Game industry business news

Blizzard has told MCV that the development of a new game for consoles remains a possibility. The company’s recent successes have been very much PC focused, with titles such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft II thrusting the studio into the limelight. It has in the past developed titles for …

Publisher EA has announced that rockers Linkin Park will be the headline act on the soundtrack for Q4 first person shooter Medal of Honor when it’s released later this year. Their track entitled The Catalyst features in a brand new trailer for the game which will debut on August 1st …

Award-winning creative group Preloaded keen on networking through the association

Dutch publisher and developer Playlogic has finally filed for bankruptcy after a torrid year that has seen it slip deeper and deeper into trouble. The firm admitted as long ago as August 2009 that its long-term prospects were looking shaky, stating that its circumstances raise uncertainties about the company’s ability …

Casual games publisher PopCap has confirmed that it will be ditching its use of a zombie character resembling Michael Jackson from future versions of the popular tower defence game Plants vs Zombies. Pop legend Michael Jackson passed away a little over a year ago, and now the Jackson Estate has …

Disney will acquire social games giant Playdom for a fee that could rise to $763.2 million. The deal, which was rumoured last week, involves an initial payment of $563.2 million, with a further $200 million dependent on performance. The news comes weeks after Disney swooped for iPhone music game pioneer …

Though the price GameStop paid for casual games portal giant Kongregate wasn’t divulged as part of the surprise announcement of the acquisition earlier today, one analyst has had a stab at guessing the figure. We view the acquisition of Kongregate as a slight positive for GameStop,” Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter …

Publishers must find a way to monetize sales of pre-owned software if developers are to maintain their ability to expand the potential of games – that’s the warning of Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens. In terms of traditional publishing, the maturing formats have shown rapid decline and portable markets have been …

In January 2010, UK games execs told MCV they were hopeful of a positive start to the New Year. And it was easy to see why: publishers had pushed their big Q4 2009 titles into 2010, and we had a mammoth release slate of blockbuster titles – including BioShock 2, …

There is no new Bond movie on the horizon, but Activision says it can help plug the gap with two blockbuster Christmas releases. The 23rd Bond movie was postponed indefinitely in April due to uncertainty over the future of film company MGM. But that hasn’t derailed Activision’s plans for the …