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

It’s a little known fact that the term ‘toys-to-life’ is actually an Activision trademark. The publisher coined the phrase to describe its 2011 game and toy hybrid, Skylanders, and it has since been adopted by executives at Disney, Nintendo and Warner Bros. At that time, Activision hoped Skylanders would go …

19 games receive final certification in first year, 48 for interim certification

Is it really any surprise gamers are becoming more reluctant to pre-order? Over the past 12 months, there have been several examples of games that just didn’t live up to their expectations; games that launched full of bugs, and online games that couldn’t actually connect online. We can recall at …

eSports will take another big step this weekend when a competition final will be aired live on US cable TV. Blizzard has announced that the grand finals of its Heroes of the Dorm MOBA tournament will be screened by ESPN2 on Sunday night (April 26th). The channel will show the …

Indie retailer GamesNation wants to open three new stores this year. GamesNation opened its first outlet in Paignton in 2014, and is now eyeing up locations in Torquay, Exeter and Plymouth. We’ve been open a little over a year and it’s surpassed all of my expectations,” store owner Joe Marshall …

EA has backed the free-to-play business model, despite revealing plans to shut down four of its biggest freemium games. The titles – Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free, Need For Speed World and FIFA World – will go offline on July 14th. EA Studios boss Patrick Sderlund told fans that the games …

Developers take on publishers, retailers, journalists and more on Thursday, May 21st

Bandai Namco has teamed up with racing driver Nicolas Hamilton in its latest PR push behind Project CARS. The half-brother of F1 champion Lewis will judge a competition where children aged six to 14 must design a car of the future. The winning entry will receive a PS4, a frame …

European eSports organisation EGL has announced plans to launch in the Gulf and MENA regions. The Middle East Gaming League (MEGL) arm of the group will be established in collaboration with local distributor Red Stallion Interactive. MEGL will cater to all 18 countries in the Middle Eastern market in a …

Nintendo has admitted that the popularity of its Amiibo range took the platform holder by surprise. The toys-to-life products are sold out at most UK retailers, with pre-orders of new models being snapped up in minutes. Some retailers have even raised the price of the models to capitalise on their …