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

Fewer games that are better and are only released when they’re ready – that’s the message coming from Marvel. Titles from recent partners such as Activision and Sega on consoles, as well as digital releases from Gameloft and Gazillion, have typically not fared well with critics. But with Marvel increasingly …

Hollywood bigwig Kevin Spacey will feature in the next COD, which is called Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. As the name may suggest, visually things do look a little Ghost Recon (and Metal Gear Solid, for that matter), focusing on near-future tech. Spacey fronts some sort of renegade mercenary group …

Ouya has launched its Playcast-powered cloud-based game streaming feature in beta this week, with Lego Batman 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction now available to play on the service. The feature, developed by Playcast Media, is similar to other cloud-based services like OnLive and Sony’s upcoming Gaikai-based PlayStation Now. "Playcast bridges …

The next title in the Call of Duty franchise will be unveiled this Sunday, according to a new teaser page for the game. The page reads Get Ready for a New Era of Call of Duty,” and shows images of a soldier and what appears to be the Golden Gate …

John Carmack’s former employer ZeniMax Media has reportedly accused the industry veteran of improperly providing the firm’s technology to Oculus VR. Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal reveal ZeniMax’s claim that the virtual reality headset maker’s success is directly attributable to the technology developed at id Software. A unidentified …

Microsoft has named two global advertising agencies after a three-month review. Interpublic Group and Dentsu Aegis Network will manage its marketing and media accounts worldwide, with an account revenue worth around $100m. The idea behind the review was to reduce its advertising business to just a single entity, but splitting …

Sony has recruited ad agency Work Club help push PlayStation Plus across Europe. The agency will ‘rebrand and reposition’ the PS Plus service, according to CampaignLive. For those that don’t know, PS Plus is the subscription service available for PS3, PS4 and PS Vita that allows for online gaming on …

Techland’s fantasy battler Hellraid has officially gone next-gen. The game was announced last year for PS3 and Xbox 360 but has now been confirmed instead for release on PS4, Xbox One and PC some time later this year. It’s powered by the same engine behind Techland’s other upcoming first person …

Free-to-play mobile game developer and publisher Glu Mobile has acquired Diner Dash studio PlayFirst. As part of the deal Glu will take on Playfirst’s debts of $3.55m. The acquisition is expected to be officially completed by the end of May. The casual game studio’s Dash series of titles, which includes …

Developer American McGee has described Microsoft’s decision to release Xbox in China as a ‘blunder’. China-based McGee, the creator of titles such as Alice: Madness Returns and Bad Day LA, is the second vocal critic of the strategy after analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said yesterday that success was not guaranteed” in …