Game industry business news

Threat to close the Dirt 2 studio was revealed to be an HMRC error

A Game Of The Year edition of Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum is currently in production. The title’s existence was revealed by a BBFC listing, which classifies Batman: Arkham Asylum – Game Of The Year edition for release in the UK. According to the listing, the game was passed with no …

PS3’s 1.35m unit sales in North America in December – an 87 per cent year-on-year increase – saw the console finish 2009 by enjoying its best ever month in territory, leaving Sony celebrating what it is calling a turning point in the machine’s fortunes. 4.3m PS3s were sold throughout the …

The good times are back at Nintendo with the platform holder expressing its delight at smashing two hardware records in NPD’s December and 2009 North American video games market report. Wii’s 3.8m unit sales in December smashes the old single-month record while the DS and DSi combined sold 11.2m units …

Platform holder Microsoft has hailed what it describes as a breakthrough year” for Xbox 360 in North America through 2009. $4.8bn was spent on Xbox 360 hardware throughout the year with $1.1bn spent coming from December’s sales. Software sales value for the year hit $2.7m. Microsoft went on to claim …

Much like its dominance in the hardware sector, Nintendo has also emerged as the big victor in 2009’s American software charts according to the latest data from NPD – though Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 emerged as the year’s most popular title. In doing so MW2 becomes the …

After what may well be looked upon as a troubled year by its own standards, Nintendo has emerged from 2009 buoyant thanks to news of record-breaking performances from the Wii and DS in North America. In December alone Wii sold an astonishing 3.8m units – just 400k short of the …

The North American video game market was worth $20.2bn in 2009 – an eight per cent decline compared to 2008’s $21.4bn. However, the figures were eased by a record-breaking December performance that was four per cent up on the same month a year before. The only sector to see an …

More sponsors have thrown their weight behind this year’s MCV Awards. Rising online retailer The Hut Group is official partner of the Games Publisher award, while peripherals specialists AntiGrav is sponsoring the new Peripherals & Accessories Brand award. I’m really pleased that The Hut Group are sponsoring best Games Publisher …

John Riccitiello’s job at the helm of global games publisher could be under threat if the latest talk from US market analysts is to be believed. Earlier this week EA was forced to cut its financial forecasts for the second year in succession, leading investors to question the strategy being …