Game industry business news

Piracy in the PC games sector is in decline, according to the president of the PC Gaming Alliance. The shift to free-to-play models and supplemental content via download has lessened the value of pirated games copies, Matt Ployhar claims. "What’s happening is game design is shifting and as a result …

We’ve got a whiff of the next big thing in gaming – and it’s smell-o-vision. Scent Sciences Corporation has told MCV it will release the ‘innovative’ (and fragrant!) ScentScape device worldwide in Q4 this year. The machine is plugged into a PC via a USB port and contains 20 scent …

Europe is now Sega’s biggest boxed games market, thanks to the continued performance of Football Manager 2011. The management sim has now sold 690,000 units in Europe and the US across PSP and PC. Sega’s European chief Jurgen Post says the game’s success has helped Europe shift more games than …

Develop speaks to the men predicting the future of the video game sector

UK mobile firm operator O2 has revealed that it has obtained the exclusive rights to sell the white version of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play – the first ever PlayStation Certified mobile device. The confirmation came via O2’s Twitter feed. Until now the existence of a white SKU was unknown to …

BAFTA award-winning studio Plug-in offer some helpful advice on pitching and production

One of the key figures from the history of the Guitar Hero franchise has blamed Activision’s abuse of the brand as the reason for its downfall. It was brilliant,” said Kelly Sumner, the former CEO of Guitar Hero’s original publisher RedOctane and the man who oversaw Activision’s acquisition of the …

On February 9th at 9:30pm Activision announced its Guitar Hero series was going on indefinite hiatus. The news came as a shock, but was it really a surprise? Sales of Guitar Hero had collapsed. No longer the darling of UK retail, the series had become a nuisance, eating up precious …

Claims Microsoft and Google offered 'incredible' amounts of cash to secure deal

The owner of a leading independent chain has condemned the ongoing 3DS price war between the big UK games retailers. Tesco, Toys ‘R’ Us and Amazon are the latest retailers to cut their respective prices of the 3DS to around 197. Amazon originally listed the handheld console at 219.99. This …