Game industry business news

This year’s London Games Conference opened with a startling signal of how fast social game firm Zynga is growing. Heiko Hubertz, the CEO of international social firm Bigpoint, told a packed room of attendees that Zynga is a bigger company than the sum of five leading European equivalents. Gameforge, Jagex, …

It may be over a month and a half away, but HMV is already preparing to pull in extra customers in time for Christmas. The High Street and online retailer’s ‘Get Merry’ Christmas marketing campaign kicks off on November 5th, with in-store POS materials, posters, window creatives and bespoke carrier …

Retailer GAME will host the official UK launch event for Microsoft’s Kinect next Tuesday night (November 9th) at its Oxford Street store, it has been confirmed. On the night a special mystery guest will speak live to the audience via Kinect video chat. Over 300 GAME and GameStation stores will …

MCV can reveal that leading UK games retailer GAME will be selling Call of Duty: Black Ops on day one for 24.99. The price will be available to anyone who buys the game in conjunction with any other in-store chart title on either Xbox 360 or PS3. In addition, the …

Over 200 games professionals from around the world will descend on BAFTA later today for the second annual London Games Conference. Subtitled Survival and Profit in a Changing Industry, the event organised by MCV parent Intent Media features an impressive array of speakers and will examine the new frontiers of …

If you’re missing the London Games Conference later today, don’t dispair – MCV is providing an updated liveblog throughout the event, starting from 5pm.

With the long-awaited, much-delayed Gran Turismo 5 having missed its most recent release date and currently in the process of being pressed onto disc in time for a late-in-the-day pre-Christmas arrival, developer Polyphony Digital has made a shock admission. It has already started developing Gran Turismo 6. The confirmation was …

Though Microsoft’s long-term approach to Kinect will undoubtedly lead to a long tail for Kinect on the High Street, retailer GAME has told MCV that the new peripheral needs to be an instant success. Day one will be important,” trading director Adam Davis explained. How can it not be when …

GAME’s trading director Adam Davis tells MCV about how the High Street chain is driving pre-orders…What demand have you seen for Kinect so far?We have sold out of our initial allocation. Microsoft really got behind showcasing the product to our staff at our recent conference. This has helped drive awareness …

Kinect may be stealing all the headlines, but Sony has come out fighting with a 13m ad blitz to drive the PlayStation business in Q4. What’s more, the platform holder says it will have sold 250,000 Moves in the UK by the time Kinect hits the market – with half …