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

Jagex has announced it’s bringing the RuneScape series to Amazon’s Alexa Engine. Entitled RuneScape Quests: One Piercing Note, Jagex describes the exclusive audio-based adaptation of the studio’s flagship MMORPG as an interactive murder mystery audio adventure game that lets players progress through the story via voice commands. The title has …

Back in 2001, brothers Peter and Robert Curry joined the games industry working at developer Sidhe Interactive. The duo went on to work on titles such as Adidas Football Fever, Rugby League and Gripshift. After a five-year stint, along with fellow programmer Lloyd Weehuizen, they set up an indie studio …

Activision Blizzard has announced the creation of a brand new Consumer Products division, and that it has hired Mattel and Disney vet Tim Kilpin to head it up. In this new role,Kilpin will be tasked with working on new products to expand and deepen audience engagement” with the firm’s brands …

Pokmon Go has become the fastest app to surpass $1bn in worldwide gross revenue, according to a new report from data analyst Sensor Tower. After just seven months on the market, Niantic’s mobile mega hit continues to show up its rivals, earning almost double the revenue of rival title Clash …

Rockstar and 2K Games parent company Take-Two has made a sizeable investment in its mobile strategy. The firm has acquired Barcelona-based mobile developer Social Point for $250m (197.7m). That amount is comprised of $175m (138.42m)in cash, as well as roughly $75m (59.3m) in shares. Founded in 2008, Social Point has …

We already knew EA had a great 2016, once again appearing at the top of the publisher charts for UK retail sales (source: GfK). Today’s Q3 earnings call reinforced that position with some choice stats concerning the growth of its playerbase for key titles. FIFA 17 was the top-selling console …

Microsoft has announced two new Xbox One controller designs. The Ocean Shadow Special Edition and the Winter Forces Special Edition will come to retailers worldwide next month, and will retail at 59.99 each. The Winter Forces Special Edition is launching on February 16th and has a light and dark grey …

Alienware has announced that the prize pool for its Overwatch Monthly Melee events will now be $10,000.  Previously the monthly competitions only offered up $5,000 per month, meaning top teams would often skip the competition. It is hoped that with the new amount of money all the top teams that …

Generation Media account executive Joe Phelan looks at which television channel mixes advertisers are relying upon and whether there are any developments in tried and tested ways of reaching younger men. We live in a time where new media opportunities become available before the current tech has had a chance …

We now have an idea of how well Nintendo’s much sought-after NES Classic Mini has performed. According to a tweet by Wall Street Journal tech reporter Takashi Mochizuki(below) – who was at a Nintendo corporate strategy meeting – the company has sold 1.5m units globally, with Nintendo upping production. This …