MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

Third-party developers will soon be able to make use of SteamVR’s tracking abilities in their own virtual reality hardware, opening the doors for custom controllers for VR titles. Valve has announced that it will offer royalty-free licences for the platform to hardware makers who complete an in-person training course. The …

Publisher Merge Games plans to be the No.1 indie label in the North of Britain. The firm also hopes its strategy of working with leading British games creators will see it become one of the UK’s biggest publishers overall. The news comes as the company prepares to release games – …

Number of titles certified in the last 12 months now at 178, UK spend at £554m

John Broomhall discusses the sound of Faith with EA DICE audio director James Slavin

The content boss for the Vive VR headset has delivered a warning to major games publishers that are reluctant to invest in virtual reality. Joel Breton told MCV that these businesses risk enabling ‘massive new competitors’ by not getting in early on virtual reality – akin to what happened in …

‘There is a range of motives here from blatant commercial ventures to enthusiastic fans but the negative impact on game resources is the same’

Games clothing firm Insert Coin has rebranded itself in a bid to be seen as more than just a ‘merchandise site’. The firm has a strong reputation in the games business for its video game-inspired range of apparel. It now wants to be viewed more as a fashion brand. We’ve …

Blizzard’s online multiplayer shooter Overwatch has racked up another impressive milestone. The game has now passed 15m players worldwide. This isn’t quite the same as 15m sales, as some players will be accessing the game from the same machine as others, although nonetheless it remains an impressive achievement. The game …

Licence for tech powering Vive headset on offer royalty-free to those who complete a training programme

New outfit headed up by former EA director Bruce Heather, also focusing on AI