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

The shockwaves of Kory "Semphis" Friesen’s innocuous doping confession are still shuddering their way through the eSports industry this week. ESL spokesperson Anna Rozwandowicz confirmed that the league – which hosted the Katowice tournament Friesen allegedly took Adderall at in March – would be deferring to the World Anti Doping …

Clint Hocking isn’t the only high-profile member of Amazon Game Studios to leave the developer. It was reported yesterday that Hocking, who joined the then growing studio alongside Portal lead Kim Swift in April 2014, has now left the company. GameSpot reports that two other big names have also exited …

SMITE, the free-to-play mythology-themed MOBA from Hi-Rez Studios, has launched on Xbox One. During the game’s alpha and beta testing, there were over one million unique players, and now newcomers can jump into the fray. Read more at VG24/7 >>>

Nearly 100 per cent of sales coming from Japan alone

Popular mobile match-3 title Frozen Free Fall: Snowball Fight is releasing as a free-to-play title on Xbox One. The Xbox store says it will be released next week on August 25th. Like the mobile game, it will also support in-app purchases to aid player progression through its 195 levels. New …

Aging digital rights management software such as SafeDisc and Securom isn’t compatible with Windows 10, meaning many old disc-based games are incompatible. Everything that ran in Windows 7 should also run in Windows 10,” Microsoft’s Boris Schneider-Johne explained in a German Gamescom video translated by Rock Paper Shotgun. There are …

Tech set for commercial launch in 2016

Zoological lifestyle simulator Animal Crossing has held strong at the top of the Japanese charts in a week dominated by Nintendo. The latest entry in the casual franchise, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, sold more than 172,000 units in its third week on sale – nearly triple the 60,832total of …

nDreams VP of publishing David Corless on the best ways to get your game noticed

Red Bull is bullish–pun intended–about several emerging sports, especially this one: eSports. Envisioning the brand as a strong supporter for this sector isn’t surprising. They’re at the pulse of what’s next, even before the mainstream embraces it. Their exploration and investment in eSports shouldn’t go unnoticed; rather, it should be …