Publishing

Reports suggest that Sony has made numerous staff cuts at the dev studio behind popular PSN title Pain – a game which saw more downloads than any other on the PlayStation Store by Nov 2007. Head over to Develop for the full story.

Viacom’s global kids entertainment network Nickelodeon has paid 5.9m to capture the worldwide rights to the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand from The Mirage Group. The firm has pledged to continue working with many of the Turtles’ existing licensing partners, though question marks remain over the long-term future of …

Publishing rights to Russian studio 4A Games’ long-in-the-works Metro 2033 have been bought by THQ. The publisher will release the game on 360 and PC next year. Metro 2033 is based on a best-selling Russian novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky and is built with 4A’s cutting edge proprietary engine. For the …

In news that isn’t all that surprising, Microsoft’s European creative director of Microsoft Game Studios Peter Molyneux has confirmed that Lionhead’s upcoming RPG Fable III will support the motion-sensing Natal camera. News first came from Gamesbrief’s Nicholas Lovell, who was in the audience at Molyneux’s BAFTA seminar last night. Seeing …

Many headlines on the internet this morning will lead you to believe that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed overnight plans to release an external Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360. Whether this is actually the case or not remains to be seen. The furore comes courtesy of an interview with Gizmodo. …

Anonymous source alleges that Sony has cut half the workforce at Idol Minds

Having seemingly got its business back on track after a tough spell spent adapting to the modern market conditions of the now iPhone-dominated mobile sector, Glu has won acclaim in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 listings. The firm ranked 129th in the report, which outlines the 500 fastest growing technology and …

Advertising and design agency Head First is looking ahead after celebrating its tenth birthday. The firm has re-designed its website to highlight the milestone and is even running a series of blogs around the number ten. And the company is now looking to grow its presence in front of the …

Troubled Australian studio shuts up shop; was working on unannounced LucasArts game

The CEO of Guitar Hero has confirmed to MCV that retailers can expect more disc-based releases for its music games in 2010. In an exclusive interview, Activision’s music game boss Dan Rosensweig said retailers can expect more Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Band Hero games next year – but perhaps …