Game industry business news

Never one to let the facts get in the way of putting the willies up its arthritic audience, The Daily Mail’s timeless front-page headline from August, 2004 still causes pale faces at ELSPA – as does the next day’s crusading follow-up of ‘Ban These Evil Games’. The ‘story’ referred to …

The Guy Game. What. An. Idea. How a dodgy quiz sim in which your reward was seeing some uncovered boobies didn’t reach GTA IV levels of hype is beyond us, but the mammary pedalling PS2 release, erm, didn’t. Not only that, but to add to its shame, it became embroiled …

Many of us have gone the extra mile for a bit of nookie, but this got ridiculous. The story goes something like this: Bright spark at Rockstar puts simulated, barely visible – and inaccessible – fellatio in the violent, profane GTA: San Andreas. Post-release, consumer geek works out how to …

A plot full of so many twists, backstabbing and arguments, it could well have ended up in Dynasty. As soon as Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 was wafted in front of hullabaloo-starved Wii reviewers, they loved it. Even kiddy-friendly GamesMaster called it: ‘Shocking for all the right reasons.’ The BBFC disagreed, refusing …

Another day, another screaming Daily Mail front page. Under the sensational headline ‘Slaughter’, the Mail reported on a Sony Greek launch party for God Of War II, in which a dead goat was used as a centrepiece. According to The Mail, guests were invited to pull cooked offal from inside …

Hilary Clinton? C’mon. The BBFC? Pah. Jack Thompson? Please. All of these industry enemies pale in comparison to the big cheese – Him upstairs. Sony faced the wrath of the Holy Ghost when it pinched an image of Manchester Cathedral for PS3 epic Resistance: Fall Of Man. The Church Of …

EA’s Casual Entertainment division has confirmed that the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been delayed until summer 2009 – following Warner Bros’ decision to move back the movie of the same name. To read the full story, visit MCV sister site CasualGaming.biz.

Data from Enterbrain, the publisher and analyst firm behind Japanese games bible and MCV media partner Famitsu, has shown that Japan’s games market in August was down 17 per cent compared to the same month last year. The decline was lead by a 29 per cent drop in hardware sales …

EA has cut the price of the full instrument edition of Rock Band – ahead of the game’s sequel’s release in September. The Instrument Edition of Rock Band will now retail for €139.99 in Europe and 109.99 in the United Kingdom on Xbox 360. The price will also apply to …

After a big hitting week of new releases last week , things are a little calmer this Friday, though there’s still something for owners of any of the next-gen consoles, as well as a couple of treats for portable console owners. The long-awaited PS3, Wii and PS2 versions of EA’s …