MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
It’s the silent success story of modern gaming. It’s growing. It’s bigger than you realise and it becomes more influential every day. And it believes video games should be free. That’s the realisation that could well this morning be hitting the industry’s top level execs right in the face following …
Read More »Analyst questions annual franchises
Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed may have proved that the annual release model can be a success outside of the sports genre, but analyst Michael Pachter has warned others about following the model. "We question the strategy of annual franchises for any game except sports simulations," he said in …
Read More »Pachter: Vita will rob Nintendo market share
US analyst Michael Pachter believes that the PS Vita will achieve what the PSP did not and eat into Nintendo’s handheld market share. However, it’s not all good news – he also predicts that the overall portable games market will decline at the expense of smartphone gaming growth. "We continue …
Read More »Crysis getting 360 release?
2007 PC title Crysis could be due for a long-awaited console release on Xbox 360. That’s if the rumours coming from Korea, and published by Kotaku, are found to be correct. A new listing from the Korean ratings board lists Crytek’s game for the console and names the publisher as …
Read More »Media Molecule ‘stepping away’ from LBP
UK studio Media Molecule has revealed that it’s work on Sony’s LittleBigPlanet franchise is over. For now at least. According to a Tweet from Edge, the studio’s Siobhan Reddy told at audience at Barcelona’s GameLab 2011 event that: We’re stepping away from Little Big Planet to focus on some new …
Read More »There’s no stopping F2P
The previously announced free-to-play update for Funcom MMO Age of Conan has gone live. Massively reports that the change arrives alongside a host of new content for the title, including two new dungeons as well as new solo and raid missions. Conan continues what has become a tidal wave of …
Read More »OPINION: What hope for the High Street?
Retail is in a pretty miserable state at the moment.Putting aside the ‘challenging’ market for games, and looking at the broader High Street landscape is heart-wrenching. A wander around my home town or the town that houses MCV Towers and you will see shop after shop empty. To Let and For …
Read More »Electrical retail short circuits
A Crisis of consumer confidence is having a radical impact on electricals retail. A major shake-up is taking place at Comet after it posted an 8.9m loss for its financial year. The firm will close 17 under-performing shops and is on the hunt for a buyer for its 230-strong chain …
Read More »‘Rent day’ claims more victims
The UK High Street is at breaking point and landlords must step in to avert another ‘rent day’ disaster, says the British Retail Consortium. The message comes following last week’s collapse of Habitat and Jane Norman on ‘rent day’ (the quarterly time when rent is due) which has claimed many …
Read More »Disney closes Black Rock
Disney is closing its UK games development studio the publisher has confirmed to Develop this morning. Black Rock, the racing studio it bought from Climax in late 2006, will close after five years of Disney ownership. 40 remaining staff will be made redundant – the studio had already laid off …
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