MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
There were 108,000 unique Twitch broadcasts from Xbox One in the first week since the streaming tech was patched onto the machine. On March 11th specifically, which was the first day Twitch was available on Xbox One, 30 per cent of the service’s broadcasts were made from Microsoft’s machine. The …
Read More »Video game tax breaks cultural guidelines test detailed
Are you British enough? Or specifically, is your game British enough to qualify for tax breaks? Well now you can find out, thanks to The British Film institute’s now-published guidelines that developers must pass in order to qualify. Here they are. A game needs to score 16 from the available …
Read More »Microsoft will offer ‘the best lineup of content in a long time’ at E3
Forget Xbox One’s multimedia capabilities – Microsoft’s new message is that games are very much the focus. In fact, new Xbox boss Phil Spencer has promised that the platform holder will unveil an unprecedented selection of content at E3 this June. He told Polygon that Xbox will have "the best …
Read More »Mobile now account for half of Japanese games market as sector nearly doubles
A new report claims that smartphone gaming now account for around 50 per cent of Japan’s total video games market. Serkantoto says that data from CyberZ says that of the total $10.8bn annual Japanese games spend in 2013, around $5.4bn of this was spent on mobile games. Furthermore, that’s up …
Read More »Chris Roberts vows that Star Citizen won’t be sold
Star Citizen will not be sold, the many backers of the space simulator have been assured. The pledge comes as Chris Roberts’ crowdfunded title passes the astronomical $41m funding mark. To answer [those] worrying about the possibility of Cloud Imperium being acquired by another, bigger company – don’t worry! We …
Read More »Diablo III and other Blizzard games disrupted by DDoS attack
Online miscreants have chosen to disrupt Battle.net services a week after the launch of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. The actions have left players facing problems attempting to log in to Blizzard’s biggest titles. Diablo, World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Hearthstone players may be impacted by high latency and disconnections …
Read More »Iwata’s internal approval rating drops as signs of board unease emerge
A report from Japan seems to be suggesting that there’s a small risk Nintendo president Saturo Iwata could be voted off the company’s board. A Siliconera translation of a Nikkei report says that Iwata’s internal approval rating has fallen from 92.86 per cent in 2001 to 77.26 per cent today, …
Read More »Animal Crossing could hit non-Nintendo platforms and future home console
Animal Crossing could not only be making a console return, but also be branching out onto non-Nintendo hardware. The series’ producer Katsuya Eguchi told Polygon that while he feels the game is best suited to handhelds, the right idea could see it return to consoles – although possibly not the …
Read More »Square Enix is falling back in love with JRPGs following Bravely Default success
Few companies have so fully embodied the shift in global games development from the West to the East as Square Enix. Once famed for its Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest RPG series, in recent years the company has put more effort into Westernised titles such as Deus Ex, Tomb Raider …
Read More »The Stig’s Digital Cousin stars in new Top Gear Forza 5 DLC
The partnership between BBC’s Top Gear and Microsoft’s Forza series is continuing with a new DLC pack for Forza 5. The download, which is included as part of the game’s Season Pass, includes ten cars, all of which are instantly accessible through the game’s garage but can also be purchased …
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