MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Over the past eight months more than $50m has been put toward game campaigns on Kickstarter. A Kickstarter blog post entitled ‘The Year of the Game’ breaks down games meteoric rise on the service since it started in 2009. The numbers count for digital games, as well as board and …
Read More »August NPD: Darksiders 2 on top, totals still down year-over-year
The NPD Group has released its latest monthly report on US retail, showing Darksiders 2 claimed the software crown amidst another month of decline for the market. Total retail spending was down 20 per cent year-over-year, at $515.6m compared to 2011’s $647.2m. Hardware sales were down 39 per cent, bringing …
Read More »Capcom aiming for more releases, smaller teams
Capcom has revealed plans for its growth strategy moving forward. In its annual report, the publisher outlines big changes coming to the development cycle. It also makes clear that we’re to expect smaller teams working on more games in the future. "Teams developing major titles will be limited to 100 …
Read More »Minecraft dev announces ‘Block by Block’ collaboration with UN
Minecraft developer Mojang has announced the Block by Block program, an initiative in partnership with the UN to encourage youth to join in the planning process of building local environments. The development studio explains the collaboration on its blog as similar to the program implemented in Sweden. A reconstruction of …
Read More »Total number of US gamers drops in 2012
The total number of US gamers has seen a significant reduction in 2012, according to an NPD report. USA Today reports the group’s Gamer Segmentation 2012: The New Faces of Gamers report estimates there are currently 211.5m gamers in America, a five per cent decline from 2011. The report specifies …
Read More »GAME OF THE DAY: Retro/Grade
After some four years of development, indie studio 24 Caret Games finally released its startlingly unique downloadable PS3 title Retro/Grade last month. Described as a rhythm-based backwards sidescrolling shooter, Retro/Grade sparkles with polish as soon as the main menu and loading screens appear.The game has players starting out literally at …
Read More »Galaxy S III becomes top selling US smartphone, overtaking iPhone 4S
Apple’s iPhone 4S has not finished first in monthly smartphone sales for the first time since its launch eleven months ago. Apple Insider reports that the recently released Samsung Galaxy S III won out in August, though the trend is not expected to continue. Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley expects …
Read More »iPhone 5 announcement incoming
Apple has all but declared the iPhone 5 announcement will come next week. Reported by ars technica, The company has sent out invitations for a media event in San Francisco on September 12th. While the invite doesn’t explicitly state what Apple plans to reveal, the image on the invitation (pictured) …
Read More »Techland working on Dead Island spinoff ‘Project Hell’
Techland, the studio responsible for Dead Island, has announced a new game currently entitled Project Hell. The company’s blog explains over several posts that the title is a spinoff of Dead Island originating as an ‘internal weapon mod’ made by a Techland staffer. Thoughts of DayZ immediately sweep in. The …
Read More »Schafer/Wolpaw: Minecraft, DayZ experiences nail the promise of games
Veteran game writers Erik Wolpaw and Tim Schafer believe titles that push player-driven experiences such as Minecraft and DayZ are the future of the general gaming medium. Speaking at a panel in Seattle over the weekend (and passed on by Kotaku), the pair waxed poetic on what the two titles …
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