Game industry business news

Free online games aggregator Kongregate says revenues from sales of virtual goods is increasing by 30 percent every month. The privately held firm won’t release actual revenues, but says the market for free-to-play can work with a virtual goods model. San Francisco-based Kongregate pulls together thousands of games from independents, …

On the same day that it’s long-awaited true successor was revealed, Japanese games bible Famitsu has confirmed that the DS has now sold in excess of 30m units in its homeland. In addition, the top three selling games for the formqt have also been named – New Super Mario Bros …

Have you recovered from the shock announcement of Nintendo’s 3DS this morning? Good, because one analyst believes that we should be preparing for the announcement of a further two new consoles in the near future. Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastian predicts that Sony will this spring announce a true successor to …

Blitz Games Studios CTO Andrew Oliver believes that Nintendo would be right to use parallax Barrier tech for its new handheld, the 3DS. Speaking to Develop, the industry veteran said he was very excited” that Nintendo is working on a new 3D handheld. It doesn’t matter about how the screen …

Co-founder of Blitz Games Studios says that screen-specific 3D tech is ideal for the 3DS

A standalone 250GB HDD for the Xbox 360 has been confirmed by Microsoft, despite the publisher previously saying the unit will only be available in console bundles. It will have an RRP of 79.99 when it goes on sale in the UK on April 16th. Microsoft confirmed the details after …

The first sketchy details surrounding the possible technology powering Nintendo’s 3DS have arrived courtesy of the Japanese press. Spotted by Engadget, Asahi claims that the device will indeed use the parallax barrier LCD screen technology from Sharp and not – as was suggested earlier – some sort of motion-sensing trickery. …

Games market analyst Colin Sebastian has claimed that Nintendo’s freshly confirmed 3DS could potentially threaten iPhone’s rise as a viable portable games machine With a differentiated 3D display, high quality games, and profitable business model for publishers, we believe the 3DS could help reduce the competitive threat from smartphones,” Sebastian …

A leading analyst has predicted that Nintendo’s 3DS can help usher in a new era of 3D gaming in a way that the expensive options being prepared by the likes of Sony and Microsoft cannot. 3D with no glasses has mass market potential,” Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastian noted. Following the …

A report filed by the House of Representatives’ clerk’s office in the US shows that trade body The Entertainment Software Association spent a whopping $1,208,000 on lobbying in Q4 2009. Spong reports that the number is up on 2008’s total lobbying spend of $980k. The ESA engaged officials on a …