Game industry business news

THQ is set to close its Japan publishing arm at the end of this month, according to reports. These suggest the decision was made to close the office after the recent well-documented financial troubles of its parent company, based in North America. THQ recently axed 240 staff, with CEO Brian …

Circulation figures for the UK’s specialist games mags fell across the board, according to the latest figures from audit bureau ABC. Future’s NGamer – recently rebranded to Nintendo Gamer – and Imagine’s Play suffered the worst declines, losing more than a quarter of their readership compared to the same period …

Sweden has the largest games market in the Nordic region, and as a result a strong presence from the world’s biggest games companies. It also has an impressive development community, home to the likes of Battlefield studio EA DICE, Just Cause creators Avalanche Studios and The Darkness dev Starbreeze. But …

The High Street may be having a tough time, but the UK games market is still incredibly healthy, MCV research shows today. For the first time, we can reveal the true value of the UK games market, showing that consumers spent over 3bn on their hobby in 2011. It’s proof …

Early criticism of digital platform has died down as publisher looks to add social layers to storefront, says EA COO

Club Penguin. Runescape. Moshi Monsters. These digital franchises generate a significant chunk of their revenue on the High Street – not only through merchandise but also through pre-paid content cards. These can contain anything from points and currency to subscriptions and codes for full download titles.You’ll find them in almost …

Wallace and Gromit creators Aardaman has developed exclusive episodes of Shaun the Sheep for Nintendo 3DS. One of 15 clips will be made available to view via Nintendo Video, with the first one going live from March 7th. The content is in full 3D and can be downloaded via an …

The arrival of several big new releases wasn’t enough to help grow the market week-on-week, with the UK games retail market value falling 14 per cent to 12.7m. Unit sales also dropped 12 per cent to 535,578 for the week ending February 11th. EA’s fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning …

Final Fantasy XIII-2 debuted at No.1 when it hit shelves earlier this month, but what makes the series so successful? GameVision asked 6,737 gamers about Final Fantasy. 1,076 had played an entry in the series during the last six months; 354 of these told us about their experience in more …

Eurogamer Expo has signed Virgin Media as its headline sponsor. The broadband specialists will be showing off its services at the event, while current Virgin Media customers will have access to discounted tickets and early access to the event. Virgin Media will also get a year-long presence across Eurogamer’s network …