MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
When Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gamblers talk about the money they’ve lost, their stories follow a familiar pattern. The CS: GO player says he (usually we’re talking about a young man or a boy) developed an interest in collecting virtual in-game items, known as skins. He was also attracted to professional …
Read More »As North American League thrives with new best-of-3 format, will Europe follow?
When Riot Games announced the League Championship Series in 2012, bringing a fully professional league run by the company to North America and Europe, amongst the many other decisions made one that probably did not attract much attention at the time: the regular season would be made up of single-game …
Read More »A good night for Witcher III and Her Story at 2016 Develop Awards
The developers behind The Witcher III: Wild Hunt and Her Story have emerged as this year’s big winners at The Develop Awards. Following a voting process by more than 90 influential industry figures, Polish studio CD Projekt Red took home four gongs tonight with The Witcher III earning the team …
Read More »Hero Limit: Why Not 6 Winstons?
Blizzard doesn’t want a hero limit although many players and tournament organizers do. What are the arguments on both sides of the debate? MOBAs follow the convention of only allowing one or two unique heroes on a map. Why is Overwatch giving free reign? After all, the character element came …
Read More »The top 10 players competing at Evo 2016
In two days, over 15,000 contenders will gather to compete in the world’s largest fighting game tournament: the Evolution Championship Series (Evo). This year, the event’s set of nine titles includes Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Mortal Kombat X, Ultimate Marvel vs. …
Read More »A basic comparison of champion select trends across five major regions
Until recently, draft phases had become homogenized internationally. Watching a game in a given major league followed the same patterns. Spectators expressed irritation that "everyone was just copying Korea." That seems to have changed this summer, as teams within leagues and leagues themselves have begun to prioritize different picks. Looking …
Read More »Regulating The Billion-Dollar ESports World Is Nearly Impossible
There’s a new Esports sheriff in town, ready to combat the influx of gamblers and would-be match fixers that have descended upon the burgeoning, soon-to-be $1.9 billion dollar industry, hoping to stem the tide of rigged games that have plagued the world of professional gaming of late. Read more on …
Read More »Kjaerbye and karrigan talk new Astralis roster
Perhaps the biggest and most surprising roster change in Counter-Strike this year was the transfer of Markus Kjaerbye” Kjrbye from Team Dignitas to Astralis and Rene cajunb” Borg going in the other direction. At the time, both sides were struggling and seemed to be in need of some kind of …
Read More »SK Gaming’s Coldzera is MVP of ESL One Cologne
SK Gaming claimed their second back-to-back CS:GO Major this weekend after defeating Team Liquid in the ESL One Cologne finals. Though under the Luminosity Gaming banner for April’s MLG Columbus, the same Brazilian squad have cemented their place at the top of the pack as we head into a new …
Read More »Splyce wants to change the European narrative in Call of Duty
Splyce has heard it all before: the jeers from North American fans and the disinterest from analysts when the discussion inevitably shifts to the Call of Duty European scene. For Splyce’s shot caller Joshua-Lee "Joshh" Sheppard, it almost becomes second nature. "It’s a topic that always comes up in conversation …
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