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

Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubert warned that developers of traditional handheld games face a crisis as iPhones and Android devices tempt away their audience. In his keynote speech at London Games Conference last night, Hubertz warned against relying on solely one platform to build a games business – especially those platforms …

Bigpoint boss says big budget and reliance on subscriptions spells bad news for Star Wars MMO

EA thinks Play4Free shooter will ask serious questions of console market viability

Having this morning confirmed a brand new, free-to-play instalment of its popular Battlefield series, publisher EA has said that the emergence of such titles threatens to rock the world of console gaming. At what point do the hardcore gamers switch over from spending $60 a
month on console games to spending …

The world’s biggest games retailer last night offered a forewarning that the digital market must be embraced by the old guard of bricks and mortar outlets. In a clear, unequivocal statement that ringed around a packed crowd at last night’s London Games Conference, the head of GameStop’s digital business said …

App Store devs routinely claim that Apple’s great games ocean is difficult to be discovered in, yet a GameStop exec believes the PlayStation and Xbox’s digital platforms provide the same difficulties. Chris Petrovic, head of GameStop’s digital business, said that the issue of discoverability cannot be underestimated”. If you start …

Speaking to the audience at last night London Games Conference, Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz has warned that upcoming high-profile MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will never produce a profit for either publisher EA or developer BioWare. If you look at Star Wars from EA and BioWare, they estimated a …

In his opening keynote at the London Games Festival last night Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz shrugged off the Facebook goldfish. He warned that although companies are flocking to the social games space, specifically on Facebook, they are missing the point. Facebook games "continue to lose players" he said, saying the …

Assassinâ??s Creed Brotherhood studio buys multiplayer middleware company

A fresh trio of game consoles released in the next few years won’t be enough to stop a seven-year slump in the games market, a leading games analyst has said. Screen Digest chief analyst Ben Keen said the game industry faced structural challenges”, with the UK sales not expected to …