Game industry business news

Ubisoft has announced that Shaun White Snowboarding and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV will hit retail on November 14th. Shaun White Snowboarding was a part of Nintendo’s E3 showcase in July, and will be released on Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2 and PC. The PS2 edition will arrive a little …

Nintendo will announce a new, updated version of its DS console at a press conference tomorrow morning, MCV has learnt. According to our impeccable source in Japan, Satoru Iwata will make the announcement at 5am UK time – as first predicted by MCV last month. Little is known about the …

The Carphone Warehouse has moved to dismiss reports that its stores will be selling video games consoles from today – whilst promising information on its new giant Best Buy outlets later this month. US retail goliath Best Buy announced a 1.1 billion investment in Carphone Warehouse in May this year, …

The world’s largest games retailer GameStop has made a major stride into the European marketplace with a shock deal to acquire French chain Micromania. The deal gives the US giant 332 stores in France, increasing GameStop’s European store count to 1,077. The transaction is worth approximately $700 million (€480m) and …

Will Wright has admitted that he designed Spore with purely casual gamers in mind – and that ‘hardcore’ players didn’t even get a look-in during testing. For the full story, visit MCV sister site CasualGaming.biz.

Momentum is growing behind rumours that Nintendo is preparing to unveil updates to both of its market leading consoles. Talk of a redesigned DS has been doing the rounds for quite some time, and the latest murmurings suggest that a new handheld boasting two touch screens, an integrated digital camera …

Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has unveiled the first details of his new project – and risked shocking his hardcore fanbase by revealing that it’s a family-friendly title. For the full story, visit MCV sister site CasualGaming.biz

Nearly a year after EA first announced its Command & Conquer themed FPS Tiberium , the US publisher has confirmed that the project has been cancelled – and it seems that some of the developers working on the game face the prospect of losing their jobs. An official EA statement …

Respected US business publication Forbes has reported that core gamers are being nudged aside” by the industry. In a piece entitled Requiem For The Hardcore, Forbes’ Chris Morris writes that ‘publishers began to realise they didn’t need hardcore buzz’ in 2002, when The Sims surpassed Myst to become the biggest-selling …

You’ve reported a successful first year. What has been the biggest challenge during the re-brand? The first challenge was the speed in which we had to re-brand the business. We did about 112 stores in a two-and-a-half week period. But what has perhaps been the biggest challenge is taking over …