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

Leading UK games publishers says the ‘obsession’ around PS4 and Xbox One bundles over Black Friday will harm game sales. According to GfK Chart-Track, around 70 per cent of consoles sold during the Black Friday week were ‘hard bundles’ (official bundles that feature games in the pack), and that figure …

Recently, eSports broadcaster Azuburaised $59 millionto help build out its brand and take on the world. In this case "the world" is leading internet broadcaster Twitch, andin a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Azubu CEO, Ian Sharpe,explained how he plans on bringing downthe streaming giant. The first step on that journey, …

The Gran Turismo franchise has surpassed 76m lifetime sales, developer Polyphony Digital has revealed. VG247 points to updated sales numbers published by the studio, which shows the series has sold just shy of 76.5m units life-to-date. Gran Turismo 6 accounts for 4.7m of that total – lower numbers than either …

Google’s former director of gaming content for YouTube Rodrigo Velloso has joined Twitter in a similar capacity. In the newly created director of game partnerships role, Velloso will build relationships with developers, video content creators, eSports athletes, and public shoes such as E3. He toldVarietythe work is a continuation of …

A major new update for Minecraft’s console release has begun rolling out, Mojang has announced. A post on thedeveloper’s blogdetails what the team is calling the console version’s biggest update ever.” We’re constantly improving Minecraft on all platforms but this is actually our biggest update ever, bringing the console versions …

Nintendo UK’s head of communications and partnerships Jo Bartlett has left the company. Bartlett spent four years at Nintendo, having replaced her long-term predecessor Rob Saunders in 2011 upon his departure to Apple. During her tenure she worked on a number of campaigns including the launch of the Wii U …

Roughly 300 employees from the Irish branch of ZeniMax Online Studios have apparently lost their jobs. The Connacht Tribune, a regional newspaper, reports that the firm’s business in Galway, Ireland has essentially been shut down, with the vast majority of full-time and contract employees let go. The Galway office of …

First it was Germany and now France is doing its bit to try and force Valve to allow Steam users to re-sell their digital purchases. French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir is unhappy about some of clauses in Steam’s subscriber agreement, as translated by Reddit. As with the German case, UFC …

Gearbox has announced Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak will be released in just over a month. Hkarak is a prequel to the Homeworld series and adds ground combat and tactics to the space-faring mix. It’s due out on PC on January 20th. It’s developed by Blackbird, which houses plenty of former …

John Broomhall talks to Star Wars Battlefront audio director Ben Minto about recreating the films’ iconic audio