MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
UPDATE: It has emerged that the Japanese console games market in 2014 had its worst performance for 24 years. As translated by NeoGaf, 2014’s 368.55bn total was the sector’s lowest total for nearly a quarter of a century. As recently as 2007 the region’s console games market was worth 688bn. …
Read More »Demanding PC specs revealed for The Witcher 3
PC owners who want to see upcoming RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt running at its best will need a beefy system to play it on. The game’s recommended system requirements list either a multithreaded Intel Core i7 3770 3.4GHz or eight-core AMD FX-8350 4GHz CPU. The GPU will need …
Read More »Ustwo: Premium games are not dead
The maker of smartphone hit Monument Valley has said that premium gaming lives on, despite the pressures of free-to-play and piracy. Studio Ustwo yesterday revealed that 95 per cent of installations of the game on Android were not paid for and 60 per cent on iOS. We’ve had this for …
Read More »US universities are offering League of Legends scholarships
The University of Pikeville in Kentucky is offering 20 scholarships for top League of Legends players this autumn. PC Gamer reports that Pikeville isn’t the first to offer this – Chicago institution Robert Morris did the same last year. An extensive college network, called the Collegiate StarLeague, is already established …
Read More »PSN hit by more service trouble
PlayStation owners are once again today experiencing trouble accessing PSN. We’re aware that some players are seeing drops on PSN,” the official PlayStation Twitter feed said. Engineers are on the case and investigating.” Both PSN and Xbox Live were rocked by a prolonged stint of downtime over Christmas, leading to …
Read More »Sainsbury’s warns of challenging year ahead as Christmas sales fall
Sales for the 14 weeks ending January 3rd were down 1.7 per cent like-for-like at Sainsbury’s. That’s despite the week immediately before Christmas breaking records for the retailer, with 29.5m customer transactions. It was also its biggest Christmas online with 110k orders being delivered in the three days leading to …
Read More »Mad Catz reveals £250 transforming controller
A new games controller that changes shape according to the device it is being used with has been unveiled by Mad Catz. The Batarang-like LYNX 9 Mobile Hybrid Controller can be used standalone with a PC (via Bluetooth) but will also transform to either hold an Android smartphone or even …
Read More »BioWare has rebooted Shadow Realms development – report
The latest new IP from EA’s BioWare studio may be getting a significant revamp before it is even released. That’s according to Kotaku, which has word from a source familiar with goings on at BioWare Austin” that upcoming title Shadow Realms was completely overhauled in late October. The game was …
Read More »Majora’s Mask Special Edition includes a figurine in the US
The Special Edition of Majora’s Mask 3D in North America will be very different to the one released in Europe. The American SKU will include a figurine of in-game villain Skull Kid ad will retail for just $49.99. In Europe, meanwhile, players must be content with a pin badge, poster …
Read More »Nyko PS4 expansion allows for the use of larger 3.5-inch hard drives
A new hardware add-on for PS4 allows users to install high-capacity larger 3.5-inch hard drives into their consoles. The Nyko Data Bank plugs into the left hand side of the console and, for the price of some aesthetically bulkier but still stylistically consistent heft, lets owners insert a hard drive …
Read More »