Game industry business news

As was rumoured yesterday, Microsoft used its CES 2011 keynote to announce a brand new piece of Kinect functionality – Avatar Kinect. Using the camera, the software will translate users’ gestures into a virtual world populated by like-minded friends, and will also track their mouth movements and facial expressions when …

Innovative camera-based game Yoostar 2 has the potential to match the success of Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise. That’s according to former Red Octane and Activision exec Dave Noble, who was instrumental in launching the best-selling rhythm action series in the UK and Europe. Noble now works as vice president of …

Retailer HMV has vowed to do all it can to protect the jobs of those who will be affected by the 60 store closures announced yesterday. The company will close the outlets – which includes the closure of 20 Warterstones stores – by the end of the year. "We will …

The release of movie game Yoostar 2 – billed as ‘the next Guitar Hero’ – will be handled by Namco Bandai in the UK and Europe. The publisher won the distribution rights for the ambitious Move and Kinect title, which lets players act out scenes from popular films such as The Terminator …

British publisher Codemasters has confirmed that it has appointed Lunch as its retained lifestyle and specialist support PR agency. Lunch won through after a two-stage pitching process involving a number of agencies in which candidates had to present their ideas for leading 2011 titles such as Operation Flashpoint: Red River …

A seemingly lightweight report on the BBC linking motion camera Kinect to new instances of the ‘Red Ring of Death’ on some Xbox 360 consoles has been dismissed by Microsoft. The story claims that "console owners told the BBC that their machines crashed shortly after plugging in Kinect". Ten-year-old Adam …

At its CES 2011 keynote last night, platform holder Microsoft revealed that in its first 60 days on the market Xbox 360 motion camera Kinect has sold a very impressive 8m units worldwide. The device sold 1m units in its first ten days on sale and then went on to …

Harmonix’s acclaimed Kinect title Dance Central is sponsoring Sky 1’s Got To Dance. Microsoft signed an exclusive deal with the broadcaster that will see the game not only endorse the show, but also star in it. Studio audiences will be able to try out the game for themselves, strutting their …

Game showcase hoped will enlighten politicians

After news of a serious security lapse on PS3 emerged earlier today, sources are now claiming that the PSPgo is the latest Sony device to succumb to hackers. VG247 reports that hackers have successfully installed homebrew ISO loading software onto the machine from which games copied from UMD can be …