Game industry business news

The Irish arm of HMV has been closed for good. All 16 of HMV’s Irish stores had supposedly been closed temporarily following the chain’s descent into receivership, but the company has confirmed that it has failed to find a buyer and that none of the stores will re-open. "Since his …

A third instalment in the Batman: Arkham series will be released this financial year. The low-key confirmation comes from Warner’s CFO and chief administrative officer John Martin, who told investors last week that: We also have a strong games release this year, which will include the next release in the …

Apple’s iOS development platform has seen revenues increase four-fold over the past 12 months, Japanese gaming content and platform provider GREE has said. The company’s senior vice president of studio operations Anil Dharni claimed that the growing use of the iPad as a gaming device was wone of the key …

Nintendo has made good on its promise to broaden its digital software offer by making Namco Bandai’s Tank! Tank! Tank! Free to play. The game has failed to perform commercially, not least because of the critical mauling that saw it win a Metacritic average of just 45 per cent. Gamers …

Specialist retailer Game4u will hold a midnight launch for Crysis 3 at stores in Mumbai and Gurgaon. The game is scheduled for release on 22nd February – that’s just ten days away – and Game4u will open its doors 30 minutes before midnight. The midnight launch will be conducted at …

Warren Mills will leave Google for a role at mobile commerce firm Weve at the end of the month. Mills was Google’s industry manager for entertainment. At Weve, which is a joint venture between mobile operators EE, Vodafone and O2, he will assume the role of entertainment partnerships manager and …

Wildman crowdfunding campaign stopped with only 50 per cent of target goal achieved

Members of the GMB union will tomorrow (Feb 13th) stage a number of demonstrations across nine of Amazon’s UK depots. Retail Week reports that the dispute concerns staff wages, which are 6.20 an hour – one penny above the UK minimum wage. Disquiet about the pay rates has intensified since …

Xbox Live grows to 46 million subscribers as users clock up 18 billion hours of entertainment in 2012

New company to focus on creating interactive content and live event programming