Game industry business news

Enterbrain, the publisher behind Japanese games bible Famitsu and the leading authority on the Japanese games market, has released its 2008 report – and it shows that despite the gains seen in the UK , the Japanese market shrank by 15.3 per cent in 2008. The 2008 market value hit …

Publisher Eidos has lowered its full year forecasts following slow sales of its big 2008 release, Tomb Raider: Underworld. The firm now expects full year revenue to be between 160m-180m, down from the previous guidance of 180m-200m. As a result, the publisher admits that it may have to talk to …

Howard Stringer, the CEO of Sony, told the audience at the firm’s Consumer Electronics Show presentation in Las Vegas that the combined global userbase for its PS3 and PSP consoles now stands at 61.3 million. Edge Online also reports that SCE CEO Kaz Hirai added that $1m worth of virtual …

Virgin has put paid to any suggestion it will return to High Street retail, after Sir Richard Branson ‘inherited’ seven Zavvi stores this week. MCV can reveal that Branson still holds the leases on Zavvi’s flagship Tottenham Court Road store, the chain’s biggest store in Birmingham and five other retail …

EA is celebrating a dual Christmas triumph – after FIFA 09 took the official Christmas No.1 spot in the All Formats chart and sailed past two million UK sales. The title returned to the top of the GFK-ChartTrack/ELSPA All Formats Top 40 this week, following a post-Christmas sales jump – …

Independent MMO developer CCP has confirmed that the tenth free expansion for its globally popular MMO EVE Online will arrive on March 10th – the same day that Atari brings the first boxed iteration of the game to retail. EVE Online: Apocrypha sees a network of unstable wormholes open across …

SCEE has revealed that Bend Studios’ PSP FPS Resistance Retribution will be released in Europe on March 13th, VG247 reports. Retribution is the first foray for the series on PSP – indeed, it is the first time Sony’s brand has appeared on any format other than PS3. Unlike its console …

North American and global games retailer GameStop has posted some strong numbers for its festive sales period, showing that the company enjoyed its best ever performance for the nine weeks ending January 3rd. Sales for the firm totalled $2,856m, up 22.3 per cent from the $2,335m seen in the same …

Square Enix has announced a new partnership with Ubisoft Japan which will see the Final Fantasy publisher distributing Ubisoft titles exclusively in the territory. This arrangement is due to begin in April. The company’s president Yoichi Wada said: The global video game market is expected to maintain sustainable growth thanks …

Woolworths’ largest shareholder Ardeshir Naghshineh has called the demise of the retailer unnecessary”, and talked of his frustration over the collapse. Naghshineh has also talked of the terrible shame” of 30,000 people losing their jobs – as administrator Deloitte profits from the retailer’s downfall. He told Sky: "It seems a …