Game industry business news

Apple posted unexpectedly successful quarterly results yesterday in the face of tight economic times. Net profit had reached $1.21bn during the quarter; a notable rise from the $1.05bn attained in the same three-month period last year. Sales were also uncharacteristically up for a sector looking down, jumping 8.7 per cent …

Games industry group Tiga has slammed the Labour government for failing again to back one of the principal creative industries of the future.” In his Budget speech, delivered on Wednesday in the House of Commons, Alistair Darling failed to materialise any of the promises that Tiga was looking for. Speaking …

Stylised 2D action platformer Muramasa: The Demon Blade will be published by Ignition in North America this September. Muramasa is developed by Vanillaware, and its unique visuals stem from the fact that the whole thing is hand drawn. It has already been dubbed by many in the specialist press as …

EA is flaunting the popularity of its online game services by announcing that its Sports label has clocked 500m online games since June last year. EA says that an average of 2.2 million online games have been played each day since June; when the publisher first started releasing its 2009 …

Nintendo has launched a major new advertising campaign designed to encourage UK Wii owners to use the console’s online services. The eight-week promotion comes under the tagline ‘Get it online’, and shows mainstream gamers how to connect their Wi-Fi-enabled console to the internet. The promotion has been seen as a …

Amazon took its second big stride into the digital console content market earlier today with the introduction of WiiWare code sales through its US portal – but Nintendo has told CasualGaming.biz that it has no plans to bring the offer to the UK. Read the full story here.

Ambitious new UK studio looks to beat Nintendo at its own game with new peripheral-based lifestyle games

A daring and contentious budget speech by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling was punctuated with an interesting promise: the UK economy is set to grow at the start of next year. Speaking in the Commons, Darling said that GDP will grow 1.25 per cent by 2010 and climb …

500 million online games since June last year, as FIFA and NFL each clock over 2.4 million registered users

Value retail chain Poundland has today announced that it has purchased 12 ex-Woolworths stores. One hundred former Woolies staff have been taken on by the firm following the buy, which forms part of Poundland’s planned expansion. The retailer is committed to opening at least 30 new stores in the UK …