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

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds could find itself banned from China amid claims that the game is too violent and ‘deviates from the values of socialism’. These claims come from China’s Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, who claim the game is too violent, too bloody and indeed, deviates from the values of socialism. …

Data from Kantar Worldpanel suggests that physical games sales have enjoyed a surprise surge. UK physical entertainment spend for the quarter ending September was up 2.2 per cent across all sectors, but it was video games that saw the strongest growth – 26 per cent. That offset decline of 5.4 …

AR specialist Reality Gaming Group has hired Fiddlesticks co-founder and BAFTA Breakthrough Brit winner Henry Hoffman. Hoffman will work on the company’s underlying tech, joining existing team members Paul Mottram (lead developer) and Ben Hebb (executive producer). The company has also expanded its Philippines development hub. The studio is currently …

Nintendo has revealed that mobile title Super Mario Run has now been downloaded 200m times. Of that total, 90 per cent have come from outside of the Japanese market. Run is initially free to download but then requires a purchase to unlock all but the earliest game content. And it …

Nintendo has said that it estimates recent release Super Mario Odyssey has sold around 2m copies in its first two days on sale. That equates to a little more than one in every four Switch owners buying a copy. In the UK, Mario just missed out on the chart top …

Esports website Slingshot Esports is closing its doors today, ceasing operations after two years. CEO Joe Ragazzo posted a statement to the website on Monday, entitled“A letter to our readers.”In the post, Ragazzo mentions that Slingshot was unable to find the funding to continue to operate. Slingshot was well regarded …

Icelandic games giant CCP has called time on its big virtual reality adventure. CCP was one of the earliest and largest supporters of VR, but has now announced its intentions to quit the sector. The move comes at the cost of 100 jobs and two studios. Its Atalanta office is …

The PlayStation 4 console has now shipped over 67 million units in total and Sony's gaming and network interests are showing growth

Code manager at nDreams, Triston Attridge talks about getting a job coding for the virtual reality studio

Riot Games is introducing a variety of financial changes to the EU LCS in 2018, while revealing that franchising for Europe is planned for 2019. In a blog post on their website, Riot have revealed that, although foundations for a better financial future are in place they’re a little way …