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

PlayStation plus could be on the way to becoming a tiered membership service, if a new survey from Sony is anything to go by. IGN reports that the PS3 platform holder has circulated a questionnaire to PS+ members that asks if they’d be willing to pay different amounts for different …

Windows 7 OS, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player also banned; Xboxes may be recalled and destroyed

Nintendo boss defends plans to set price point of digital and retail boxed products at same level for Wii U

A patent dispute between Microsoft and Motorola has resulted in an injunction banning key Microsoft items from distribution in Germany – including Xbox 360. Also blocked from distribution in the country are Windows 7, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. The development follows news last week that the pair were …

Japanese social gaming giant Gree has acquired mobile game developer Funzio in a deal worth $210m. Funzio has developed a raft of popular free-to-play App Store titles like Modern War, Kingdom Age and Crime City, which have been downloaded over 20m times. Players can purchase extra in-game currency to progress …

Weekly userbase increases by 100,000 in just under a month

Think the big money is in paid-for apps? Think again – the real money is in in-game purchases. The latest figures from research firm Newzoo show that over 90 per cent of mobile game revenues in the US is generated by microtransactions, according to Gamasutra. That’s considerably higher than in …

Steam users can now initiate downloads and manage their games through a web browser or mobile device. A new Steam Beta client has gone live which, once installed, lets users download titles while they’re out which will become ready to play when they get home. Players have to make sure …

Treyarch shows off new texture technique 'reveal mapping' and confirms DX11 compatibility for PC

The Home Retail Group has suffered a 60 per cent year-on-year decline in profits after a poor performance from Argos. The Home Retail Group’s profits fell from 265.2m last year to 90.2m. The main culprit was Argos, whose sales declined seven per cent to 3.8bn. While the Group’s performance in …