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

Evolution studios founder Martin Kenwright has announced the opening of new digital entertainment studio, Starship. Speaking with Polygon, the MotorStorm franchise creator confirmed the new venture – adding that his team consists of industry veterans from Evolution and Studio Liverpool that have collectively worked on 69 published titles, such as …

Torchlight studio Runic Games will see industry veterans Travis Baldree and Erich Schaefer exit the company they helped co-found back in 2008, the pair have confirmed. Posting on Runic’s forums, Baldree announced his impending departure, adding that his last day at the company will be April 2nd. It is with …

Microtransactions on consoles accounted for approximately$352m in sales last year, research group Superdata has announced. The firm notes the microtransactions model – typically associated with the mobile market – is rapidly becoming more popular among console gamers. That $352m is strictly tied to small purchases tied to in-game economy, like …

Famed developer Cliff Bleszinski has criticised Markus Persson for his decision to pull the plug on the Oculus Rift version of Minecraft. Persson announced the cancellation of the project just moments after news of the Facebook acquisition of Oculus was announced, saying: I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me …

Video games ad agency Intergi has joined the list of supporters for this year’s MCV Awards. Intergi 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 game director behind Evolution Studios’ upcoming racing game DriveClub has left the developer. As reported byVideogamer, Col Rodgers said he has quit the studio to form his own indie company, Big Red Switch Games. The developer claimed he had left for "purely personal reasons", and his departure was unrelated …

The Treasury has now confirmed that developers will not be able to claim back games tax relief. The claiming period will officially begin from April 1st 2014. A statement from UKIE read: "We can confirm that claims are not back dateable from the 1stof April 2013. Claims can be made …

IGF China and NASSCOM Game Forum award-winning puzzler Save the Dummy is headed to mobile and other platforms. Developed by Kolkata-based Sandeep Saha aka Sandyloisa, Save the Dummy is a physics-based puzzle game that won the Excellence in Technology Award at IGF China 2013 and the runner-up award in the …

Conservative MP and UK Chancellor George Osborne has said that today’s confirmation of video games tax breaks will create new jobs in the sector. This is a key industry of the future and I want Britain to be one of its biggest centres,” he said. 95 per cent of UK …

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