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

It appears that gaming’s transition year has turned into transition years” – that’s the headline from Metacritic after a poor year for game quality. The reviews aggregator said that for the second year in a row just 11 console games (and nine unique titles) scored 90 per cent or higher …

UPDATE:It looks like this was alla big misunderstanding, according to Neogaf sleuths, and that DSfix will survive as normal. ORIGINAL STORY: The mod that popularised the otherwise technically compromised PC version of Dark Souls has been pulled after a copyright threat. DSfix, made by Durante, implements 1080p and 60fps gameplay …

343 Industries has released a new update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, adding new bug fixes along with the Spartan Ops co-op campaign from Halo 4. 343 explained in October – ahead of the game’s troubled launch – that the Halo 4 Spartan Ops content would miss being part …

Bungie has released a slew of statistics for Destiny, revealing that nearly 13m people have played the online FPS. As of the studio’s post earlier today, the game boasts 12,869,066 players across Playstation and Xbox console platforms that have created 22,932,276 guardians and logged 872,404,449 hours collectively. Destiny’s Crota’s End …

Maniac Mansion creators Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick have successfully crowdfunded their new adventure game Thimbleweed Park, raising more than a quarter of a million dollars over the campaign’s funding goal. The recently concluded Kickstarter effort – and true spirtual successor” to Maniac Mansion and other Lucasfilm Games from decades …

A group of Canterbury students have riled UKIP leader Nigel Farage by developing a game that spoofs both the politician and his party. Kent Online reports that the game, called UKIK, sees players take control of a character called Nicholas Fromage who is tasked with kicking immigrants as far as …

RPG fans were treated to a first glimpse at two new characters in Square Enix’s upcoming Final Fantasy XV in a video released this weekend. Shown off at Japanese anime convention Jump Festa 2015, the short reveals both popular summon Titan – who is now absolutely huge – and Cid. …

The exact sales of Titanfall, like many recent triple-A releases, remain unknown, but developer Respawn has said that the shooter is approaching 8m unique users. However, studio boss Vince Zampella has admitted that he would have liked the PC version to be released on Steam and not just as an …

Mobile company Space Ape is a brand on the rise. The firm is also two years old and has already seen success with real-time strategy (RTS) title Samurai Siege, which has consistently been in the Top 100 grossing apps on the iOS charts and has generated $21m in revenue since …

Ian Livingstone is one of the UK game industry’s greatest success stories. Starting up Games Workshop alongside fellow Brit Steve Jackson in their flat in 1975, Livingstone moved from board games and role-playing novels into video games during the mid-‘90s, joining Eidos Interactive and securing major franchises including Tomb Raider. …