Game industry business news

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 will be released on October 17th for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC – and comes complete with a fully-licensed UEFA Champions League mode, MCV can reveal. Konami has also fired a warning shot at rival EA, insisting that Pro Evolution Soccer is still far superior …

Big changes are afoot at NCsoft – the Korean-owned MMO firm has announced the formation of a new subsidiary which will take over the management of all its teams in the West. NC West will boast a brand new corporate structure and a new HQ in Seattle that will be …

Former GDC boss uses new-found freedom to air doubts over key industry trends

The Sun’s now infamous ‘Sex beast copied Grand Theft Auto’ article has become the most prominent story on the homepage of the newspaper’s website today . That would indicate that the article, which only appeared on page nine of today’s The Sun paper, has grown in popularity throughout the day. …

NCsoft is to close its European development team just a year after its founding. MCV sister site Develop understands that staff at the Brighton-based studio – which shares its offices with the NCsoft’s UK publishing, QA and MMO support teams – were notified on Monday night of the plans to …

Sony is set to capitalise on the popularity of ABBA musical movie Mamma Mia with an officially licensed SingStar game of the Swedish band. The title is due for release on PS3 and PS2 in Europe and the US this Christmas, and represents a ‘window of exclusivity for ABBA disc-based …

The biggest selling newspaper in the UK, The Sun, has printed perhaps its most shocking games-related headline yet: ‘SEX BEAST COPIED GRAND THEFT AUTO’. And, yes, it’s all capital letters. On page nine of today’s newspaper, the UK tabloid reports on the court case of Ryan Chinnery, 19, who yesterday …

1. Developers will become service providers The rise of MMOs, the popularity of downloadable extras, the longer shelf-life of games open to user-generated content, and the need to monetize pre-owned game sales will all change games companies’ relationship with their audience. The days of the fire-and-forget triple-A titles are numbered, …

Respected business publication Forbes Magazine has predicted that search engine giant Google may soon make a move into video games publishing. In an editorial entitled, ‘Will Google Play Games?’ (the full version of which you can read here) journalist Chris Morris writes: ‘Is Google as a videogame publisher within the …

Morrisons’ eyebrow-raising deals on video games this week could force prices down at GAME and start a ‘bloody war’ according to the national press. Games on offer at the supermarket include Mercenaries 2 on Xbox 360 for 25, Spore Creatures for just 12.99 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09 All …