Game industry business news

Activision’s decision to introduce a part-premium online service for the next Call of Duty will cause a small number” of players to defect to EA’s rival shooter Battlefield 3. That’s the prediction of Michael Pachter who reckons that EA’s game is in line to smash previous sales records for the …

Sony Online Entertainment’s community relations director Linda Carlson has detailed the reasons behind the recently announced decision to call time on long-running MMO Star Wars: Galaxieslater this year. And amongst other things, the impending arrival of EA and BioWare’s MMO rival The Old Republic has been blamed. "It was time …

Levine admits no existing plan to work on Nintendo's next home console

There’s nothing to suggest it’s true. And as rumours go, MCV would put this in the hugely unlikely” pile. But nonetheless, reports have emerged overnight concerning a shock new direction for the Xbox brand. GameInformer reports that a persistent batch of rumours from the tech world” suggest that Windows 8 …

One of Australia’s newest developers, Uppercut Games, has announced its first title ‘Epoch’ for iPhone 3GS and iPad 1 and up. Epoch is an action-combat game which sees players taking control of a robot in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the focus is on cover-based shooting mechanics. The game will use …

Ahead of the publication of the June US video games market numbers, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has predicted big drops for every major format. We expect hardware sales of 325,000 Wii units (down 23 per cent year-on-year), 355,000 Xbox 360 units (down 21 per cent year-on-year), 240,000 PS3 units …

Take-Two’s other publishing label is trying its hand at everything from boxed blockbusters to MMOs for Asia. 2K boss Christoph Hartmann discusses the firm’s initiatives with Christopher Dring. MOTION SUPPORT 2K may be known for BioShock and Duke Nukem but the publisher is not just about the triple-A blockbusters. At …

In a surprise admission, the boss of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer has claimed that the platform holder has lost its way” with the smash hit Halo franchise. The statement comes as Bungie makes an emotional farewell to fans, having officially stepped away from the series that it helped make …

NPD’s Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report has revealed that the US games market is quickly approaching the point where new, boxed video games sales are no longer the primary sector. In Q1 2011 US consumers spent $2.03bn on boxed console and PC release. In the same period, however, they …

Michel Ancel is back, and explains to Develop how he's shaking things up with his new Rayman game