Game industry business news

In truth, had Sony have increased the price of PS3 and Square Enix decided to sell Final Fantasy XIII for 100 it would still have sold millions – but Sony’s PS3 price reduction is still good news for FFXIII, the game’s producer has said. Now that the hardware is becoming …

A Swedish Court yesterday successfully ordered notorious BitTorrent portal The Pirate Bay be shut down – only for it to re-open, fully operational, today. The Court ordered that The Pirate Bay be disconnected, with the site’s ISP Black Internet threatened with a fine of $70,600 if it didn’t terminate the …

Game Player is offering its fellow indies the chance to boost revenues by unlocking mobile phones. The retailer is selling the necessary equipment that enables stores to open phones to accept any network, and also provides full technical support for a monthly fee. The margin is 100 per cent,” said …

Guitar Hero 5 will be released in the UK on September 11th. The game will be available as software only or bundled with a guitar controller. It will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PS2. Activision Blizzard revealed the release date for its highly anticipated follow-up to Guitar …

The loophole that allows retailers to legally sell adult games and videos to children won’t be fixed until December at the earliest, the Government has admitted to MCV. As reported this morning, the 1984 Video Recordings Act is no longer enforceable by law – as a result of the Conservative …

The advantages to developing in Scotland uncovered

Looking at the monthly results since the first quarter 2007 two factors become apparent from the chart below: one is that sell-through pretty much stagnated in the first three quarters of each year and that the predominant portion of the annual growth was concentrated in the fourth quarter. The second …

Eidos has called the new age ratings ‘loophole’ an "opportunity for the industry to show how responsible it is". A Government blunder discovered today means retailers caught profiting from selling adult games to kids face no legal penalty. Eidos life president Ian Livingstone told MCV: "I think the Government’s blunder …

The GAME Group has told MCV that it is committed to current age classification symbols – and will stick to its policy of preventing inappropriate material being sold to children. HMV has joined GAME in committing to the current ‘law’. The firm’s comments come after today’s news that a loophole …

Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has told MCV that he is sure retailers and publishers won’t take advantage of today’s news of a Video Recordings Act loophole – as the video games industry has been self-regulating for decades. Cousens added that certain MPs who had said unhelpful things about the video …