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

Expansion revealed as Ian Livingstone joins as chairman and Kats Sato hired as development director

Two developers who count EA, Starbreeze Studios, Codemasters, The Chinese Room and CD Projekt Red among their collective experience have formed a brand new outlet. Wickerman Games is a UK-based firm helmed by Chris Hardwick and Dan Cordell, who met at The Witcher 3 studio CD Projekt Red. (Well spotted,VG247.) …

Developer Sumo Digital has appointed games industry legend Ian Livingstone CBE as a non-executive chairman. That’s according to GI.biz, who says that Livingstone is one of two hires the LittleBigPlanet 3 and Forza Horizon 2 360 edition studio has made. This the latest in a long list of executive position …

Developer Dontnod has said it is ‘aiming’ to launch the fifth and final episode of Life is Strange next month. Taking to the official Square Enix blog, the title’s producer Luc Baghadoust said that the developer is ‘aiming’ for an October 20th release date. The final episode will be called …

Braid creator Jonathan Blow has announced his long in-development game The Witness will launch this January. A new trailer confirms the first-person puzzle game will release wordwide on January 26th. As previously revealed, it will arriveas a console exclusive on PS4, as well as on PC and iOS platforms. Blow’s …

Sony is pulling support of Facebook on PS3 and Vita, with the app no longer available on the PlayStation Store as of earlier this month. Polygonreports the move goes beyond just the app’s removal, as Facebook integration is scheduled to be completely scrubbed from Sony’s current handheld and last-gen console …

Steam’s latest best sellers chart shows Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has taken the top spot for its fourth consecutive week. The latest in the MGS franchise beat out Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, which hopped back all the way up to the runner-up spot on the list thanks …

Engine firm creates portal dedicated to showing off most impressive projects built with its widely used tech

And they have racked up a collective 2.5bn downloads – 20m installs per day

Ndemic Creations’ disease-based strategy game Plague Inc is No.1 this week in the iPhone charts, and takes second place in the iPad Top Ten. Last week the title was No.7 in the iPhone ranks, while it wasn’t in the iPad Top Ten. Plague Inc debuted on iOS in May 2012, …