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

Candy Crush Saga developer King is gearing up for an IPO, according to a report. People familiar with the move” have toldThe Wall Street Journalthat the London company has approached a number of banks to pursue a potential initial public offering in the US. Banks including J.P. Morgan Chase & …

Vision surrounding cloud and Xbox Live remains unchanged despite always-on climb down, says March Whitten

Develop finds out what Cambridge's games hub gains from this annual conference for new talent

Human rights organisation Walk Free has launched a campaign targeting Nintendo. The body seeks assurances that Nintendo hardware doesn’t use slave-mined minerals, which can arrive on the global market from troubled regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, in any of its hardware. A petition demanding confirmation on the …

The ‘power of the cloud’ remains a key USP for Xbox One despite Microsoft’s ditching of its unpopular DRM plans. "Our vision around Xbox One and what you can do because of the power of both the architecture of the console, and also the cloud and the Xbox Live service, …

Outspoken games dev Cliff Bleszinski has said that Sony, not the angry internet, was the driving force behind Microsoft’s spectacular U-turn last night. Sony forced Microsoft’s hand, not the internet whining,” he wrote on Twitter. At the end of the day many hardcore dislike what was attempted. You can’t do …

Major League Gaming will no longer host Blizzard’s North American StarCraft II World Championship Series. PCGamesN reports MLG has backed out of its agreement with the developer, and at least one man in the know believes it’s because of a lack of support from Blizzard. After coordinating on WCS America …

Social Games company buys real money gaming developer weeks after massive cuts

One of the best bits of games industry scuttlebutt I have been told is about Xbox boss Don Mattrick. It’s actually about his shrewd hiring and management skills, so it’s effectively a HR anecdote. But bear with me. A few years ago I was told that when running teams at …

GameStick, Playjam’s android-powered console, has been delayed again due to issues regarding the development of the user interface. In a post on the project’sKickstarter page, the developer explained that ironing out the hardware’s UI is taking longer than expected. It has taken a while longer to prepare the review UI …