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

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 …

Rhianna Pratchett seemingly back on board with Codemasters' wacky fantasy series

Select developers will receive virtual reality tools later this spring

The three biggest games of the year will all come out within weeks of one another. Last week at the Star Wars Celebration in California, EA announced that Star Wars: Battlefront will launch on November 20th. The game will compete with Halo 5: Guardians (out October 27th) and Call of …

Fewer UK consumers are pre-ordering video games, MCV can reveal. 20 per cent of UK gamers say they are either pre-ordering fewer titles, or have stopped pre-ordering altogether. This comes from a survey conducted by Ipsos MORI’s GameTrack project on behalf of MCV. Nine per cent of those surveyed said …

With Skylanders, Disney Infinity, LEGO Dimensions and Amiibo, the toys-to-life space has never been so competitive. But who is going to lose out? We speak to some of the genre’s experts to find out. We also look back at the winners of this year’s MCV Awards in pictures, including a …