Game industry business news

Intellectual Property is the bedrock of any creative industry, yet many companies fail to appreciate its value, and so underestimate the need to protect their IP rights. Consider one of the world’s top brands, Coca-Cola. If given the choice by some modern-day genie conjured from a vigorously rubbed Coke can, …

President of Atari parent Infogrames Phil Harrison has suggested that Alone In The Dark will be the publisher’s last ever single-player game. Harrison and Infogrames CEO David Gardner have both previously made allusions to a future based on ‘social’ gaming – and of Atari becoming leaders in the online gaming …

Fancy yourself as the games industry’s very own Wayne Rooney? Then it’s time to get your team together for this year’s MCV and Xbox 360 Games 5s tournament. MCV can reveal that the ninth annual five-a-side competition will take place on Friday August 1st, with team registrations open on June …

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association has instructed its members to ignore any request from the BBFC to change the current age ratings process. The UK industry representative has requested that leading publishers hold fire on implementing any changes to classification of their games until the Government has officially …

Microsoft has rebooted its Xbox Live Arcade strategy, with a number of changes on the way intended to improve the service – although it’s not yet clear how welcome to the moves third-party developers will be. On a Q&A with Next-Gen.biz, Microsoft’s Marc Whitten has revealed that as well as …

But unpopular games get the boot as file size and price limits rise, while Microsft opens new first-party team for XBLA titles

After John Terry’s heartbreaking slip-up in last night’s Champions League final, it looks as though Chelsea Manager Avram Grant will soon be scouting for a job outside of the cosy surroundings of SW11. Your boss might not be as unforgiving as Roman Abramovich, but that doesn’t mean that now isn’t …

Ubisoft has announced full year profits of €109.8 million ($173 million) – a 63.12 per cent jump from the €40.5 million posted a year earlier. As previously announced on MCV, sales for the 12 months to March 31st, sales topped $1bn – up 36 per cent to €928.3 million ($1.45 …

Multiplayer games specialist Splash Damage has signed a long-term development partnership with Bethesda. The London-based studio will develop a brand-new game for the publisher, best known for the internally-developed Oblivion title for Xbox 360, and which recently expanded its operations into both Europe and Japan. Splash Damage is best known …

UK association warns that raising the cost of employing freelancers could hurt development