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

PlayStation Vita can warm up a bitter start to the year for games retail. The games trade is upbeat about the new hardware launch, with specialists and mainstream outlets ramping up pre-orders, launching micro-sites and preparing midnight launches. In a period of market decline it’s a great opportunity to drive …

FIFA Football can be PlayStation Vita’s big system shifter. And that’s not a statement from publisher EA, but a leading video games developer. Epic Games VP Mark Rein reckons consumers will lap up the title. His comments come after FIFA 12 topped the Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 for seven …

Deus Ex publisher expects net income to remain steady for full year

Our lead stories this week are on face value about very contrasting companies.But together they spell out a dismal message about what the UK market is offering British games firms. So what does the ailing boxed game retailer have in common with the small publisher finding an audience on the …

Green Man Gaming, NCsoft, ShopTo and OPM are the latest firms to lend their names to the 2012 MCV Industry Excellence Awards. The tenth annual Awards take place on April 19th at new venue the London Lancaster Hotel. It will be hosted by comedian and The Inbetweeners star Greg Davies. …

Revenues reach £1.6 billion

PlayStation has put together a map to show consumers where they can play Vita. The new handheld goes on sale on February 22nd, and is available to play in locations up and down the UK, including all GAME and GameStation stores. You can check out the full map here. It …

Japanese publisher Konami has reported a 77.3 per cent increase in net income to 17,046m for the nine months ending December 31st 2011. Net revenues for the period grew 3.3 per cent to 194,522m while operating income climbed 86 per cent to 30,921m. Digital entertainment revenues in isolation grew 1.6 …

Digital platforms allow devs to circumvent publisher contracts entirely, says O'Luanaigh

Sony’s PlayStation Vita will get a hefty functionality update this week ahead of its US and European launch later in the month. The 1.6 firmware update will, amongst other things, introduce a brand new app to the machine’s home screen – Map. It works in much the same way as …