Game industry business news

It’s a big hit with legitimate shoppers, but it seems that the new Wolfenstein was popular with pirates, too. TorrentFreak reports that Wolfenstein: The New Order was in its first week downloaded via BitTorrent in excess of 100,000 times, making it the largest torrent of any type for the week. …

Nintendo’s Wii U has outsold the PlayStation 4 this week in Japan according to sales data provided by Famitsu. The Wii U has been close behind Sony’s consoles for the last few weeks and this week overtook the PS4 by 1,471 units. The bigger surprise was that the change comes …

Valve has delayed the launch of its Steam Machines and controller until 2015. We’re now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playtests, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual gamers,”read a statement. It’s generating a ton of useful feedback, and it means we’ll be able to …

EA has added for option for users to pay for in-game Battlepack enhancements with real cash. Battlepacks, which will continue to also be available via gameplay, offer a range of assorted perks such as XP boosts, weapons, profile pictures, paints and accessories. Now however users will be able to choose …

Work on haptic controller pushes back launch date

Is Nintendo going to finally give us a ‘proper’ reveal of the new Legend of Zelda game on Wii U at E3 next month? It’s impossible to say, but tweets from Zelda Williams – daughter of Robin Williams, who named her after Nintendo’s popular IP – point to something Zelda …

Limitations HAVE been imposed on book publisher Hachette on Amazon, the retailer has admitted. It was reported yesterday that Amazon had removed pre-order buttons, increased prices and extended delivery times on the publisher’s products in an attempt to exert pressure in a contract dispute. We are currently buying less (print) …

EA has officially announced the next game in its Battlefield series. As rumoured yesterday, it’s called Battlefield Hardline. It’s out this autumn and is set against the backdrop of a genre we all love – the war on crime and the battle between cops and criminals”. It’s a change of …

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has dismissed any suggestion that he wants to sell off the Xbox business. "I have no intent to do anything different with Xbox than we are doing today," he told interviewers at the Code Conference in California, as reported by The Verge, adding that his stance …

Nintendo has announced a new affiliate program for YouTube streamers. Almost exactly a year ago the platform holder was criticised for its content ID match claim strategy that allegedly robbed video creators of revenue. This new policy, Kotaku reports, will split ad revenues between YouTube, Nintendo and video creators. However, …