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

ESL and ESEA, the largest North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league provider, are working together on a league with a prize pool of $1million. The ESL ESEA Pro League, set to begin on May 4, will consist of multi-month seasons punctuated by a Valve-sponsored Major title. This year there will …

The UK’s only dedicated 3D channel is to be closed. Sky 3D was launched back in 2010 ahead of what the entertainment industry was presenting as an expected boom in 3D TV uptake. Now the channel is to be scrapped completely with all remaining 3D content to be shoved onto …

League of Legends and eSports star Hai Lam has been forced to retire after failing to recover from a wrist injury. He’ll be hanging around at Cloud9, however, where he will serve as chief gaming officer. I’m very thankful to have had this opportunity to pursue my dreams and become …

The most recent release from Deadly Premonition creator Hidetaka ‘Swery65′ Suehiro is to receive a release on PC. The news was confirmed by Suehiro on Twitter after a fan asked for confirmation of a translation of an interview he gave to Famitsu. In a separate tweet the developer said he …

Warner Bros has, three months ahead of the game’s release, announced that the Batman: Arkham Knight season pass will cost 32.99. For the money gamers will get access to what is described as six months’ worth of post-release content including new story missions, additional super-villains invading Gotham City, legendary Batmobile …

In an unprecedented move Japanese publisher Square Enix has revealed plans to release a content update for one of its demos. The Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae was distributed with Final Fantasy-0 HD last month, but Siliconera reports that director Hajime Tabata has confirmed that work on a version 2.0 …

The developer behind highly successful open-world zombie MMO DayZ has said he would love to create his own content for Grand Theft Auto. Discussing the addition of paid mods by Valve to its Steam Workshop content marketplace, Dean Hall expressed his desire to see bigger studios offer access to their …

Oculus VR has announced the hiring of former Valve member Anna Sweet. Sweet was previously responsible for business development at the Steam firm, covering both software and hardware programs, according to ablog post on Oculus’ website. She has now taken up the role of head of developer strategy and will …

The developers behind successful PC hits DayZ, Garry’s Mod and Dear Esther, all of which saw their origins as mods for other games, have weighed in on Valve’s recent introduction (and subsequent removal) of paid modding. Steam Workshop saw the ability to charge for mods added a few days ago, …

Customers of Origin in Australia could soon have similar refund rights as those in the EU. Kotaku reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has told the publisher that its current refunds policy is at odds with consumer law. And EA has relented, agreeing to amend its policies. Businesses …