Game industry business news

Unrest amongst Vivendi developers ahead of Activision merger with possible project cull in the offing, says report

EA chief executive John Riccitiello has said that his employer can be Rockstar’s ‘white knight’ – suggesting that only a successful acquisition of Take Two can give the developer a secure future. However, leading analysts have condemned the statement, with Janco Partners’ Mike Hickey telling GameDaily.biz: My belief is Rockstar …

Viacom-owned MTV Networks’ kids brand Nickelodeon has big plans in the casual games space – head over to Develop for the full story.

Business technology site Digitimes is reporting that Asustek owned manufacturing firms Pegatron and Unihan have struck a deal with Microsoft to produce around 500,000 Xbox 360 consoles a month from its bases in China. Both bases are also OEM producers of Sony’s PS3. The news comes after Microsoft blamed its …

Critically-acclaimed Wii release No More Heroes has made it to fourth in the Wii charts, according to Chart Track. The result follows a concentrated PR campaign by publisher Rising Star Games and game designer, Suda51. The game, which received much acclaim from the specialist press, also made it into the …

Seemingly not content enough with the release of both Ceramic White and Satin Silver versions the PS3, Japanese weekly games magazine Famitsu reports that a new Steel version of Sony’s machine will arrive in conjunction of the release of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4. The game, which will be released …

"Our performance in 2007 was impressive from many perspectives. But what is particularly noteworthy is that 2007 was a transformative year with hardware sales setting records and the installed base of users reaching an all-time high. Likewise, the expanding demographic profile of the video game player has moved this business …

US specialist retail giant GameStop has reported sales and net earnings rises of 33 per cent and 82 per cent respectively, spurring on an ambitious target to open up to 600 new stores by the end of the year. The world’s largest games retailer reported reported sales and earnings for …

Official UK industry monitor ChartTrack has told MCV that Xbox 360 sales have risen 36 per cent since last Friday – when the platform holder sliced the ERP of the console to as little as 159.99. The rise came in a period where other hardware struggled – with only PS3 …

Atari’s UK managing director Jeremy Wigmore has told MCV that the company still has great faith in its boxed product business – despite all of the media speculation surrounding Phil Harrison ‘s new online project. Ever since their respective appointments at the firm, Harrison and new Infogrames CEO David Gardner …