Game industry business news

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 …

Atari Inc has been delisted from the Nasdaq share rankings in the US. Nasdaq previously told the firm that it had to bring its market value up to $15 million or more for ten consecutive business days before March 20th this year – but the publisher was unable to meet …

A new television series aimed at gamers will begin airing in the UK this week on cable and satellite channel Bravo. Playr is topical weekly magazine programme which reviews new releases, reports from the major gaming events and previews the biggest games first. The series will also have two spin …

Media specialist Handle Recruitment is expanding into the games space, and is actively seeking new clients. Handle had previously focused on the film and music industries, but also boasts clients such as SCE and Rockstar – with plans to make further gains into the ‘booming’ video game space. We’re conscious …

Take Two has signed a deal with Universal to produce a film based on last year’s smash hit Bioshock, to be headed up by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski. According to Variety, Take-Two will receive a multi-million dollar advance, believed to be the biggest videogame-to-movie deal since 2005’s …

In an earnings call with investors following its most successful set of full-year financials ever, Activision has unveiled more details about the next instalment in the Call Of Duty series. The firm talked of a new ‘miliatary theatre’ and confirmed that the title would be released for 360, PS3, PC …