Publishing

Activision’s current chief corporate officer and chief financial officer Thomas Tippl is to become the publisher’s chief operating officer, the company has announced. To facilitate the change he has resigned his position as COO, though he continues as CFO while Activision searches for a replacement. The official filing, as spotted …

A group of former Pandemic developers have laid into ex-employers EA via the description of their first ever solo title. Downsized Games, which officially opened its doors on March 10th, was founded by Manny Vega, Andrew Mournian, Zach Hefner and Ariel Tal, all of whom lost their jobs when EA …

Microsoft is to phase out both the 120GB Xbox 360 hard drive and its range of branded memory cards, the platform holder has revealed. Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb confirmed the news to Joystiq, saying that the channel is being drained” of both SKUs. The decision follows the confirmation that Microsoft …

The next firmware update for PS3, which will be released on April 1st, will remove the ability to install a third party operating system onto the console. The move is designed to dampen the ongoing efforts of pirates to hack into the currently secure machine. It’s thought that the decision …

Downsized Games joke of â??the dastardly JRâ?? and â??Elaborate Acquisitionsâ??

Gordon Bellamy named chairman of the International Game Developers Association

As was rumoured earlier this month, Microsoft is to release a firmware update that will allow Xbox 360 owners to use USB mass storage devices to store all manner of game information. Both flash cards and hard drives will be compatible, though the Xbox 360 will only utilise up to …

New numbers from ELSPA GfK Chart-Track show that EA was the number one UK publisher in February in both unit and value terms, claiming 14.4 per cent and 15.5 per cent of the total market respectively. Ben Parfitt spoke to EA’s UK sales director Rob Davey about its strong start …

Global online retail giant Amazon could be preparing to square up to both the leading figures in digital distribution and browser based gaming, according to a prediction from one analyst. Amazon postings indicate upgrades coming to video game site,” Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastian wrote. Our periodic checks of job postings …

Amidst the backdrop of the publisher’s admission that it is in future to be far stricter with its green-flagging of new IP, EA UK’s sales director has said that new franchise Dante’s Inferno has put in a solid performance”. However, in line with EA’s pledge to extend the value of …