Game industry business news

Activision has announced that a new iteration of its classic Pifall franchise will be released on Wii in the autumn. Pitfall: The Big Adventure is in development at Activision studio Edge of Reality. Pitfall is one of the most legendary franchises in the history of videogames, so we look forward …

A recent report by New York’s Centre for an Urban Future has said the core games industry is badly represented in the Big Apple – but adds that the city it is one of the leading clusters in North America when it comes to casual games. The report, called Getting …

'Unique' games could be developed locally and released globally for 360 says Bill Gates

We ran a story a couple of weeks back about your increasing focus on western markets – how do you plan to do this? Do you think licensed products is a key element of this? We will decide this on an ongoing basis. Ultimately, the games we produce must be …

Rockstar’s GTA IV has retained the top spot in the ChartTrack/ELSPA All Formats Chart for a second week – despite a massive 77 per cent drop in sales. The record-breaking title still managed to outsell Nintendo’s Wii Fit – which held onto second spot – by 4-to-1 in the week. …

Eidos has hired Roy Meredith as its first general manager of the Championship Manager franchise – and he’s promising to lift the franchise out of the doldrums”. Meredith joins from EA, where he has spent the last two years as global marketing director of the firm’s studios. Before that, he …

The president of leading portal Big Fish Games Jeremy Lewis has told MCV sister site Casualgaming.biz that his firm isn’t worried by the likes of EA, Activision and Midway upping their game in the online casual market. Speaking as part of a wider interview, Lewis said that investment from established …

This week’s MCV letters page presents a potential solution to the age-old problem of rogue retailers breaking street dates – but what’s your view? We want your thoughts on Comet buyer Debbie O’Neill’s letter below, and your opinion on how to stop retailers selling early. Mail us here or post …

EA is to buy gaming social network Rupture for $30 million, according to TechCrunch . As reported on MCV sister site Develop last week, Rupture was formed by former Napster founder Shawn Fanning, and produced a social network for World of Warcraft players that never left beta. The company had …

MCV’s sister site PC Retail reports that the chief executive of the mammoth electronics specialist has gone on record to speak about Best Buy’s plans in the UK, with a possible bid for DSGi and Comet among the options. Head over to PCR’s site for the full story.