Game industry business news

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes GameStop made a big mistake by not buying Gamestation, according to videogaming247 . GameStop was expected to come in for the ex-Blockbuster owned chain, before GAME made a bid, and Pachter feels this has slowed GameStop’s move into Europe. GameStop always had the capacity …

Launching globally in 2009, The Sims 3 has shifted 98 million units worldwide since its beginnings in 2000. The new title will boast a seamless open-world environment, a huge number of storytelling options and a huge number of locations. EA is particularly pushing the new create-a-Sim interface, highly realistic personalities …

A report on Variety’s The Cut Scene Blog has suggested that there is unrest amongst Vivendi developers ahead of Activision merger – read the full story on Develop here.

HALO 3 Head of Gaming and Entertainment, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft UK, Stephen McGill, explains why the Halo 3 launch was such a success: There’s no doubt that our ground-breaking marketing campaign was a pivotal driver to the success of Halo 3. Expectations amongst consumers were extremely high, …

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 …