Game industry business news

Mad Catz has announced a new partnership with Nintendo of America to produce officially licensed accessories for the company’s various platforms. Under the new agreement, the peripherals vendors will be able to develop and market a range of products for Wii, DS and DSi. These will then be distributed throughout …

Nintendo is preparing one of its biggest marketing campaigns of 2009 for Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box, which it is confident will also increase sales of the original title in the series. A heavyweight TV campaign that will air in two bursts is the main focus. Firstly, ads will run …

A new study from SquareTrade claims that the Nintendo Wii is by far and away the most reliable console in the current generation of machine – and Xbox 360 is unsurprisingly named as the most prone to failure. The report, named Game Console Failure Rates, claims that just 2.7 per …

As suggested by MCV yesterday, Microsoft has replicated its recent moves in both Europe and the US by dropping the price of Xbox 360 hardware in Japan. And, like in North America, the platform holder has not increased the price of its Arcade SKU – a move that seems to …

UK publisher Codemasters has chosen not to renew its deal to operate MMO ArchLord in the West – though the game will not be closing with Webzen stepping in to take control of the service. A Codemasters statement on the ArchLord forum reads: Our licence for ArchLord is due to …

Natal dev kits are installed across Take-Two’s entire fleet of subsidiary studios, according to the publisher’s CEO. Take-Two chief Ben Feder confirmed in last night’s financial call that numerous studios are working with Microsoft’s new interface. Obviously can’t comment on games that we haven’t announced but those [Natal] dev kits …

Brabenâ??s studio returns to digital distribution for its upcoming title

Those hoping for some news about Rockstar’s plans for the inevitable Grand Theft Auto V will find no solace in Take-Two’s recent financial statement, with chairman Strauss Zelnick stating in quite emphatic terms that the game is still a long way off. We’re not going to announce it,” he proclaimed …

Rockstar has released the first trailer for upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV DLC The Ballad of Gay Tony – scroll down to watch it right here. As part of Take-Two’s financial postings last night, creative director Dan Houser explained that the firm has chosen to bring its GTA IV expansion …

Developers may no longer be bound to 1280x720 resolution