Game industry business news

Recently acquired studio may be working on seminal PC franchise The Sims

There’s no way of knowing how far off the announcement of a successor to the Wii actually is, but new comments from Nintendo boss Saturo Iwata suggest that when the machine does arrive it will pack more than simply a high-definition upgrade. If asked if making the Wii compatible with …

As buzz builds for the upcoming BAFTA awards night

Japanese publisher Namco Bandai has reported a loss of 81.3m for the nine months ending December 31st 2009 – a sharp drop from the 62.3m profit it saw in the same period the year before. So bad were the results that Namco Bandai has confirmed that it is to shed …

EA’s FIFA 10 will take centre stage at a number of key Carphone Warehouse stores in two weeks time as the retailer kicks off its nationwide ‘Supreme Gamer’ tournament. 32 people from each of the supported areas (Manchester, Ipswich, Exeter, Cardiff, Salisbury, Oxford, Brighton and Hanley) will be selected from …

Namco Bandai will cut around ten per cent of its workforce in a bid to save the company $38m. Some 630 of its workers will be made redundant, the Tokyo-headquartered group said, as part of a wider measure to save the company an annual $88 million. To read the publisher’s …

Universal Pictures’ upcoming 3D animated movie Despicable Me is also heading to games consoles following news that D3P has snapped up the publishing rights. Despicable Me is the first film from new studio Illumination Entertainment. The worldwide agreement will see both console and handheld gaming tie-ins hit the North American …

Xbox 360 owners in Japan will soon be able to get their hands on a standalone version of the 250GB HDD – a peripheral only available in hardware bundles in the UK. Until now the 250GB HDD was only available as part of specific hardware bundles. Microsoft said last September …

MCV’s vital weekly retail digest, RetailBiz, is available to view online and download now. Sony’s ambitious online first-person shooter MAG has debuted at No.1 in the PlayStation 3 charts. Given its multiplayer only focus, the game’s success is a testament to how prolific online functionality has become in games. MAG …

Less than a month after fresh hints that Gran Turismo 5 was likely to miss its expected (but not confirmed) spring release window, Sony’s much anticipated racing simulator seems to slipping further away – increasing the prospect of a Christmas release. Speaking to GTPlanet, SCE Portugal CEO James Armstrong stated: …