Game industry business news

It has been revealed that none other than the late Michael Jackson was involved in the creation of the soundtrack for Sega’s classic 16-bit console platformer Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The admission comes from composer Brad Buxer in an interview with Black & White, as spotted by Spong. I’ve never …

Sony’s handheld ‘for the digital lifestyle’ will die out if its downloadable software keeps to UMD prices, according to Traveller’s Tales director Jon Burton. I’m betting on Sony making PSPgo games much cheaper than the UMD versions, or the PSPgo will die,” he told Develop. He went on to describe …

Five and a half years since it first hit European retail shelves, Sony has confirmed that total worldwide sales of its SingStar series have now passed the 20m units barrier. The news comes as a number of new features go live for owners of the PS3 version, including a range …

Search engine leader Google has published its Zeitgeist 2009 report – which lists the Top Ten searches in North America across a number of popular entertainment sectors over the last year – and Atari’s Ghostbusters has emerged as the winner. Google’s report is compiled from the billions of queries people …

Travellerâ??s Talesâ?? Jon Burton foresees the end of physical media for games

Nintendo’s Wii has become the fastest-selling home console in the history of the UK, surpassing six million sales after just three years on the market. According to GfK-ChartTrack upweighted data, the console hit the milestone in week 48 this year – exactly two years and 51 weeks after it went …

The UK games industry has slashed a third off its Q4 marketing spend for this year – as the economic slowdown wounds the trade in its most crucial period. MCV estimates show that 2009’s Q4 figure is over 30 per cent down compared to last year’s astronomical 139m total rate …

Publisher EA has, as revealed by MCV early last month, announced that its next Medal of Honor title will ditch the series’ traditional WWII theme in favour of a contemporary setting – more specifically, Afghanistan. Simply called Medal of Honor, the game, which is being seen as a re-set for …

The Hut product director Gian Luzio has left the retailer after less than a year. Luzio joined the firm following a successful stint at Play.com, where he helped grow the firm’s video games range. The Hut CEO Matthew Moulding stated: Gian made a positive impact on the business during the …

Total Disc Repair is to ramp up awareness for its disc cleaning machines with an in-store marketing campaign. The firm will release posters, counter boards, flyers, t-shirts, mugs and floor displays into independent retail, and have also created two consumer websites. The first site, playlikenew.com, promotes the benefits of disc …