MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Every year when we sit down with E3 organisers the ESA, we generally end up chatting about the same topics. ‘What can we expect from the show?’, ‘What’s different this year?’, ‘How much space is being dedicated to mobile/VR/AR/the next big thing?’. But this year, there’s actually quite a lot …
Read More »Going alone: Why EA has abandoned the E3 show floor
We try not to feature EA in our E3 MCV edition. Depending on when you’re reading this, EA is either about to announce a load of games, or it already has. To speak to the company before it’s done so, well, it seems a bit pointless. But we’re making an …
Read More »"Diversity is a practice, not just a word"
Animosity towards Beamdog for including a transgender character in Baldur’s Gate. Hate campaign against former Nintendo employee Alison Rapp. Overwatch’s Tracer butt pose. Valve being sued over alleged transgender discrimination. Tensions over gay and black characters at defunct Lionhead. Paradox having to take down a mod that removed Stellaris’ racial …
Read More »Interview: Sold Out’s leap into triple-A
The new Sold Out began life in February 2014 after being spun out of publisher Mastertronic. It has since made a name for itself as a safe pair of hands for digital games to come to physical retail, releasing hits such as Team17’s The Escapists and Zombie Army Trilogy from …
Read More »IGN on the power of specialist media
IGN won the Media Team prize at the MCV Awards last March. Following this win, Dan Kilby, commercial projects and marketing manager, tells MCV about the company’s strategy, the opportunities offered by eSports and why specialist sites are trusted. Congratulations on winning the Media Team category.Thank you. We put a …
Read More »UK toys-to-life sector is bigger than ever
Forget the toys-to-life crisis. More than 620,000 UK gamers have bought Disney Infinity 3, LEGO Dimensions or Skylanders Superchargers. That’s a rise of 21.2 per cent compared with the number of toys-to-life starter packs sold during the same period a year before. The data follows concerns for the genre sparked …
Read More »Rollercoaster Tycoon vs Planet Coaster vs Parkitect
When 2013’s SimCity came out, it was broken. It didn’t work. The servers fell over and the critics and fans did what they do when a game doesn’t work: they crucified it. Even when the game did get up-and-running, eventually, there were a few dissatisfied customers. The game’s developer had …
Read More »History Lesson: The story of Worms
In the early 1990s, certain specialist games magazines liked to encourage its readers to try their hands at making games. Amiga Format in particular contained programming information and ran game development contests for its readers (which at it peaks totalled over 170,000 a month). Andy Davidson, an A-level student in …
Read More »How Xbox 360 changed everything
Back in 2004, Xbox VP Peter Moore spent two days pretending to be PlayStation CEO Ken Kutaragi. During the planning stages of Xbox 360, Moore (who now works at EA) and his fellow Microsoft employees – including former Xbox president Robbie Bach and chief technology officer J Allard – had …
Read More »Interview: Codemasters on Dirt Rally, Evolution and the company’s bright future
It’s been a tough few years for Codemasters. The UK-based outfit has struggled to get off the ground with the PS4 and Xbox One. Meanwhile, its ventures into non-racing territory – such as last year’s Overlord: Fellowship of Evil – proved disappointing. In fact, Codemasters closed its non-racing operations in …
Read More »