Game industry business news

COD XP: Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty Elite features full Facebook integration and will be accompanied at launch by a mobile app. At the publisher’s Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles, Infinity Ward’s creative strategist Robert Bowling and Sledgehammer Games co-founder revealed that dedicated apps are …

COD XP: Activision has finally lifted the lid on the premium membership to its new social networking service, Call of Duty Elite. During the company’s Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles, CEO Eric Hirshberg announced that a 12-month subscription will cost $49.99 – equating to roughly $5 per …

This weekend, Activision is hosting its first ever Call of Duty XP, an event dedicated to the community behind its flagship FPS franchise – and MCV is right in the middle of it. We’ll be reporting everything that happens here, from the expected multiplayer reveal and Call of Duty Elite …

We look at recent TV advertising activity for games and video games’ total share of all TV campaigns. Games and consoles TV advertising last week recovered from its lowest point year to date, recording 256 Men 16 to 34 TVRs. This is in line with 2010’s advertising pressure of 259 …

Germany has removed restrictions from Doom and Doom II after a ban on selling it to teenagers spanning 17 years. In 1994, Germany put it on an index of controlled titles, believing that it could harm youths due to its level of violence. The video game could only be bought …

The astonishing PlayStaion Network crisis that dominated the headlines earlier this year doesn’t seem to have dented the public appetite for PSN. Gamasutra reports that Sony CEO Howard Stringer told an audience at the IFA electronics show that since the restoration of the service in March an additional 3m users …

Remember that mysterious third person Call of Duty game? It now looks like it’s unlikely to ever see the light of day. The studio that was working on it, Sledgehammer Games, has confirmed that the project has been canned. And with Sledgehammer now one of the multiple studios working on …

It may not be making the social gaming strides many would expect, but it’s impossible argue that Activision’s digital strategy is not paying off. Speaking in an analyst day conference call yesterday, the publisher said that its digital revenues for the year ending June 2011 have hit $1.7bn. That’s a …

The Metropolitan Police arrested two suspects today for conspiring to commit offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. The arrests were made as part of an investigation with the FBI, South Yorkshire Police and other law enforcement bodies into hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec, and in particular the activities of …

Japanese publisher Square Enix wants to position its Canadian studio Eidos Montreal at the very centre of its game development operations, a new report claims. Its subsidiary Eidos Montreal could grow from about 350 staff to nearly 700 if a deal with state officials is agreed, according to local business …