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

New UK studio Freejam explains the pitfalls of making an indie eSports game, and how it's avoiding them

Warner Bros has revealed the release date for upcoming Lord of the Rings title Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC title will arrive on October 7th. The game, which has an unusually supernatural thrust for a Tolkien title, is clearly inspired by the …

GamesGrabr is the latest brand to support this year’s MCV Awards. The social network has signed up as event partner for the evening, which takes place on April 10th at the London Lancaster Hotel and will be hosted by Channel 4 presenter and stand-up comedian Adam Hills. The firm joins …

It’s all a bit 1999. That’s according to one one of the MCV team this morning after watching Amazon’s new Game Studios teaser video, which offers first glimpses of a number of in-development games at the company. To date Sev Zero is the only confirmed AGS exclusive title for FireTV, …

Sitting under your TV and playing games does not a games console make. That’s according to Amazon Kindle vice president Peter Larsen, anyhow, who told Engadget in an interview that Fire TV "isn’t trying to be a game console”. Separately to that an Engadget reporter quotes Larsen on Twitter as …

Tropico 5 will launch in May on Windows PC and several other platforms later this year, publisher Kalypso has announced. The PC version will initially release via digital channels on May 23rd, and arrive at retail for the platform on May 27th. Kalypso also revealed that Mac and Xbox 360 …

Amazon has hired on Portal lead Kim Swift and Far Cry 2 designer Clint Hocking to join its internal game studio. Kotaku reports the two will join Amazon Game Studios’ growing talent pool. While Amazon has yet to confirm the hires, Hocking’s personal blog and Swift’s twitter account both allude …

PS Vita Pets will launch this June in North America and Europe, Sony has confirmed. The PlayStation US blog announces the pet simulation adventure game will land in North America on June 3rd. Meanwhile, the PS Europe blog confirms the game will arrive June 4th within the territory. PS Vita …

Retailer beefs up development team for new Fire TV

Amazon revealed its Fire TV device at a press event in New York earlier today. The box is being sold for $99 in America. No date or price has been set for the UK yet. The gadget supports video streaming. So far it is set to have content from Amazon …