Game industry business news

Everyone MCV spoke to about Valve and its towering digital distribution system Steam has been massively positive about it. At first, that is. Admiration and awe is always followed by bitterness, jealousy and, above all, frustration.Steam, simply, is just much, much better than everyone else. Being brilliant tends to attract …

Supermarket behemoth Tesco has now rolled out its pre-owned games service to all of its Extra stores.That’s nearly 200 shops across the UK. However, although all Extras will be accepting trade-ins, pre-owned games will only be available to buy in 150 of the firm’s larger outlets. We are continuing to …

Anger over trade-ins is on the rise again, as retailers turn to pre-owned to drive sales this Christmas. The expected price war over Call of Duty: Black Ops did not materialise this week, and instead High Street stores were encouraging consumers to trade games in to get the FPS for …

The Nintendo Wii has become the fastest selling console in Australia, claiming a two million installed base in 47 months. According to IGN, the previous record holder was Nintendo’s DS which sold the same amount of hardware in 52 months. The Nintendo Wii is available as a black sku in …

Capcom is confident that Marvel Vs Capcom 3 will notch up some two million sales worldwide when it arrives in the Spring. According to the Japanese firm’s recent financial presentation, it also expects Monster Hunter Freedom 3 to sell through around 3.6 million units in Japan on its release next …

MTV Games parent Viacom says it doesn’ttheexpertise needed tocreate big-budget, successful console games. The company, which bought Harmonix for $175m and is now looking to sell them, says the ‘console game business requires an expertise and scale that we do not have.’ Viacom has revealed it will be focusing on …

Rock Band developer Harmonix is still hard at work on Rock Band 3 and Dance Central despite uncertainty over its future. Owner Viacom announced this afternoon that it is looking to sell the acclaimed Boston-based studio. Harmonix is now referred to as a ‘discontinued operation,’ but its owner has offered …

Wii Music 2 could be on the cards despite the Wii original not meeting Nintendo’s expectations when it arrived two years ago. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has said that Nintendo is working on a new interface for Wii Music, and mentioned that Mario himself could make an appearance. In an …

Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment has lost the licence for Stargate –which could spell the end for its MMO Stargate Worlds. The company was issued a notice of termination by licence owners MGM Studios last week, according to Nerdvana. The game was originally announced in 2006 but very little has been seen …

Enlightening MIGS speech as Scott Jon Siegel aims to change perceptions