Game industry business news

Steam is offering its users the chance to buy every THQ title currently on the service for 26. The deal, spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun, is one of many seasonal deals the digital distributor is running in the build-up to Christmas. The pack includes all games, sequels and expansions from …

Future Publishing’s full year profits dropped 61 per cent in the 12 months to September 30th – with CEO Stevie Spring admitting the US division of the firm suffering a difficult” year. However, it was better news for the UK office of the company, which Spring said had out-performed the …

Sega’s biggest ever marketing campaign, for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, has kicked up a gear in the build up to Christmas. The firm has sponsored the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with a branded ice rink and a game sampling area – with a total of …

The Metreon Center at 4th and Mission in downtown San Francisco is a lonesome place, a retail ghost-town, murmuring with the spooky semi-silence of our ruined economy. Mostly, it’s empty and gray, echoing the endless moan of a trundling escalator, shifting dwindling numbers of movie-goers to a fourth floor cinema. …

Seattle-based startup studio Undead Labs has revealed its new zombie MMO game for consoles will almost certainly” employ subscription charges. And according to the studio’s founder Jeff Strain, Sony and Microsoft are keen on the idea. There are still hurdles to jump with both Sony and Microsoft. But people will …

MCV’s Recommended Extra dedicated to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is now available to read online. You can flick through the pages or download the whole thing as a PDF. As well as everything you need to know about the making and marketing of the games, there’s a …

In a surprising – and arguably illegal – move Finnish mobile giant Nokia has chosen to highlight the emulation functionality of its N900 smartphone on its Nokia Conversation blog. The promotional video, which can be seen here, shows a dedicated emulation menu sporting buttons for the likes of the Game …

As well as rapidly easing past the half-billion dollar revenue milestone just days after its global release earlier this month, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter has predicted that Activision could generate as much as $140m in revenue from its upcoming Modern Warfare 2 digital content. Furthermore, Infinity Ward’s community man …

The importance of reviews aggregators such as Metacritic may be overstated, according to Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz, who claims that of the eight metrics measured review scores emerged as the least influential. Instead, the study found that word-of-mouth was by far the most effective driver of consumer purchases. We …

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 …