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

Amazon has announced a new startup accelerator program for its smart voice assistant Alexa device, and London-based developer Sensible Object is the only company from the UK to make the list. The Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, was created by the Alexa Fund, which provides up to $100m in VC …

The technology focused game developer is the only UK studio selected for the program

Gfinity’s head of partner relations Martin Wyatt discusses why the UK “is a sleeping giant in the world of esports” When we speak to Martin Wyatt, it’s the day before Gfinity’s Elite Series kicks off at the company’s own esports stadium, grafted onto the back of a Vue cinema in …

The lineup for the inaugural EVO Japan, which will take place in Toyko between January 26-28. Seven games will be playing during the event, with Arms, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Guilty Gear Xrd, King of Fighters XIV, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros 4 and Street Fighter V being the official lineup. …

Old School RuneScape will become the first Western MMORPG to come both PC and mobile platforms

Jagex has announced that its renowned MMORPGs RuneScape and Old School RuneScape will be coming to mobile and tablet devices starting later this year. Old School RuneScape will be the first title to make the jump to mobile this winter, with RuneScape to follow at a later date. What’s more, …

Jared Jeffries, a former NBA player, has been appointed as the president of esports organisation Echo Fox, headed up by three-time NBA champion Rick Fox Jeffries will be responsible for all of Echo Fox’s operations, and the appointment was confirmed by a private equity firm Vision Venture Partners, headed up by …

There’s no bigger character on the UK high street than Mike Ashley. His acquisition of a significant holding of GAME shares today is the biggest story for UK games retail in years. Does it show the sector’s key retailer is simply undervalued or is this the beginning of a long-running …

Hot off the heels of Oculus’ temporary price cut to its Rift headset last week, a report surfaced on Friday that the company might also be preparing an even cheaper model of the Riftas a kind of budget successor. Currently code-named ‘Pacific’, the headset will allegedly bridge the gap between …

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has claimed another impressive sounding statistic, as it just achieved a record for the fourth-highest peak player count in Steam’s history. There were 382,561 players charging around the fiction Eastern European wilderness shooting at each other, which put the game 22,000 players above the peak set by Grand …