Game industry business news

Square Enix’s Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen will hit Europe and other PAL territories in September – with a firm release date for the US of September 16th. The publisher has also announced the other two games in the ‘Zenithia Trilogy’ – Dragon Quest V: Hand of the …

Nintendo has claimed that the typical Wii gamer is as far removed from ‘casual’ as it gets – an adult male with an income of $50,000 or more a year. At the Electronic Gaming Summit in Napa, California, Nintendo of America’s executive VP of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway told …

Growing consumer games portal Videogamer.com, formerly known as Pro-G, has launched a brand new online games show – which the site says is aimed to appeal specifically to the British sense of humour. The first episode of The Videogamer.com Show features reviews of current chart-topper Grand Theft Auto IV, Iron …

MCV is this week rolling out the UK games industry’s first ever dedicated online retail forum and High Street news and information resource. The new Retail Biz section of MCVUK.com is now live and offers a trade-only forum where retailers and other interested members of the games industry can talk …

Director of Electronic Arts Timothy Mott has announced his intention to retire from the company. Mott will officially leave EA after the Company’s 2008 Annual Meeting of Stockholders on July 31st. Mott has served on the company’s Board of Directors since 1990. Previously, he was a co-founder and senior VP …

CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello purchased almost $1 million of the company’s stock on Tuesday – a day after the firm announced it had extended its bid for Take Two. In total, Riccitiello bought $967,000 in stock, or 20,000 shares, at a per-share average of $48.37. The transaction marks …

Ahead of the game’s release on May 30th, UK developer Codemasters will broadcast the premier of their advert for Race Driver: GRID to a predicted audience of 19 million, shortly before the Champions League Final kicks off this evening. Hayley Holland, UK marketing manager for Codemasters, said: It’s an amazing …

Ahead of the publisher’s quarter century in the business (in June), Capcom has posted strong financial results for the year ending March 31st 2008. Net sales for the firm hit 83 billion Japanese Yen (approx $803m), up 11.5 per cent year-on-year, while net profit increased by a whopping 33 per …

A Rock Band TV ad starring Xbox 360 community members is to be premiered tonight during ITV’s Champions League final coverage – kicking off a sustained marketing campaign for the game. The commercial was put together by renowned agency McCann Erickson, and stars around 350 Xbox gamers, as well as …

We’ve recently had a huge week for the industry with the release of Wii Fit and GTA IV. Has it been the biggest week in gaming history? It’s certainly helped give us a huge spike in sales during what are normally the quieter summer months. I can’t say that it’s …