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

2.1m games were sold at retail last month – a drop of more than 40 per cent compared with June 2011. In total, stores generated 48.4m from software sales throughout June, down 38.2 per cent from the 78.4m made during the same period last year. The biggest new release of …

Develop Conference: Barnden and Buckland question effect of failed crowdfunded projects

The insatiable online rumour mill is once again questioning the viability of John Riccitiello’s position at the top of EA. Rumours of discontent emerged yesterday when US analyst Michael Pachter claimed that Riccitiello had confessed to him that he feared for his job, adding that the exec doesn’t understand what …

Games industry pioneers of all shapes and sizes won Develop Awards last night. A gala ceremony in Brighton was attended by over 550 people from 150 companies, where they saw the likes of Moshi Monsters, Dear Esther and World of Tanks handed highly-coveted awards. Now in its tenth year, the …

Amazon has announced GameCircle, its own answer to rival services such as Apple’s GameCenter and Microsoft’s Xbox Live. GameCircle will offer Kindle Fire devs the ability to integrate achievements, trophies and leaderboards. Where it goes one better than its rivals, however, is its Sync function that stores game saves in …

Develop Awards hands prizes to indies, incumbents and innovators

A number of possible suitors for Activision Blizzard have reportedly been sounded out about a possible deal by Vivendi executives. Reuters reports that amongst the companies contacted are Microsoft, Time Warner and Chinese online giant Tencent, as well as a number of venture capitalists. Although a formal process has not …

The lead developer of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 says that the Wii U’s processor speed is maybe a little bit” slower than both the PS3 and Xbox 360. "As far as graphical processing and such, it’s not much of an issue. But as far as the CPU goes, the clock …

Former Ubisoft and LucasArts creative director breaks silence on new job

Capcom has slapped a release date on the Vita version of Street Fighter X Tekken, sharing a few details on what Sony’s handheld will specifically bring to the port as well. Street Fighter X Tekken Vita hits on October 23rd, a little over six months after the launch of the …