Game industry business news

Last night was cold. And wet. Yet such is the UK public’s lust for digital warfare that thousands took to the streets at midnight last night to be amongst the first to own Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The UK’s official launch event was held at GAME’s Oxford …

The UK’s leading games retailer GAME has said that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which is released worldwide today, is its most pre-ordered title ever. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the most popular game for pre-orders that Game and Gamestation have ever seen," GAME spokesperson Anne-Marie Mason …

Moledina joins new social startup

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Sony’s credit rating to A-, citing concerns over long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings. The likelihood of Sony’s weak earnings persisting has increased”, the ratings group said. There are no signs of a halt to the deterioration in the earnings …

Some lucky gamers are going to be given the chance to play Star Wars: The Old Republic as early as five days before its official release on December 20th. Those who have pre-ordered the PC title will shortly receive an Early Game Access code. Once redeemed it gives the customer …

Feargus Urquhart, the CEO of developer Obsidian, has criticised the use of the Online Pass in the industry’s battle against pre-owned video games. One of the recent issues is not putting the full game in the package and requiring downloadable content to move on. Also, including DLC in the package …

No signs that the company will come out of red soon, financial group claims

Warner Brothers has reduced its game development workforce across its Washington state studios, the company has confirmed. It is estimated that around sixty staff have been let go, though Warner would not confirm the number, nor which studio were affected. The firm’s Seattle-based development cluster includes three high-profile studios; Monolith …

The British Board of Film Classification has awarded Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 an 18 certificate and given it the green light without censoring its content. The certificate was granted for strong bloody battle violence”. WARNING: Potential very minor plot spoilers ahead Design features unearthed by the report include …

It may be one of Britain’s oldest and most reputable department stores, but John Lewis has been a poor games retailer. Our Mystery Shopper has reviewed John Lewis three times in the past 12 months, awarding scores of 1/10, 2/10 and N/A. The latter happened just last month in Stratford, …