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

We’re now ten weeks into 2013 and so far it’s been a dreary start to the year. Plenty of new releases have topped the charts, but they haven’t performed well enough to stop total sales declining by more than 20 per cent year-on-year. Obviously retailers still have long-tail sellers like …

Once dubbed the Steam Box, the Xi3 Piston is no longer a Valve-associated product. The machine was revealed at CES in January. Its makers confirmed that Valve had invested in the tech, leading to the media concluding that it was indeed the long-awaited Steam Box. However, just days later Valve …

Has Sony really bucked the trend and made its most developer-friendly console yet?

Sony’s 1 min 43 sec teaser trailer for the PlayStation 4 was the most viewed ad on YouTube in February. The short attracted 26,296,340 views, well ahead of the second place ad from Samsung Mobile which won 21,382,135 views. Both organic views and paid-for ad views are counted in the …

Source code initially offers face tracking, depth of field and more

A digital-only precursor to the ill-fated Battlefront III is in development at LucasArts, but may not now ever be released. That’s according to Kotaku, which says that Star Wars: First Assault is a 16-player multiplayer shooter that was at one stage scheduled for a release this spring. The idea behind …

Tiga's Richard Wilson takes an optimistic look at the changing shape of the console landscape

Consultant Will Luton on when you do - and don't - need outside help from consultants

The majority of American Sony Stores have cut the price of the 3G PlayStation Vita by a third. Joystiq reports that the handheld is currently available for $199.97, down from the $299.99 it was being sold for previously. There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding how long the …

Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell ponders the impact of developer-made - and sold - assets for the benefit of peers and rivals