Game industry business news

PlayStation 4 was Google’s most-searched for gadget in the US this year. The Escapist points to Google’s updated top search charts, which show Sony’s new console on top of the search browser’s Tech Gadgets category. Microsoft’s Xbox One, conversely, failed to crack the category’s top 10. Interestingly, the PS4 comes …

Former EA Partners head David DeMartini has joined Oculus VR as head of worldwide publishing. The ex-Electronic Arts senior VP spoke with Gamasutra on the new position, explaining that what he’ll be focusing on for Oculus is similar to what he did with EA for seven years. "I’m figuring out …

Valve has released its latest top ten weekly sellers chart for Steam – with newcomer DayZ claiming the top spot from last week’s winner, Starbound. Starbound still finished in the runner-up spot, with Rust (last week’s runner-up) finishing third this time around. Steam’s end of 2013 sale also had an …

The film studio has decided to take down all of its Christmas videos from Amazon for the festive season. This not only affects those wanting to buy or rent films such as The Muppet Christmas Carol, but those who have already bought such content, too, who have seen it disappearing …

Rovio’s enraged avians are getting a Rio makeover to mark the launch of Rio 2. This is the second time that the Angry Birds series has partnered up with that of Rio, Angry Bird Rio came out to mark the release of the first film in 2011 and saw players …

Xbox Entertainment Studios has announced it will be debuting a documentary series about Atari on Microsoft’s consles next year. The series will tell the story of Atari’s reaction to the poor reception of ET The Video Game in 1983, which saw the company bury piles of the game in the …

The launch of PlayStation 4 has had a big impact on Vita sales, Sony says. Sales of the handheld jumped 68 per cent after the PS4 launched, and rose 65 per cent the week after. The publisher kicked off a new Vita campaign, which promotes the connectivity functionality between Vita …

After a slew of PS4 pricing announcements from third-party publishers, EA has now decided to lower its PS4 game prices in India, IVG is reporting. Having initially priced PS4 games for India at Rs 4,499, pricing is now being revised to Rs 3,999 to match first-party pricing. EA is expected …

No game will come close to beating Call of Duty: Ghosts for Christmas No.1, say leading betting agencies. Activision’s FPS is currently No.1 ahead of next week’s festive charts, but only beat FIFA 14 by a mere 600 units. Paddy Power, which has stopped taking bets, has Call of Duty: …

In this week’sissue of MCV, we look back at what has been a dramatic and eventful twelve months. In our Review of the Year, MCV examines eight crucial moments – from the demise of THQ to the launch of the next-gen consoles – and what those meant for the industry. …