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

Activision Blizzard’s share price reached a record high following the announcement it will be acquiring Candy Crush company King. The publisher’s stock price reached $37 at lunch yesterday (Tuesday November 3rd), and closed at $35.82 at the end of trading. That is 7.5 per cent higher than its opening price …

PS4’s PlayStation Now streaming service has been expanded with the addition of 105 new titles, including more than 20 Capcom games. That brings the total count of the US offering of the on-demand game-streaming platform to 250 titles. Around a fifth of the new additions are Capcom games, such as …

Japanese publisher Konami has officially confirmed that its LA studio – responsible for development of Metal Gear Online – has been shut with immediate effect. In a statement to Polygon, the company said that all development resources were being restructured to be more centralised. This follows a rumour posted on …

An upgraded version of Civilization Revolution 2 will launch this December as a PS Vita-exclusive, Sony and 2K have announced. A post on thePlayStation Blogreveals Civilization Revolution 2 Plus will carry the same content as Firaxis and 2K’s 2014 mobile release of the same name, along with a few exclusive …

Steam has seen multiple record-breaking spikes in concurrent user numbers over the past few weeks, peaking out at nearly 13.5m this weekend. Multiple reports – as well as Valve’sstats pagefor the service – show the game broke concurrent user record marks three times during the second half of October. The …

US servers for MOBA strategy hybrid Total War: Arena will go live next week, Creative Assembly has revealed. The North America closed beta for the free-to-play online multiplayer affair will open up on November 13th. The game is currently in open beta in Europe and Russia. To mark the occasion, …

Blueprint report launches at Parliament event in London, recommending more funding support and ‘games-as-culture’ promotion

Michael O’Dell, manager of Team Dignitas,toldBBC Newsthat the sale was close to $1 million, but he was unable to state the exact amount. The sale leaves Dignitas with just the one North AmericanLeague of Legendsteam, as the pro rules state that eSports groups can only manage one squad. Read more …

007 may have a licence to kill, but it was Master Chief that emerged triumphant in last week’s battle of the brands. Halo 5: Guardians generated 7.7m during its first 24 hours on sale, Xbox has announced, beating the Box Office opening for the new James Bond movie Spectre. The …

The narrative goes that boxed games retail is dying as the digital market thrives. The digital sector has, in many ways, lowered the barrier to entry in the games market and been one of the main factors in the booming indie movement. Oh course, the physical games market is still …