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

Blizzard has kicked off closed beta testing for its upcoming ‘online team brawler’ Heroes of the Storm. The publisher will be inviting a select number of players to try the free-to-play MOBA-like game, with sign-up available at heroesofthestorm.com. A new battleground – the desert-themed Sky Temple – and hero – …

Unity title has generated even more through in-app purchases

Free-to-play giant purchases Tapzen and Magic Pixel Games

The winners of the first ever Smite World Championships have been crowned, with American team COG Prime scooping the $1.3m prize. The US team bettered European rivals Titan in the final, although the losers still pocketed $522,452 thanks to the colossal $2.5m prize pool developer Hi-Rez Studios had previously raised …

John Broomhall talks new-gen Halo with Paul Lipson, senior audio director for 343 Industries/Microsoft Studios

Like-for-like sales in December grew 4.4 per cent at retailer GameStop, although total numbers for the nine weeks ending January 3rd were down year-on-year. Total sales for the period reached $2.95bn, down on the previous year’s $3.15bn. New hardware sales were surprisingly down 32 per cent from $1.05bn to $713m, …

A mere two days remain to getyour lobbying infor the 2015 MCV Awards. Lobbying for the 2015 MCV Awards ends thisFriday, January 16th at 5pm. That’s right – those of you wanting to put forward your suggestions for this year’s hotly-contested prizes including Games Retailer, New Games Brand, PR Team …

The New 3DS may be released in under a month, if leaked promotional material is correct. A poster shared on Neogaf dates the New 3DS XL for February 13th in the US. Kotaku has word from a number of GameStop sources that the poster is real and that the chain …

Significant hardware bundle discounts have led to GAME warning investors that full year earnings will not meet expectations. Aggressive price cuts to PS4 and Xbox One consoles throughout Black Friday and in the run-up to Christmas saw GAME cut prices to maintain market share, meaning returns were lower than originally …

Smartphone hit Crossy Road has proved that in-game ads can still pay the bills, even in games that have IAPs. The Guardian reports that, according to Unity, Hipster Whale’s title has made in excess of $1m from in-game ads alone since its launch on iOS in November 2014. And that …