MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Sony Online Entertainment’s community relations director Linda Carlson has detailed the reasons behind the recently announced decision to call time on long-running MMO Star Wars: Galaxieslater this year. And amongst other things, the impending arrival of EA and BioWare’s MMO rival The Old Republic has been blamed. "It was time …
Read More »Could the PC be the next Xbox?
There’s nothing to suggest it’s true. And as rumours go, MCV would put this in the hugely unlikely” pile. But nonetheless, reports have emerged overnight concerning a shock new direction for the Xbox brand. GameInformer reports that a persistent batch of rumours from the tech world” suggest that Windows 8 …
Read More »Market rebound unlikely unless we get hardware price cuts
Ahead of the publication of the June US video games market numbers, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has predicted big drops for every major format. We expect hardware sales of 325,000 Wii units (down 23 per cent year-on-year), 355,000 Xbox 360 units (down 21 per cent year-on-year), 240,000 PS3 units …
Read More »Microsoft has lost its way with recent Halo releases
In a surprise admission, the boss of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer has claimed that the platform holder has lost its way” with the smash hit Halo franchise. The statement comes as Bungie makes an emotional farewell to fans, having officially stepped away from the series that it helped make …
Read More »Pre-owned and digital games catching new boxed releases
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 …
Read More »EA not inviting Steam to the Battlefield 3 party
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 …
Read More »Super Meat Boy hits retail next month
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 …
Read More »Dust 514 will demand upfront cover charge
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 …
Read More »Motion control is still too imprecise for Ricitiello
While the industry’s platform holders continue to sell the motion control revolution to gamers, one of the sector’s top execs has admitted that he doesn’t like it. Personally, while there’s some great experiences on Move, and there’s some great experiences on Kinect, I’m not a motion control guy,” EA CEO …
Read More »Iwata: 3DS launch software line-up was too weak
Nintendo’s 3DS handheld has been held back by a lack of quality launch titles, Nintendo’s president Saturo Iwata has admitted. GameSpot reports that Iwata also told investors that it is going to be problematic, once the idea has taken seed, to dispel the belief that the handheld is underperforming on …
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