Game industry business news

LucasArts has denied previous reports that it will be completely closing its games development studio. The new comes just hours after Shacknews reported that ‘reliable sources’ had confirmed LucasArts would fire a further 100 staff after letting 75-100 staff go last week. Talking to Joystiq, LucasArts rep Margaret Grohne said: …

Take Two subsidiary 2K Games has announced that a new addition to the Sid Meier’s Civilization series will be released this autumn. Civilization IV: Colonization will be released on PC for Games for Windows and is currently in development at long-term Civ studio Firaxis Games. The title is based on …

Steve Jobs unveiled the 3G iPhone (or iPhone 3G as it’s officially called) at this year’s WWDC event last night, citing the technology as the product’s next challenge. Apple’s top 22 markets (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, …

Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off key games for Apple’s iPhone at the company’s WWDC event last night. Developers from Sega, Digital Legends, eBay, Loopt and others were on hand to show off what content they had created, from enterprise apps to entertainment, using the iPhone SDK – which Jobs …

US video games publisher Atari Inc has appointed Tim Flynn as senior VP of sales. The new position is effective immediately, and Flynn will report to CEO and President, Jim Wilson. Flynn has more than 30 years of sales and retail experience in the video game and technology industries with …

Device lands on July 11th; games by Sega and co. once again displayed

Historically something of a dry spell for the games market, the summer period has seen a number of publishers over the past couple of years enjoy sizzling sales thanks to the timely roll-out of key titles during the release drought. But this summer the temperature has risen further, as triple-A …

Ubisoft is perfectly placed to snatch Take Two from under EA’s nose in a shock merger – and may well have a very keen eye on the publisher’s sports portfolio. That’s according to respected business bible Forbes, which today fingered the French firm as a possible contender to EA in …

Nintendo’s Wii Fit has failed to register a position in ChartTrack/ELSPA’s official All Formats Top 40 chart for the third week in a row . The culprit for the below par performance looks certain to be severe lack of stock – something High Street retailers have continually contacted MCV to …

LucasArts’ Lego Indiana Jones has become the first game in six weeks to outsell Rockstar’s GTA IV, according to official ChartTrack/ELSPA data. The game replaces GTA IV at the top of the All Formats chart, having outsold it by three-to-one over the past week. Sales of the title are split …