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

Four teams will compete at this weekend’s tournament final of the 2017 Blitz Twister Cup, which fans can watch live online. The competition, taking place on November 11th, centres around Wargaming’s free-to-play World of Tanks: Blitz, which can be downloaded across assorted smartphone formats. Four regions will take part – …

The former head of esports at Beverly Hills talent agency WME:IMG has helped found a new development studio and media company that will exclusively concentrate on esports. Tobias Sherman has established the company, which goes under the name of Foundry IV, with Simon Abitbol and Lilia Russo. Sherman was also …

Team Liquid has confirmed the passing of hugely popular Overwatch coach Dennis Hawelka. ‘INTERNETHULK’, as Hawelka was known, was a coach across a number of titles including Overwatch and League of Legends, the latter of which he was coaching for Team Liquid at the time of his death. He reportedly …

The maker of 2017 smash hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has revealed its new title. It’s called Ascent: Infinite Realm, and bears no resemblance at all to its battle royale hit. Black Desert Online publisher Kakao Games has been named as its Western publisher, and has also invested in the studio. Vehicles …

The title by People May Fly is now published by THQ Nordic has passed the 10 year ban period mandated by the German harmful media index

In the world of games-as-a-service, sports titles seem like the ideal candidates for experimenting with new models that don’t rely on the traditional release structure. We already have a few examples of games that build from a base release, such as Hearthstone and League of Legends. We’re unlikely to ever …

A trial version of Star Wars Battlefront 2 is out now for EA Access and Origin Access, bringing with it confirmation of exactly what model EA has chosen for its controversial loot crate system. The game’s currency, Crystals, can be bought in the following volumes: 500 (£3.99), 1,000 (£7.99), 2,100 …

The amount of releases on Valve's store is almost equal to the the combined releases between 2005 and 2015

Growing comms platform Discord now lets its users join games with their friends more easily. Discord already shows you want games your friends are currently playing. Now a new feature called Rich Presence adds a button that, when pressed, will allow you to either boot the game and join in …

In this issue, we talk to Bandai Namco’s European VP of marketing and digital about his strategy for the old continent. Fresh off the success of Little Nightmares and a brand-new partnership with Dontnod, the publisher is now putting European games at the forefront, with the aim to become a …