Game industry business news

Last week’s Gamescom 2011 was an unprecedented success. In total 275,000 visitors attended the trade and consumer video games show, beating all previous records for the event and bettering 2010 by eight per cent. 557 companies spanning 39 countries were in attendance, with 257 exhibitors. Over 5,000 media reps were …

Consumers hoping to see an Xbox 360 price cut to counter the recent drops on PS3 look to be in for some disappointing news. When asked by VG247 if Microsoft is preparing a hardware price drop of its own, European interactive entertainment VP Chris Lewis responded: No. As you can …

Distinguished Sony panel discusses wild technologies, once unimaginable possibilities, and oncoming obstacles

Sales of PS3 hardware have enjoyed a significant spike in the UK following the machine’s price cut. A reliable retail source has told MCV that Sony’s machine saw a sales increase of nearly 65 per cent week-on-week following the decision to cut the RRP of the base model to just …

Its long development cycle may give the impression of fraught relationships behind the scenes, but developer Gearbox has got nothing but praise for 20th Century Fox. The studio is currently hard at work on tense shooter title Aliens: Colonial Marine. And speaking to GameSpot, Gearbox’s chief creative officer Brian Martel …

What an achievement. 505 Games’ Zumba Fitness has this week claimed its tenth successive UK No.1. It’s the games 13th time atop of the UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 40. However, the chances of Zumba claiming its 14th No.1 next week are less enticing, what with the upcoming arrival …

Just last week Activision’s Eric Hirshberg called out EA for trash talking the Call of Duty series. Can you imagine the head of Dreamworks animation coming out with a new movie and going to the press and saying that he wants Toy Story to ‘rot from the core’?”, the exec …

Freeplay 2011, the independent games festival held annual in Melbourne, has drawn to a successful close and plans are afoot for Freeplay 2012. The festival ran from Wednesday 17th to Sunday 21st August, and played host to hands-on time with various titles, speeches from leading local developers, panel discussions, workshops …

THQ has announced the Australian and New Zealand retailers for its Saints Row: The Third ‘Maximum Pleasure’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’ editions. JB HiFi will be carrying the ‘Maximum Pleasure Edition’, which will feature the game, a Professor Genki stuntman key-ring, hyper-replica head and a banner pen, and will retail for …

In MCV’s latest rundown of the industry’s hottest vacancies and latest personnel news, Warner is looking for a new sales manager, THQ’s John Aikins heads to Sony and GAME hires a Knight. NEW SALES JOB AT WARNERWarner Bros Interactive Entertainment is hiring a new manager of sales analysis for the …