Game industry business news

Next generation system months away from release across key territories

Nordic Games has won a publishing deal for Remedy Entertainment’s critically acclaimed Alan Wake. The company will bring the boxed PC version of the title to UK retail this March, which has been tweaked and redeveloped specifically for the platform.The PC SKU will include both DLC episodes – The Signal …

Blaze will release its new gaming handheld GameGadget in the UK on March 30th. Positioned as an iPod-style device for gamers, it allows gamers to download games from a variety of publishers and developers, including a range of legally purchaseable retro games. GameGadget also allows independent and homebrew developers to …

Substantial 3DS discount builds momentum but pulls profits

British publisher Rising Star Games has opened an office in the US. Rising Star Games Inc is based in California and will release its first title – shooter Akai Katana – on Xbox 360 in Q2 2012. The firm has also opened Rising Star Games Digital, which will handle downloadable …

Reports this morning – which it must be said remain totally unsubstantiated – claim that the Next Xbox could incorporate a new technology that blocks the use of pre-owned games on the console. The gravity of this news, if true, would have industry-wide ramifications. The fallout for retail would be …

Nintendo’s next generation hardware will be roughly twice as powerful as Microsoft’s current system, the Xbox 360, according to a studio source speaking to sister site Develop. While twice the power of an Xbox 360 is broadly above market expectations, Develop’s source claimed this is in fact less than some …

Lifetime sales of Nintendo’s 3DS have now hit 15m. The handheld has reached that goal faster than either the DS or the Wii, but has still clearly lagged behind Nintendo’s own expectations, with the company lowering all of its full-year forecasts. Total 3DS software sales hit 28.04m units. As for …

Having previously predicted that it would post a small profit for the year ending March 31st, Nintendo has now said it expects to make a loss following a poor 2011. An operating loss of 45,000m is the new forecasts, down from a 1,000m profit. Nintendo made an operating income of …

Barely a day passes now without some sort of fresh claim about the Next Xbox, but today’s are arguably some of the juiciest so far. Kotaku has word of two claims. One, that the new machine will include Blu-ray disc technology. And two – it will implement some sort of …