Game industry business news

After admitting to a packed PlayStation Day audience that PS3’s first year was difficult , Hirai later told MCV that part of the problem was a lack of understanding from Sony’s third party partners. I think there was some confusion as to what PS3 was initially – some of the …

A new Somerfield store based in Surrey will carry a full range of games when it opens on June 11th, marking another big-name entrant to the interactive entertainment market. The move follows a deal with Woolworths and will see three Somerfield stores trial Woolies’ products in areas covering 3,000 sq …

A Conservative MP has claimed that laws preventing retailers supplying youngsters with violent video games are not strict enough – and said that they are ‘damaging children’. Tory MP David Ruffley claims to have ‘uncovered new research’ which shows that not a single retailer has received a caution for selling …

Electronic Arts has secured a loan of $1 billion to support its bid for Take Two, which is due to be concluded this Friday . In a form filed with the SEC, EA said that it had received a commitment for up to $1 billion in ‘senior unsecured term loan …

This week’s show in the Indigo Room at the O2 was, in many ways, similar to what we’ve seen at Tokyo Games Show and Leipzig; stylish, confident and packed full of real sales stats. No amount of fanboy blustering can argue with the installed bases revealed by Sony this week; …

With GTA IV smashing entertainment records to hit six million sales in its first week , it’s little surprise that the title has taken the top spot in all formats charts in Spain, Germany and Sweden. According to Next-gen.Biz, the PS3 version took the No.1 spot in Spain and Germany …

Dutch games advocate The NGLD Foundation had announced that Holland’s games industry had grown to be worth almost €1 billion. The body reported that, in the last year, the country’s games industry had exceeded the revenue of the movie industry for the first time. "The remarkable success of the Dutch …

Forget Microsoft and Nintendo – PS3’s content can take on movies, TV and the web in the battle for the wider entertainment space. That was the message from SCE president Kaz Hirai as he spoke to MCV at this week’s PlayStation Day, at which the platform holder revealed a string …

Casualgaming.biz reports that a patent has been filed by Apple for a device that appears to mimic the functionality of Nintendo’s Wii Remote. The patent reads: ‘The absolute x- and y-positions of [the] remote control can be used, for example, in video games to position a user’s character or to …

CasualGaming.biz reports that RealNetworks is planning to spin its casual games business into a separate company in a bid to maintain leadership in the space – and may even consider an IPO for the new venture. The news was announced last night as part of Real’s Q1 financials, in which …