Game industry business news

Microsoft would never dream of exiting the PC games space. That’s the message from European Xbox boss Chris Lewis, following the announcements of Microsoft Flight and Age of Empires Online at Gamescom. Early last year, Microsoft closed PC developers Ensemble (creators of Age of Empires) and ACES (the studio behind …

Microsoft has offered a fresh look at exactly how Lionhead’s unique Kinect demo has progressed. It’s the first time we’ve had chance to look at a real gameplay demonstration of the title since its dramatic unveiling at last year’s E3. A year ago I showed this off at a computer …

SCEE joins a growing list of studios heading to Scotland in the wake of the Realtime Worlds meltdown

The PS3 is facing a new piracy scare. Engadget reports that a new USB modchip claims to allow users to ‘dump’ game code onto a storage device (such as a USB stick or the PS3’s internal HDD). These can then be played without the use of the original disc. Though …

Gran Turismo 5 will be released in the UK on November 3rd. There’s no way it can slip. No way at all. But let’s not count our chickens until it’s actually in the wild and sitting on retail shelves. Let’s certainly not utter mention of GranTurismo 6. Although that’s exactly …

There’s a good chance our top story is going to ruffle some feathers. But a list that ranks the top ten UK online games media – yes, including us, and yes, including all the competition – is long overdue. Of course, it’s little wonder why there hasn’t been one yet. …

Consumer press readerships are fast migrating online – but who is doing the best in the UK? MCV can this week answer that question with the specialist games press’ first online ranking. Using ComScore data obtained by MCV, we’ve ranked the top ten UK sites covering video games. The full …

IGN has announced the creation of IGN Germany. The site will be published from IGN’s office in Cologne and led by new editor-in-chief Fabian Kaeufer. A team of German writers will produce quality editorial dedicated to the new site’s home market. We’ve built this site from the ground up for …

Yesterday MCV asked ‘Where is the PSP2?‘. The answer appears to be that it’s in the hands of a number of key developers as Sony readies itself for a 2011 launch. That’s according to Eurogamer which claims to have word from three separate development sources. They say it’s comparable in …

Take-Two has defended Mafia II against backlash over the game’s portrayal of Italian-Americans. UNICO National, one of the largest Italian-American service organisations in the US, called the game a pile of racist nonsense” and has demanded the game be withheld from release. The organisation’s president Andre DiMino wrote a letter …