Game industry business news

The PlayStation brand could branch out to tablet devices and smartphones in the future. That’s according to Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai, who dropped heavy hints that the firm will bring the PlayStation Network to other Sony devices. During his keynote at CES 2011, he said: Strategy encompasses driving …

Tesco has formed a specific Board to help boost sales for its UK operations The new team is being set up ahead of the arrival of the firm’s new Chief Executive, Philip Clarke. Laura Wade-Gery has been named commercial director for non-food items, namely clothing, electronics and general merchandise. She …

MCV’s Recommended Extra dedicated to Mario Sports Mix and Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is now available to read online. You can flick through the pages or download the whole thing as a PDF. As well as everything you need to know about the making and marketing of the …

Sony has vowed to defeat the renewed surge of people breaking through the security measures built into the PS3. Having successfully breached the console last year, hacker George Hotz has shared his knowledge with the public earlier this week, enabling the creation of custom firmware. Sony has traditionally been quiet …

The key to winning the war of handheld devices isn’t by lowering the price of games, but by providing ‘great content’. That’s the view of Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime after being asked by CNET how the firm can compete with cheap and free games available on the iPhone …

VC-funded social media firm Flock the latest Zynga firm

The Lord of the Rings Online MMO is making three times as much money since adopting a free-to-play subscription model, the game’s developer has claimed. Massachusetts-based studio Turbine incorporated free-to-play subscriptions in its MMO series last year, though still offers two additional subscriptions – standard and premium – at a …

Andriasang has got hold of Enterbrain’s annual Japanese video games market report, and it reveals another year of decline in the region. In total the market shrunk by nine per cent year-on-year in the last 12 months arching a total value of Y494bn (3.8bn). Hardware suffered the steepest decline, falling …

Sonyâ??s sloppy secret shows promise

Having enjoyed a very strong Christmas, Ubisoft’s Michael Jackson: The Experience has now sold over 2m units across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. There’s more to come from the game too, with a Japanese release incoming and an April release for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions …