Game industry business news

Giant publisher Ubisoft has left its exclusive UK distribution deal with Trilogy Logistics, MCV can reveal – and is already delivering stock to retail through an open arrangement. Numerous trade sources have informed us that Ubisoft has struck an eleventh hour deal with Essex firm Gem to handle Christmas stock …

Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada is preparing his firm for the demise of physical media – and potentially the death of home consoles. In an exclusive interview with MCV that will be published next week, the CEO of the publisher – which now owns Eidos and is famous for its …

Topware Interactive has announced it will bring upcoming shooter Scivelation to the US. The publisher will release the title from Ukraine-based studio Black Wing Foundation on Xbox 360in Q3 2010. Scivelation is based on the upcoming Unreal Engine III, and it set in a dystopian future controlled by a government …

Publisher Activision has called its War Child/Modern Warfare 2 charity initiative the biggest the British games industry has ever seen. The firm has pledged to give away up to 250,000 to War Child, depending on the amount of Modern Warfare 2 gamers who are playing the game over Xbox Live …

Blue Ocean has released the first Wii and DS peripherals under the No Fear brand. The accessories division of Koch has signed a new deal that allows it to use imagery and logos from extreme sports label No Fear on its products, with the first items hitting shelves this month. …

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime claims 9 million female gamers regularly play on their Wii. He also estimated that this represents 80 per cent of the 11 million female ‘primary players’ around the world, according to Kotaku. During his presentation at BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference, he explained …

A brand new entry in the video games Star Games saga is set to be unveiled in a few weeks time at the Spike Video Game Awards 2009, according to the channel’s host Geoff Keighley via Twitter. Nothing more is known of the game as of yet, though the teaser …

Square Enix will make unavoidable” workforce cuts at Beautiful Game Studios, the outfit responsible for the Championship Manager series. It is unclear how severe the staff cuts will be, though Square Enix indicated that development of the Championship Manager series will continue. In a prepared statement, the publisher told Develop …

Square Enix Europeâ??s London studio restructured to 're-focus vision' for franchise

GAME, Xbox and Activision have joined forces for a special online charity event in support of War Child. Entitled GAME For Good, Activision wants as many gamers as possible to play Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live on Saturday December 5th and Sunday December 6th. The more gamers online, the …