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

As we head towards this year’s Games Media Awards on Thursday October 18th, we look back at previous winners to find out what winning meant to them, what advice they’d give to rookie games journalist, their favourite writers and more. This week, we speak to Jonathan Pile, news editor of …

Games must be fun, engaging and offer social elements to attract users, says BioWare GM

The digital sensation that is Day Z has turned many heads in the past few months – including some on the publishing scene. The zombie-themed mod for 2009 PC shooter Arma II was released in April and has since racked up a cool 1m users. Now the DayZ developers are …

But studio GM says crediting former staff was a primary concern

The latest edition of MCV, featuring our Media Special, isnow available digitally. This week’s issue contains a 10-page examination of the games media business, looking at how magazine giants are coping with the decline of print, how online leaders are countering the rise of the ‘enthusiast press’ and how a …

Publishers rejoice! HMV says it will give new games a chance to sell before introducing pre-owned copies. The retailer said in its latest financial report that its pre-owned range remains a high margin and vital area of its business. But outgoing CEO Simon Fox told MCV publishers should not have …

Sony used its Gamescom press conference to effectively relaunch its Vita handheld for Christmas. And as part of the revamp, it will spend more money on marketing Vita this Q4 than it did over the platform’s launch earlier this year.To improve the console’s slow sales the platform holder will launch …

Andy Payne offers advice on being a start-up in the modern games industry

GAME OF THE DAY: Nintendo’s unrelenting critics would have you believe its mascot’s latest handheld outing is ‘Mario by the numbers’. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The moment 3DS owners start up the single-player mode of New Super Mario Bros 2, they will fall into one of two …

Sony has begun to peel the curtain back a bit more on its Playstation Mobile initiative, announcing a list of developers who have partnered up to bring content for the mobile content platform on Android and Vita devices. The list contains 46 Japanese studios, and 48 international studios including the …