Game industry business news

More than 250m users have signed up for Bigpoint’s free-to-play PC browser games in the ten years it has been producing them. The online games giant now has over 1,000 game portals across social networks and media sites. Plus, a quarter of a million new players are drawn to its …

Channel 4 has harnessed the Sims 3 engine to power its new online drama played out by virtual actors. The new show, called SuperMe, is set within a fictional English town, and tells the story of four lead characters living in a shared house and follows them through their triumphs …

Technology exec Mark DeLoura parts ways with struggling publisher

All Bungie-developed Halo games will have their online data handed over to Microsoft’s 343 studio on March 31st. 343 Industries will be responsible for game stats, player service records, hosting user-generated content and operating the in-game ‘Pro Service’ moving forwards. This also means things like Halo Reach’s daily challenges and …

Online retailer Amazon has warned that it may well post a loss for its current financial quarter. This is despite a 35 per cent leap in revenues for the quarter ending December 31st, which hit $17.43bn. Despite this net income, fell 70 per cent from $416m in 2010 to $117m. …

EA was forced to shut down its forums yesterday due to a hacker attack. The intruder defaced” the forum’s front page, though it is not believed that any personal data was accessed or lost. EA thinks it has identified and repaired the vulnerability that permitted the actions and the forums …

Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma has suddenly become a lot more interesting to a number of consumers – it will include access to the first playable demo for Resident Evil 6. All copies of the game, which itself is made by the creators of Resident Evil 4 and Devil may Cry 4, …

Sony has at long last confirmed the rumours of Kaz Hirai’s appointment as president and CEO of the company. The change will take effect as of April 1st 2012. Current chairman, CEO and president Sir Howard Stringer will assume the role of chairman of the board of directors in June. …

US retail has, as expected, confirmed that buying a game digitally for the PlayStation Vita will be cheaper than buying a physical version of the same title. This price disparity is already established in Japan and will, in all likelihood, also be the case when the handheld arrives in the …

The deadline for sending in your nominations for this year’s MCV Industry Excellence Awards is this week. That means you only have until Friday to highlight the work done by your colleagues, suppliers, customers, or even a rival, for their biggest achievements of the past year. And don’t forget to …