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

Activision says it is about to ‘forever change the face of eSports’ with a new Call of Duty competition Call of Duty: Black Ops II is bidding to become a major player in the eSports scene, which is currently dominated by games like StarCraft II and League of Legends. And …

GAME’s Westfield White City branch is hosting the official UK launch of Metal Gear Rising – and the guest of honour will be the series’ creator himself. Hideo Kojima will take part in a Q&A before his new game goes on sale on February 22nd, answering fan questions about the …

Just seven days remain to save 30 per cent on GDC 2013 entry

Sales in Sony’s games division fell 15.1 per cent in the quarter ending December 31st, although overall Sony has enjoyed somewhat of a reversal of fortune. Games sales hit 268.5bn, hit by decreased sales of PS3 and PSP. Operating revenue fell by 29.2bn year-on-year to 4.6bn. Combined PS3 and PS2 …

HMV will close 66 stores over the next six weeks as part of its administration. MCV understands an announcement will be made later today on which stores will be closed, and that staff had been informed this morning. It was widely expected that administrators Deloitte would cut HMV’s store base …

Borderlands 2 is on track to become the highest-selling title in 2K’s history – as it nears 6m copies sold. Speaking in yesterday’s financials call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed Gearbox’s FPS sequel was the company’s biggest earner in terms of digital sales across the past fiscal year. "Building on …

Half-Life and Portal movies on the table as filmmaker considers dive into game development

Former vice president Joachim Kempin has revealed that Microsoft got into the console business primarily to take on and defeat Sony – after Sony denied Microsoft’s interest in partnership. According to Kempin, Microsoft set about creating the Xbox hardware so that Sony didn’t achieve the kind of dominance on televisions …

Valve boss says user should be shop curator, not corporations

With The Witcher 3 reveal behind it, CD Projekt has announced lifetime sales numbers for the franchise. Between The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the series has surpassed 5m copies sold – with 2012’s Xbox 360 release of the sequel contributing significantly to the figure. The Witcher …