Game industry business news

As was confirmed yesterday, EA has revealed a brand new free-to-play iteration of its Battlefield franchise. Unlike the existing Battlefield Heroes, which was a third person title with cartoon cel-shaded graphics, this new game sticks more rigidly to the current Battlefield formula. Though expect it to retain Heroes’ premium in-game …

A new survey has suggested the PS3 could be the best-selling console this Christmas. According to a study by online retailer Kelkoo and market research firm GameVision Europe, UK consumers are expected to buy 1.8 million new consoles by Christmas, driven by the launch of PlayStation Move and Kinect for …

Bethesda Softworks parent firm acquires Swedish studio Machinegames, it is said

Konami has posted financial results for its fiscal six months ending September 30th, with a year-on-year increase in profit of 87.8 per cent. Overall profits jumped to YEN 4.2bn (32m) from YEN 2.2bn (16.8m) which was generated at the same period last year. Net sales across all segments rose to …

Speaking to investors last night, publisher Activision tuned its attentions to the 2011 iteration of its Call of Duty franchise – which by the sounds of it promises to be something a little different. Strong demand and close to a decade of solid performance give us a confidence to continue …

Next week’s Call of Duty: Black Ops could set a new benchmark for entertainment launches if it goes one better than last year’s Modern Warfare 2 and once again shatters global entertainment records. In just a few days we’ll be launching the game that I currently can’t stop playing, that …

Square Enix has reported disappointing numbers of its second quarter ending September 30th 2010, with operating income plummeting from 13.091bn last year to 5.712bn this time out. Sales were down sharply, too, from 90.561bn in 2009 to just 68.056. The latter number was below expectations, though the former was actually …

Activision Blizzard has reported a net profit of $51 for the quarter ending September 30th 2010, up on the $15m it recorded in the same period the year before, Net revenue was up from $703m last year to $745m this time. Sales reached $397 – in 2009 that figure stood …

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 …