Game industry business news

Soul Calibur IV set for July release

The highly anticipated Soul Calibur IV will arrive in the UK around the same as the US. The beat ‘em up, which features Star Wars characters for the first time, will appear on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in July. Earlier in the month Namco announced the game is to …

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Ubisoft opens studio in Ukraine

Ubisoft has announced plans to open its third studio in Eastern Europe, this time picking Kiev, Ukraine to host its next development office. Its the fifth new studio Ubisoft has opened in recent months, following new offices in China and India. Ubisoft said that it had now expanded to Kiev …

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Koch Media expands into US

Koch-owned multi-format publisher Deep Silver has today announced the opening of a new US office in Los Angeles. The office will serve as headquarters for sales and marketing activities, as well as North American developer relations. "The opening of our United States office represents an important milestone in the development …

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Analysts have underestimated GTA, says Take Two

Take Two CEO Ben Feder believes that analyst projections for sales of GTA IV don’t do the title’s retail potential justice. A ‘bullish’ Feder told Reuters: "Our expectations are very high, higher than analysts give the game credit for. All the analysts had a [sales] number, give or take, and …

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DSGi to introduce own age rating system

DSGi-owned electrical retailer Currys is planning to place its own age ratings on video games sold through its stores, according to Sky News . The chain wants to ‘establish a customer panel who will rate the games on how fun, suitable and challenging they are’. Sky reports that the sticky …

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EA co-founder quits publisher

EA chief creative officer and company co-founder William ‘Bing’ Gordon is to leave the company to join investment firm Kleiner Perkins. Gordon will keep some ties with Electronic Arts as its ‘Chief Creative Officer Emeritus’, and will "return to the company to lead periodic workshops on innovation with EA Studio …

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Microsoft slashes 360 price in Asia

Microsoft has cut the price of the Xbox 360 in four key Asian territories. The drop has been put into practice in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. According to Bloomberg, the price of a ‘basic version’ of the console (360 Arcade in Europe and the US) will drop …

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Blockbuster expands games offering in US

Blockbuster Entertainment is to expand its video games offering across all of its corporate-owned US stores. The American entertainment giant has confirmed that it will sell games and hardware for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s gaming platforms in its outlets. The expansion will also increase the amount of gaming software in …

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Which console is best for GTA IV?’

In MCV’s latest Mystery Shopper feature, field marketing experts Infinite check out stores in Edinburgh – and ask them the question the whole industry is wondering: ‘Which console is best for GTA IV?’ The firm checked out eight stores in total, and you can discover what they made of them …

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‘Which console is best for GTA IV?’ Pt. 2

HMV This store clearly had a recent refit or moved the gaming section, as we were greeted with a large sign which told us that the new gaming area was now downstairs, in an area which felt like an independent concession store within HMV. Like many others, the store assistant …

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