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

A war has erupted in the mobile games space, with two Japanese giants hoping to buy their way into the hearts of Western gamers. DeNA and GREE may not be household names in the US or Europe, but they are the two most lucrative firms in mobile games. The pair …

Developer Io Interactive predicts that just one in five players will finish the upcoming Hitman: Absolution. Knowing that 20 per cent of the players will see the last level of the game,” game director Tore Blystad told OPM. It’s horrible to know. It makes the people working on it really …

Dominic Wheatley and Gary Bracey assume top roles at studio group

Kinect title Haunt is currently being offered for free to US Xbox 360 owners. It’s part of a new dashboard feature called ‘Kinect Central’ which looks to promote the motion-sensing camera to owners of the console. The promotion is for a limited time and will expire on Monday July 2nd. …

Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of Namco Bandai’s Tekken franchise, has taken to the internet to deliver a scathing attack on fans of the franchise. I have something I want to say to the people who spam me with requests to ‘switch back to the voice actors used previously’,” he wrote …

Forget Gears of War or Unreal Tournament – iOS series Infinity Blade is the most profitable game Epic has ever made. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told GDC Taipei, as reported by Gamasutra, that: "We’ve been very happy with the game industry’s growth. "For a while we were worried that the …

One of the key figures in the recent history of PlayStation has distanced himself from the business. Kaz Hirai has resigned his position of chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment. His role as Sony Corporation president remains unaffected. He will retain the role of part-time board member of SCE, meaning that …

Ngmoco’s Ben Cousins has become the latest high-profile games exec to predict the death of the console. Gamasutra reports that speaking at GDC Taipai the former EA, Sony and Lionhead, Cousins stated: "There’s a potential for mobile gaming to kill console gaming. I’m talking about a significant reduction of market …

Mass Effect 3’s Extended Cut DLC will not arrive when expected for PS3 owners in Europe. The PS3 version of the free content will now arrive for Europe regions next week, on July 4th reports CVG. The add-on expands on the endings of Mass Effect 3 through additional scenes and …

Investors didn’t like the noise coming out of the Zynga Unleashed press event, as the social game company’s share prices fell by thirty cents to close the day. Shares closed at $5.77 cents after a daily high of $6.35. Zynga had been steadily regaining ground lost in a series of …