Publishing

The closest the video games industry has ever come to a real David-and-Goliath humdinger, Jane Cavanagh’s Britsoft baby SCi amazingly beat out the might of U2 loudmouth Bono’s cash when it bought fellow UK firm Eidos. Elevation Partners, run on Bono’s money and headed up by success-hungry John Riccitiello, had …

The US markets woke up with a bump on Monday, December 20th, when EA announced it has snaffled a 20 per cent stake in Gallic rival Ubisoft on the French exchange. The only block of voting shares still greater than EA’s was that held by the Guillemot family, who at …

Infogrames must still be kicking itself for this one. The French publisher let DMA go due to a complication with former GTA publisher BMG – and Take Two’s recently-formed Rockstar label was ready to pounce. The firm got in just in time to release Grand Theft Auto II, a well-received …

GAMEFEST 08: Epic's engine scrutinised by Gearbox, Chair Entertainment and Midway

But Traveller's Tales, Codemasters and Sora put up a fight

Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has called into question Don Mattrick’s claim that Xbox 360 will sell more than PS3 in this generation – predicting that Microsoft’s console will struggle to match the longevity of Sony’s flagship machine. When asked what he made of Xbox boss Mattrick’s claim, Hirai …

It was your idea to bring the 80GB into PAL territories now. Why? We wanted to make sure we continued offering the value proposition to consumers in the true fashion of PlayStation. We heard a lot of responses from consumers basically saying 40GB was nice, but with a lot of …

Don Mattrick and Kaz Hirai’s forthright opinions on how their respective brands have fared at this year’s show indicate both their unswerving passion for the business and how the annual industry jamboree in LA has retained its status as the show that everybody wants to ‘win’. But it’s equally clear …

The success of the industry-backed ESRB system in the US has proved that PEGI age ratings are the best way forward for the UK. That was the message from Entertainment Software Association boss Michael Gallagher at E3 last week as he put his weight behind the industry-backed age ratings system. …

As rumours mount about where jobs cuts will come in the wake of Activision’s ‘merger’ with Vivendi, CFO of the newly formed company Thomas Tippl has told MCV that Blizzard will remain untouched by the process. After confirming to MCV that the company faced job cuts last week, Tippl promised …