Game industry business news

But let’s not pussy foot around: Change4Life’s advertising campaign makes a mockery of everything the industry has achieved in the last decade. And it’s bang out of order. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have all moved Heaven and Earth to provide a more socially embedded and (whisper it) healthy interactive experience …

The Government’s Change4Life campaign upped the ante in drawing spurious links between games and premature death this week. The British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research have all lent their name to a new print campaign (pictured here), which shows a gamer risking an early grave by ‘doing nothing’. …

The 200th edition of Edge magazine hits newsagents next week, and boasts a world first: the magazine will be issued with 200 collectors’ covers. The variants include game icons such as Mario, Sonic and Master Chief, alongside forgotten legends such as Dizzy, Q-Bert and Dirk the Daring. Subscribers will receive …

The Swedish prosecution of the owners of BitTorrent site Pirate Bay has ended with the site’s defence lawyers arguing that the four accused cannot be held accountable for the conduct of the website’s users. It is not proved that Fredrik Neij has earned any money, just that the Pirate Bay’s …

The official game of The Beatles’ music will be released on September 9th, following an agreement between Apple Corps, MTV and Harmonix. The Beatles: Rock Band will release simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories. In the US, the game …

Just days after it emerged that the North American arm of Toys R Us is dipping its toes in the pre-owned waters , Amazon.com has announced a new scheme that allows gamers to trade in their old titles. The system works by proving a quote for any given title via …

MCV has been lucky enough to be given a ‘guided tour’ of Nintendo’s new DSi – and we’ve kindly printed it on MCVuk.com for your reading pleasure. Retail can look forward to showing customers a model with better sound, improved internet functions and motion-sensing abilities – as well as that …

A new study entitled Play Safe, Play Smart from Microsoft has claimed that 94 per cent of UK parents feel personally responsible” for checking the age ratings on the games played by their kids. In addition, the report says that 73 per cent of UK parents are aware of parental …

Gamespot reckons it is the UK’s biggest games site – and has ABCe figures to back up the claim. An ABC Electronic audit from December 2008 has shown a significant increase in monthly unique users, the site’s parent CBS Interactive has revealed to MCV. GameSpot’s readership has risen from 3.5 …

MP Keith Vaz, an outspoken critic of mature video games, has once again raised the issue in parliament, pressing deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman in yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions. In a survey published last week, 74 per cent of parents said that they were very concerned about the increasing level …