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

UK-based indie dev Doublesix has launched criticisms against the widespread secrecy surrounding digital sales data, claiming that the the lack of transparency” is ultimately hurting the industry. Doublesix studio head James Brooksby said that he wants platform owners to make digital sales data public, saying that concealment of such information …

Atari founder to develop free-to-play RTS/FPS hybrid

Supermarket giant Tesco has called on the Government to delay a rise in VAT scheduled for January 1st, according to this report on the Daily Telegraph. Set to increase from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent, VAT was cut in November in a move to combat the recession. Many …

The UK publishing community has called for an official downloads sales chart, headed up by GfK-ChartTrack. An ELSPA forum took place earlier this week (Wednesday, July 29th) in which the leading publisher bosses discussed the possibility of setting up a download-only chart. Publishers feel that the true popularity of their …

Alleged Telltale Games staff member opens extraordinary criticisms on forum

Industry stalwart Chris Deering has estimated that today’s triple-A video games need to be priced at 70 – if the trade’s current release cycle for ‘blockbuster games’ is to be maintained. His comments come just two weeks after we revealed that Activision had raised the SRP of Modern Warfare 2 …

Ubisoft has added another technical requirement for those wanting to experience the upcoming James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game in its full 3D glory – an HDMI-enabled console. That’s not a problem for PS3, of course, and Wii owners aren’t getting the 3D treatment anyway.

 But it does mean that owners …

Studios â??left in the darkâ?? on sales data cannot plan accordingly, says Doublesix

Only yesterday MCV was highlighting the rising number of accessory-based titles heading to market this Q4 – and now Namco Bandai has added to the collection with new learning title Easy Piano on DS which is due for release in PAL territories this November. Published by Game Life and distributed …

Full guide to what's going on at next month's conference