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

The Office of Fair Trading this morning announced that it is to investigate in app purchase strategies employed by video games publishers. The move is a result of concerns that some customers – primarily children – are unwittingly spending sizable sums on content in games which, when they are initially …

Forgive me for opening with an ‘As a parent’ introduction. But as a parent, I know all to well the perils and concerns about children and content found on screens and online. My son, not even three yet, knows his way around an iPad. There are some games on there …

Namco Bandai’s free-to-play spin off for the Tekken series has been downloaded for smartphones and tablets more than 1m times. Tekken Card Tournament was released on iOS and Android last week and passed the 1m milestone after just four days on release. It is also available to play in web …

There's just a few days - and a few tickets - left until the F2P Summit. We take a look at the highlights

Ridge Racer is going free-to-play. The follow-up to last year’s Ridge Racer: Unbounded is going the micro-transactions route, allowing players to get into the action for free, with the option (or compulsion) of paying for cars, boosters, repairs, etc. "At Namco Bandai Games, we are committed to embracing new business …

Mojang co-founder Markus Persson placing second in Time 100 ranking

April 1st, 2013 marked the 25th anniversary of the Mastertronic Group, the long-serving UK publisher and distributor that began life as The Producers. MCV and Mastertronic have teamed up to celebrate this milestone with a series of features exploring the company’s past, present and future. The full features can be …

UK video games trade body UKIE has said that it will assist the Office of Fair Trading in its investigation into in-app-payments. The OFT this morning announced plans to investigate how companies offer IAPs in game amidst concerns that some publishers are specifically targeting children, some of whom may not …

How app developers can prosper in today's competitive market place

A hacking group has been targeting game companies for years in order to steal source code, an antivirus report has found. Thereport, by Kaspersky Lab, has found that a China-based group known as Winnti has been stealing source code and legitimate digital certificates for software using a trojan. The antivirus …