Game industry business news

American publisherâ??s five-year interest in French rival comes to an end

Comments from Yoichi Wada suggest that Square Enix may take a different approach to developing future Final Fantasy games. Speaking to Gamasutra, the publisher’s president acknowledged that while Final Fantasy XIII was a commercial success – it has sold five million copies worldwide – the game caused division among both …

Kotaku is carrying what it claims is the final boxart for Activision’s upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops. In what’s a big departure for the series, the understated cover depicts a shadowy special ops soldier carrying two pistols, one of which is etched with the name ‘Sally’ and eight tally …

The likes of EA, Sony and Take-Two had plenty of reasons to cheer. Traditional game sales are actually on the increase. And gamers, your customers, have been spoilt by a great line-up of titles, from Heavy Rain to Super Mario Galaxy 2, BioShock 2 to Red Dead Redemption. In fact, …

Apple’s first attempt to address the iPhone 4’s reception problems is here with news that the iOS 4.1 firmware update is now live and ready to download. As previously explained, the ‘fix’ takes the remarkable step of enlarging the bars used to display signal strength. It does not, however, seem …

Croydon-based Creative Distribution has revealed plans to publish games with its first title, Real Heroes: Firefighter, due out this September. The firm has previously focused on distributing games across Europe, but has been eyeing the publishing market for several months. Creative Distribution’s new business manager Kevin Young told MCV: Publishing …

Industry legend to serve as â??skills championâ?? for the video games sector

Ubisoft wants 30 per cent market share on 3DS when the platform hits retail, the publisher has told MCV. Speaking at the recent Ubisoft Summer Fair event, UK sales director Darren Bowen said the firm expects to account for a significant portion of sales when Nintendo’s highly anticipated handheld is …

For all the doom and gloom, the six months’ figures for the UK games industry weren’t all bad news. The likes of EA, Sony and Take-Two had plenty of reasons to cheer. Traditional game sales are actually on the increase. And gamers, your customers, have been spoilt by a great …

The value of the UK games hardware market for year-to-date is 2010 has dropped a disappointing 32 per cent compared to 2009, representing a total value loss of 122m. Mirroring what was seen in the US, portables were the biggest offender thanks to a 40 per cent decline. Home consoles …