Game industry business news

Eidos is no longer a British publisher – after Japanese giant Square Enix completed its takeover of the Tomb Raider label this afternoon. The Board of Eidos announced today that acquisition had been sanctioned in a Court Hearing. The firm’s shares will be suspended on the London Stock Exchange at …

TOTAL SOFTWARE BY COMPANY (UNITS) 1 Nintendo 13.92 Electronic Arts 12.63 Ubisoft 9.94 Activision Blizzard 8.55 Sega 6.16 Microsoft 5.37 THQ 4.78 Sony 4.69 Take 2 4.110 Capcom 3.3 Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii continue to sell by the bucketload, along with Professor Layton and Dr. Kawashima’s …

Warner Bros has confirmed that it will release LEGO Rock Band on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS this year. The game will come in two versions, with the home console iteration developed by TT Games and Harmonix. The DS SKU was created by the duo in tandem with Backbone …

Publisher EA has confirmed that Double Fine Productions’ upcoming Xbox 360 and PS3 outing Brutal Legend will be released in the UK on October 16th. The action adventure, which stars Jack Black, sees players assuming the role of rock roadie Eddie Riggs who, when knocked unconscious, emerges in a rock-themed …

Best Buy has said that it is looking at opening up as many as 30 stores in the UK, but warned that the date the first will open is still up in the air and may even further into 2010. Click here to see the fulls tory on PC Retail.

Long before Nintendo unleashed the DS and Wii, Sony was winning over a new type of family gamer with titles such as SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz – and that PS2 legacy will become a vital tool in Sony’s plans to take PS3 to the casual market, according to VG247. CasualGaming.biz …

The UK capital once again defied the wider economic downturn last month with a like-for-like sales climb of 5.1 per cent in March – in contrast, the UK as a whole saw like-for-likes drop 1.2 per cent compared to the same month in 2008. For the first quarter of 2009, …

The UK annual inflation measured by the Retail Prices Index has for the first time since 1960 today revealed that the UK economy is in a state of deflation – but video games remain one of the few categories increasing in price. The BBC reports that the RPI fell to …

We have all heard the tale by now. In its first month, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars sold a mere 90,000 units. That’s almost 2 percent of sales snagged by Grand Theft Auto IV its first week in stores. While analysts projected the title would sell as many as …

With the Xbox 360 having passed the one million unit sales barrier in Japan last month, Microsoft has announced a fresh offensive for its console in the Far East. At a press conference last night, the platform holder revealed that it’s going to hand out 1m Microsoft Points to Japanese …