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

Grant to help studio employ new staff and support development of original IP

Leading esports firm ESL has announced the acquisition of event services and technologies agency ESS. Electronic Sports League has also announced that it has opened a 7,000 square foot full production studio at its LA office – complete with room for an audience of hundreds – which paired with this …

Technology giant gains 80 wearable computing patents in secretive deal

Valve’s Michael Abrash has joined Oculus after three and a half years with the company. He has been appointed by Oculus as chief scientist just days after the firm was bought by Facebook for $2 billion. Abrash had been leading Valve’s own foray into virtual reality development but said the …

John Carmack has spoken positively of Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus and believes the firm gets "the big picture" for virtual reality’s potential. "There is a case to be made for being like Valve, and trying to build a new VR ecosystem like Steam from the ground up," he said. "This …

The Xbox One is being lined up for a release in China, Microsoft has said. Global Times reports that Microsoft’s global vice president Zhang Yaqin has said that the platform holder is stepping up efforts to bring in its multi-purpose Xbox game console to the Chinese market as soon as …

Debbie Bestwick explains why going it alone might be more damaging to your game than you think

EA is to stop selling physical PC games through Origin. Yes, EA sold physical PC games through Origin. The new policy comes into effect this Friday (April 4th). In a statement confirming the news, it said that just one per cent of its customer based buys physical versions of its …

Retail giant handing out press invites for April 2nd event

Apple’s reputation as offering the most stable operating system around may not be accurate. TechRadar reports that data from Crittercism says that the average app crash rate on iOS 7.1 is 1.6 per cent. In comparison, the rate on Android versions 4.0 and upwards is just 0.7 per cent. That’s …