MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Pokémon Company has announced that its 2015 Pokémon World Championships will offer $2m in prizes. Organizers have detailed locations and dates for the US Pokémon Winter Regional Championship tournaments. The US regional tourneys take place later this month at the following locations: St. Louis, MO: February 14-15 – St. …
Read More »UPDATED: League of Legends tournament restricts LGBT players
A Filipino tournament for female League of Legends players has come under fire after issuing new rules restricting the number of LGBT players allowed per team. The organisers, Garena eSports – a subsidiary of the country’s internet platform provider and exclusive distributor of LoL in South-East Asia – made light …
Read More »Stephen Ellis: eSports union ‘may be necessary’
Scottish eSports player Stephen ‘Snoopeh’ Ellis has said that he envisages a time where a union for professional video game players may become a necessity. Ellis, who has played League of Legends professionally for four years, has admitted in a Reddit AMA that he has now retired and sees his …
Read More »Hearthstone hits 75m users with expansion scheduled for April, report claims
Blizzard will release the next expansion for Hearthstone in April, according to a new report. Yahoo Finance editor Tae Kim claims to have word from an Activision Blizzard employee that the card game has now passed 75m players worldwide and that its numbers “are off the charts”. As recently as …
Read More »Riot also working on dedicated European League of Legends network
League of Legends is to receive a dedicated European network, mirroring that planned for the US. Developer Riot revealed its American network plans earlier this month and has now confirmed that an EU project is also underway. The recent launch of an Amsterdam datacentre and changes to its Frankfurt datacentre …
Read More »Understanding eSports: A Brief History of eSports
For the first entry in our continuing coverage of the eSports market, MCV looks back at the growth of competitive gaming and sees where it could be headed in years to come Multiplayer gaming has come on leaps and bounds since the days of head-to-head face-offs on arcade cabinets. Events …
Read More »Dailymotion enters game streaming market, targets eSports
Video sharing site Dailymotion has become the latest company to branch out into live video game streaming. Dailymotion Games, in the words of its creators, “offers the gaming and electronic sports community a custom-built environment for viewing, sharing, uploading and streaming personal gaming and gaming competitions”. Streamers will get access …
Read More »COG Prime scoops $1.3m Smite World Championship win
The winners of the first ever Smite World Championships have been crowned, with American team COG Prime scooping the $1.3m prize. The US team bettered European rivals Titan in the final, although the losers still pocketed $522,452 thanks to the colossal $2.5m prize pool developer Hi-Rez Studios had previously raised …
Read More »US universities are offering League of Legends scholarships
The University of Pikeville in Kentucky is offering 20 scholarships for top League of Legends players this autumn. PC Gamer reports that Pikeville isn’t the first to offer this – Chicago institution Robert Morris did the same last year. An extensive college network, called the Collegiate StarLeague, is already established …
Read More »27m viewers watched the 2014 League of Legends final
Riot has revealed that 27m unique viewers streamed coverage of the League of Legends 2014 Finals. Over 100 hours of live content in 19 languages was broadcast by 40 partners throughout the event’s 15 days, racking up 288m cumulative daily unique page impressions and 179m hours of watched eSport. The …
Read More »