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

But company will increase staff headcount by 500 by March 2013, claims publishing giant

Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency has announced an investigation into how social games firms sell their microtransactions in Japan, causing shares in the country’s two major players to nosedive. Nikkei.com reports that shares in both DeNA and Gree – the two major players in Japan’s social gaming scene – plunged to …

Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency questions IAP practices; wider national games sector hit by trading caution

Publisher made $1.36 billion across holiday quarter; Non-packaged sales double

A Crystal White version of the PlayStation Vita will be released in japan on June 28th, Sony has confirmed. The arrival of new colour SKUs is no surprise considering the handheld’s ongoing struggle to gain traction, both in Sony’s homeland and overseas. The new model will retail for the same …

US gamers have become the first to be offered a cut-price console on the condition that they sign up for a two-year contract. And it’s a model that an increasing number of industry members believe will become the dominant delivery method for the next generation of consoles. Microsoft has gone …

Google’s Android marketplace has surpassed 15bn app downloads since its launch in October of 2008. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that the figure was passed for the newly-branded Google Play Store ‘a few weeks ago.’ TechCrunch proposed that Google tabs around 1bn app downloads per month, while Apple still leads …

Images snapped supposedly from Blockbuster UK have surfaced showing what appears to be a third-party title list for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console. Go Nintendo (via Shacknews) reports the list includes several games currently slated for PS3 and Xbox 360, such as Metro: Last Light and Aliens: Colonial Marines. It’s …

Another intriguing piece of news to come out of today’s fiscal report from EA is its interest in spending on next-gen development over the next year. The company is putting up $80m for development of ‘Gen4 console systems’ games during their fiscal 2013. The publishing giant’s investment could indicate next-generation …

Along with many other tidbits in today’s EA Q4 report are some new figures regarding the publisher’s digital distribution service Origin. The service currently carries 11m registered members and has generated $150m in revenue (non-GAAP) during the fiscal year from March 31st, 2011 to April 1st, 2012. Additionally, EA’s cross-platform …