MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
More than one million daily active users are playing new Finnish studio Seriously’s debut mobile game Best Fiends. The free-to-play match-three title was released in October and has since been downloaded over seven million times. Each day players are said to rack up more than 400,000 hours of gameplay. The …
Read More »Sega cutting 300 jobs as it prepares for digital, non-console future
Around 300 staff are to be offered early retirement following plans to completely restructure Sega’s business. Local organisations managing packaged game software in Western markets will be streamlined”, the company has said, with its San Francisco already confirmed for closure. Sega intends to alter operations to focus on mobile and …
Read More »Chen argues that net neutrality should force Apple to make Blackberry apps
Blackberry CEO John Chen has tried to argue that President Obama’s recent net neutrality rulings should have wider implications for the technology sector. Specifically, in a bizarre open letter Chen has claimed that as well as having an open internet, we should also have open platforms – meaning he believes …
Read More »Chorus is localising The Room for Asian markets
Publisher Chorus is bringing localised version of a number of titles to the Asian mobile market, including smartphone hit The Room. It’s all part of a deal that has secured to the rights to not only Fireproof’s puzzle hit but also five other titles – Dragon Finga, Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker, …
Read More »Crossy Road hops onto Google Play store
Smartphone hit Crossy Road is now available to download via the Google Play Store. Hipster Whale’s title arrived on iOS in later November and then hit Android via the Amazon Appstore just before Christmas, but this is the first time is has been available to download from Google. The Google …
Read More »Ustwo: Premium games are not dead
The maker of smartphone hit Monument Valley has said that premium gaming lives on, despite the pressures of free-to-play and piracy. Studio Ustwo yesterday revealed that 95 per cent of installations of the game on Android were not paid for and 60 per cent on iOS. We’ve had this for …
Read More »Operators sign up to service that installs apps AFTER you’ve purchased the phone
The bloatware that ships pre-installed on phones could be about to get a whole lot worse. AndroidPit reports that a service from Digital Turbine known as Ignite is being touted to mobile operators. It allows networks to force install apps on an owner’s device remotely at any point after purchase. …
Read More »Samsung to ‘fundamentally reform smartphone portfolio’
Sales of Samsung’s smartphones have fallen to their lowest point in over three years, forcing the market leader to order a total revamp of its operations. Samsung’s net profits from mobile fell 73.9 per cent in Q3. Its smartphone market share fell from 33 per cent last year to 24 …
Read More »‘Smartphones are not designed to be put in your pocket’
The controversy surrounding Apple’s allegedly bendy iPhone 6 Plus is unfounded due to the design of modern smartphones. That’s according to analyst Chris Green who has made the shock claim to the BBC that modern phones don’t belong in pockets at all. "This is not an issue that Apple – …
Read More »Sony loss estimates more than quadruple
The PlayStation business may be buoyant, but significant struggles in the mobile sector are causing havoc with Sony’s financials. For the full year ending March 2015 Sony now expects full year losses to reach 230bn (1.3bn). That’s nearly five times greater than its previous estimate of 50bn (286m). It’s the …
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