument was …

FarSight Studios claims Microsoft is changing XBLA publishing policy in August