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

Forget yesterday’s GfK Chart-Track figures, UK game revenue actually grew by 10 per cent last year. Sales of physical disc-based games dropped 2.2 per cent in revenue year-on-year to 927.6m. But according to IHS estimates, digital game revenue was up 17.1 per cent last year, rising from 1.622bn to 1.899bn …

The prospect of cloud gaming has been dealt another blow. Square Enix opened its cloud-focused division Shinra Technologies – named after the eponymous company in Final Fantasy VII – back in September 2014, with former Square president Yoichi Wada taking the reins. Among the firm’s aims was the creation of …

Metal Gear Solid creator to be handed award by former Silent Hills collaborator Guillermo del Toro

Just shy of 7,000 people to receive free headset

Virtual reality is almost upon us now, and research firm SuperData reckons that the market for the new tech will reach $5.1bn (3.5bn) by the end of the year. That’s according to the company’s ‘Virtual Reality Market Brief‘, which also predicts that the install base of VR in 2016 would …

Lack of investment blamed for death of subsidiary opened in late 2014

Major League Gaming, a professional eSports organization,announced on Mondaythat it was acquired by video game publisher Activision Blizzard for a reported $46m, bringing MLG’s assets and infrastructure under Activision Blizzard’s Media Network. This is the latest event in a timeline that begins on 21 October, when the publisher announced it …

‘Big technology breakthrough’ blends physical and virtual reality

The addition of a camera system has been revealed as the technological ‘breakthrough’ that has held up the launch of the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. HTC revealed just before Christmas that the Vive would miss its 2015 launch date due to what was described as a very big technological …

The earliest and keenest supporters of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset have just had some very good news. The company has confirmed that those who backed the Oculus Rift during its Kickstarter campaign at a high enough tier to get a development kit – some 6,955 people – will …