Publishing

LESSON FOUR: Profits come from secondary sources One part of the music industry remains highly profitable – music publishing. That is the business that owns the underlying copyrights and licences it out to films, commercials, video games and other media channels. They generate revenues from ringtones, radio play, in fact …

Electronics Arts will bring the fourth in its Fight Night series to Xbox 360 and PS3 next year. The title is being developed at EA Canada in Vancouver under the EA Sports brand and features some of the greatest boxers in history fighting in their prime – including Mike Tyson. …

President and CEO of THQ Brian Farrell has pointed the finger at Nintendo’s successful first party software for making the kids’ video games market extremely competitive”. In a Q4 earnings call with investors, Farrell cited Nintendo’s software success as a reason why THQ’s traditionally strong kids’ business did not meet …

THQ has announced a new addition to its WWE family of games as part of its full-year financial report. Legendsof Wrestlemania is due for release in March next year on next-gen formats. THQ CEO Brian Farrell told investors: Our new Legends game is scheduled to launch in conjunction with the …

Electronic Arts’ Casual Entertainment label VP Russell Arons has said that she disagrees with the idea that casual gaming needs to be for ‘everyone’ – stating that the genre can succeed by targeting niche audiences. Speaking to new MCV sister site CasualGaming.biz, Ms. Arons admitted that EA has tried to …

Silverlight-powered drag 'n' drop web software allows creation and sharing of casual games

THQ’s licensing partnership with Nickeolodeon has egenrated $1 billion in sales, the publisher has announced. Over 50 million Nickeoloedon games have been shifted under the THQ label, such as its Spongebob Squarepants games. "With the enormous popularity of Wii and DS coupled with our exceptionally diverse portfolio of Nickelodeon-based games, …

Infogrames has appointed Fabrice Hamaide as its new chief financial officer. Hamaide’s responsibilies include company finance, investor relations, financial communications, and legal and information technology functions. He will report directly to CEO David Gardner. Hamaide started his career in 1988 as a consultant for Ernst and Young, before working as …

Vivendi and Activision have both discontinued their membership with E3 organiser the Entertainment Software Association – the US equivalent of the UK’s ELSPA. The news comes after both firms – now one entity – confirmed that they would not be demonstrating their titles at this year’s E3. According to Joystiq, …

One Guardian commentator said that it would be ‘an act of cultural irresponsibility’ not to play GTA IV. Another in The Times termed it ‘the cultural event of the week’. While some media outlets still fall back on the tired old ‘outrage’ headlines, it is genuinely refreshing to see this …