MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator and The Avengers director Joss Whedon has publicly backed Anita Sarkeesian’s latest Tropes vs Women documentary. Watch the @femfreq #TropesvsWomen vids,” he tweeted. Even if u think u get it, the sheer tonnage makes misogyny seem newly appalling.” The video, entitled ‘Women as Background Decoration’, …
Read More »Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris on learning to be indie
When MCV spoke to Positech’s Cliff Harris last month he mentioned publishing other indie games, namely ‘space comedy life-sim’ Redshirt, by one-person studio The Tiniest Shark. That single developer is Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris, a PhD researcher who ditched her time in education to fulfill her passion for video games. I was …
Read More »Video game pre-orders are in decline, and Call of Duty ‘is not immune’
Despite the seemingly growing emphasis publishers place on pre-orders, they are in fact in decline. That’s according to Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg who told investors, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha, that Call of Duty is just one of many titles to see a decline in pre-orders in 2014. You see …
Read More »Understanding the shape of the digital games market
Consumer retail analyst at Kantar Worldpanel Jules Williams reviews the growth of digital gaming, who’s buying into it and the direction of the digital pound… Digital game downloads have – in theory at least – been available since the 1980s. But it’s only in the past few years that advances …
Read More »New study says some gaming is GOOD for kids
Well that makes a refreshing change. A short spell of video gaming each day can have a positive effect on the lives of young children, a new study has claimed. That’s according toa survey of 5,000 10-15 year olds by experimental psychologist Dr Andrew Przybylski published in medical journal Pediatrics, …
Read More »GAME is winning back market share from supermarkets
High Street retailer GAME has clawed back some of the UK’s video game market share from supermarkets. That’s according to Kanter Worldpanel, which found that for the 12 weeks ending July 6th GAME boosted its share of the physical games, movie and music market by 1.1 per cent year-on-year. Amazon …
Read More »Why indie devs should consider physical retail
The digital age has given rise to thousands of games developers releasing titles on Steam, mobile and consoles. Sold Out sales director James Cato believes there’s room at retail for these studios, too… An MCV article (May 23rd, 2014) set industry tongues wagging by suggesting that over two-thirds (72 per …
Read More »"A prominent YouTuber suggested we pay them £10,000 to ‘like’ a video"
YouTubers ARE being asked to cover games for money without disclosing the deals, a new report has claimed. Eurogamer reports that John ‘TotalBiscuit’ Bain admits that he has previously been offered money by publishers to cover their titles on the condition that the agreement is not disclosed. They agreed to …
Read More »The State of Survival Horror
It’s fair to say that survival horror had slipped out of the mainstream. The genre’s big series – Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Dead Space – have all opted for a more action-focused experience. Since Resident Evil 4, survival horror has swapped scares and a feeling of vulnerability for mobility …
Read More »Games retail fights back
Back in 2007 – at the start of the last console generation – there were over 1,000 video game specialists on the High Street. 1,070 to be precise. Today, there are 605. It’s even worse if you look at the number of music and movie specialists that sold video games. …
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