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

Bulgaria’s video games market dates back to some of the earliest consoles, with local retailer and distributor Transfer Group starting out in 1990. However, the nation’s size means that the potential audience for video games is extremely concentrated, limiting the number of opportunities for newcomers. Bulgaria is a small European …

Social games giant reorganises board as it attempts to revive company growth

Japanese publisher Q Entertainment is bringing a free-to-play RPG to PlayStation Vita this month. Guardian Hearts Online on Vita will use an microtransaction system to offer players extra items, but the standard content will be free to download and play, according to Famitsu (via Andriasang). While the game is due …

Zynga’s current crisis may have claimed its first high-profile games executive. The Wall Street Journal reports that John Schappert has been stripped of his duties relating to Zynga’s video games operations. Schappert rocked the games world in April 2011 when it was revealed that he had quit his role of …

Lower than expect sales for Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: The Line blamed for poor showing

San Francisco based browser game developer Kixeye is in for a good day. The studio has released a recruitment ad on YouTube. And, frankly, it’s amazing. This is viral marketing done good and will not only resonate extremely well with developers, but also with gamers themselves. Check it our below:

Over-the-top role-playing shooter Borderlands 2 has escaped the scalpel of censorship unscathed. Despite its cartoony but brutal abundance of what developer Gearbox Software calls "bloody chunks of awesomeness", the game will be released in all territories with no cuts made. That includes stricter markets such as Australia and Germany, where …

An alteration has been added the Steam’s terms and conditions that Valve hopes will help combat the threat of consumer lawsuits. Sony introduced a similar change to its PlayStation Network back in September (in the wake of 2011’s PSN security outage) and was slaughtered by the internet games collective. It …

Students to develop Metro style titles for Windows 8 in 48-hour event

The launch of the 3DS XL is pivotal to the future fortunes of the Nintendo 3DS and early sales numbers for the handheld are encouraging. Although Nintendo has not released concrete sales numbers for the UK, Games Industry reports that the machine sold a little shy of five figures” (as …