Game industry business news

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has given his verdict on whether EA will end up buying Take Two this week – and so long as the Rockstar parent is ‘reasonable’ he believes it’s likely to go ahead. EA’s $2 billion tender bid for Take Two is set to expire on Friday, …

The global president of MTV Networks’ digital division has predicted that EA and other established boxed video games publishers face a "huge challenge" in making serious money from free-to-play casual titles. Speaking to MCV sister site CasualGaming.biz, Salmi said that MTV had a huge advantage” over companies such as EA, …

Boss of Microsoft Games Studios Shane Kim has told CVG that Microsoft is confident the Xbox 360 will have a seven-year lifespan. That would mean the console continuing to thrive until 2012 – seven years after its first launch at Christmas 2005. Speaking at the Microsoft spring media summit in …

UK grocer Sainsbury’s has reported a particularly strong performance by games and technology during the Christmas trading period in its annual fiscal report – and pledged to up its non-food offering over the next two years. The company has also announced that half of all new in-store space built until …

Video game firm Sega’s parent, Sega Sammy Holdings, has reported a net loss of 52.47 billion Japanese Yen ($499 million) for the 12 months to March 31st, 2008. The figure compares unfavourably to the firm’s net income from FY 2006-2007 of 43.46 billion Yen ($413.4m). Revenue also dropped sharply – …

MMO specialist NCsoft has launched a series of ‘Starter Packs’ for its major franchises Guild Wars, City of Heroes/City of Villains and Lineage II, priced at 1.99. Each pack gives players 14 days of play time on each title to serve as an introduction to MMORPG gaming. Players who wish …

Sony expects to sell 10 million PS3 units in the next financial year. That’sonly slightly up from up from the 9.24 million the firm this morning announced it had shifted for the 12 months ending March 31st, 2008. PSP hardware sales – which led the way for the PlayStation family …

Global PS2 sales may have declined by over a million units in Sony’s last fiscal year , but the console was still the firm’s leading light in the 12 month period – selling over four million units more than successor PS3. Handheld PSP outsold the pair, clocking up 13.9 million …

Electronic Arts has revealed that it took 20 per cent of all software sales in Europe in the last year – and 19 per cent in the North America. The company said the success makes it the leader in the independent publisher sales chart on both sides of the Atlantic …

The full transcript of EA’s earnings calls following the announcement of its Q4 and full year fiscal results is available online now . In the discussion with investors, EA CEO John Riccitiello, CFO Eric Brown, COO John Pleasants and more top execs discuss subjects ranging from the firm’s fiscal outlook …