Game industry business news

Awesome Games has negotiated an out of court settlement with Bethesda, following the accusation that the indie had sold stolen copies of Fallout 3. The Walthamstow-based independent admitted it had bought Fallout 3 from an unknown seller, believing it to be imported stock. However, the title had not been released, …

High Street giant Gamestation has vowed to slash prices in its biggest Easter marketing campaign to date. New releases and Nintendo DSi is set to benefit from the promotional activity, with up to 50 per cent off recently released software. And the retailer is confident the campaign will raise the …

Centresoft has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Nordic Games. The partnership will see Centresoft handle primary and secondary distribution for all of the publisher’s products. The deal initially covers Nordic Games’ launch titles Dance Party Pop Hits, Dance Party Club Hits, Kart Racer and Truck Racer. It is great …

GfK-ChartTrack has confirmed to MCV that DSi sold 92,000 copies at UK retail over its opening weekend. Dismissing premature reports that the console sold in excess of 100,000 units in the two days, the body said that the launch put the UK High Street in prime position” for Easter next …

'We've got the industry's best benefits package,' reckons head of HR

A global business analyst at Credit Suisse has claimed that the cost of manufacturing a Wii console has dropped by 45 per cent since the system launched in 2006. Furthermore, Kotaku reports that the analyst believes these drops will pave the way for a Wii price drop later this year …

Climax has been confirmed as developing a new Silent Hill game for Konami. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will hit PS2, PSP and Wii, and is pitched as a ‘reinvention’ of the first game in the series, originally developed in Japan. Series composer Akira Yamaoka has been confirmed as working on …

After 16 months of dominance by the Wii, and even at the times the Xbox 360, in the Japanese hardware charts Sony’s PS3 has finally bettered Nintendo’s Wii in the country’s monthly hardware charts. Reuters reports that March sales of Sony’s machine hit 146,948, way ahead of Wii’s 99,335 units …

French publisher Ubisoft has announced that Louise Marchant is to join its UK PR team as specialist PR manager. Marchant, who will report to Ubisoft’s PR manager Stefano Petrullo, comes from EA UK where she was involved with high-profile franchises such as Need for Speed, Rock Band and Burnout. We’re …

Nintendo’s DSi became the fourth fastest-selling console in UK history over its opening weekend, according to GfK-ChartTrack data. The handheld’s performance even eclipsed the debut sales numbers of the original DS – only being outdone by the opening weekends of PSP, PS3 and Wii. In unit terms, it outsold all …