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

NPD’s Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report has revealed that the US games market is quickly approaching the point where new, boxed video games sales are no longer the primary sector. In Q1 2011 US consumers spent $2.03bn on boxed console and PC release. In the same period, however, they …

Michel Ancel is back, and explains to Develop how he's shaking things up with his new Rayman game

Two leading companies in the highly factionalised social games space have negotiated a surprise partnership. Bigpoint, which hires over 800 people and is considered one of the world’s five leading online games firms, will port selected games to a rival service hosted by the Netherlands-based Spil Games. Spil Games is …

Amazon has revealed that it’s opening a processing plant in Staffordshire, creating up to 900 new jobs. The new centre will start operating from September and will deal with customers from the UK and across the world. The latest move is just one of several which seem to show the …

In the latest development on the seemingly bubbling feud between publisher EA and Valve’s digital retail portal, claims are circulating that Battlefield 3 will not be available to buy through Steam. As spotted by Joystiq, EA published a list of digital retailers through which the game will be available. EA’s …

Riptide and Projkt Nine to form as one unit with two offices; Group targets freemium mobile market

Cult download hit Super Meat Boy will arrive in the form of two UK retail special editions on August 26th. Fans will be able to pick up the Ultra Edition for 19.99 or an Ultra Rare Edition for 24.99. Both include a soundtrack, comic, sketch book and poster, while the …

CCP’s experimental console shooter Dust 514 won’t be quite as free-to-play at launch as we had come to expect. Upon its unveiling at E3 in June, it was revealed that as well as being digital-only the game would also be F2P, with in-game microtransactions encouraged by the developers. However, CCP …

MCV’s annual High Street directory provides an overview of every buying team for each key UK video games retailer, as well as up-to-date store counts, company profiles and contact details. Game and Gamestation The UK’s leading specialist games retailer has had a tough year, with sales falling by 9.8 per …

PS Vita dev kit to be inexpensive; Touch-only games encouraged