MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The reliance of traditional publishers on bricks and mortar business has left them powerless to fend off the advances of the growing advances of the social and browser game sector, according to Zattikka CEO Tim Chaney. They can’t do so much; they are bricks and mortar businesses that need retail,” …
Read More »Google swoops for another social studio?
Google is said to have acquired social games group Jambool in what is widely believed to be part of a covert operation to become a serious Facebook rival. The search engine giant has acquired the San Francisco-based company in a deal worth up to $75 million, claims a TechCrunch report. …
Read More »Gaming arrives on Kindle
Though it’s never likely to emerge as a games platform to rival the likes of iPad or the DS, Amazon has released two games that are compatible with its Kindle ereader device. Shuffled Row and Every Word are both available to download for free right now. Both, unsurprisingly, are word …
Read More »GameStop ‘follows’ its users online
US games retail giant GameStop wants to exploit the crossover between ‘core’ gamers at retail and ‘casual’ gamers playing online. The firm this week told MCV that it is following customers to the non-console areas they play games in – with the acquisition of Flash games site Kongregate on Tuesday …
Read More »Blizzard teases console projects
Blizzard has told MCV that the development of a new game for consoles remains a possibility. The company’s recent successes have been very much PC focused, with titles such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft II thrusting the studio into the limelight. It has in the past developed titles for …
Read More »GameStop swoops for Kongregate
In what can only be described as a hugely significant move, video games retailer GameStop has acquired leading online Flash games portal Kongregate. The website boasts in the region of 10m users and is one of the most important players in the increasingly significant casual games sector. Kongregate will now …
Read More »Home becomes indie games platform
PlayStation Home looks set to get a huge boost – thanks to a deal that will see a number of indie games hits republished in the virtual world. Working with Codename, an independent publisher formed by the team that curates the IndieCade events run at E3 and GameCity in Nottingham, …
Read More »Casual XBL games claim 5% of sales
Casual games cover about a third of the Xbox Live Arcade catalogue, yet their total sales make up just a fraction of the digital market. That was according to data revealed today at the fifth annual Develop Conference, where a developer of the PSN title Joe Danger bared all on …
Read More »Best Kinect games still 2 years away
Microsoft’s ambitious new motion device – Kinect – will be out this autumn, but don’t expect to see the best games for it until 2012. That’s according to Gamesbrief founder and analyst Nicholas Lovell and Yoostar CEO Greg Fischbach, who say that developers need time to get to grips with …
Read More »Wii outpacing PS2 software sales
Nintendo of America’s COO and president Reggie Fils-Aime has attacked the belief that sales of Wii software are tracking below the industry norm. Speaking to investors, the colourful exec claimed: Life-to-date software sales for the Wii are dramatically higher than a similar point in time for the PS2. As for …
Read More »