Publishing

British publisher Rising Star Games has opened an office in the US. Rising Star Games Inc is based in California and will release its first title – shooter Akai Katana – on Xbox 360 in Q2 2012. The firm has also opened Rising Star Games Digital, which will handle downloadable …

Next-gen system far outperforms current expectations, Develop source claims

We’re used to publishers broadening their reach and distancing themselves from the core, but a new strategic shift from THQ is seeing it do the opposite. The firm has confirmed its intention to exit its relationships” with licensed kids entertainment IP holders. THQ’s back-catalogue of recent years features some of …

Electronic Arts has brought several new third party partners onboard for its digital distribution service, Origin. A total of 11 independent game publishers will be bringing their games to the platform, including Robot Entertainment, CD Projekt Red, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, inXile Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Core …

Steel Media has announced that Kristan Reed has taken on the role of editor-in-chief for Pocket Gamer. Reed has ore than a decade of experience in video games journalism, having started back in 1999 on Computer Trade Weekly, the precursor to MCV. He was also editorial director at Eurogamer, before …

Console giant recruiting staff for internal projects

MCV’s sister magazine has taken an innovative new game into the heartland of the toy industry: huge London trade show Toy Fair. The ToyNews stand at the event is showing Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect software at the stand – and scored the first UK showing of Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar …

Microsoft is to phase out its virtual currency system by the end of the year, according to reports. Inside Mobile Appsreports the console giant will be ditching Microsoft points from Xbox Live, Windows Phone and Zune marketplace.Virtual currency will be replaced by real money transactions based on regional pricing, bringing …

Plans are afoot to launch a range of four action figures alongside EA’s RPG release Mass Effect 3 in March. US toy specialist BigBadToyStore is carrying a listing for the figures which cost $17.99 individually or $67.99 for a case of all four. The featured characters are Miranda, Garrus, Mordin …

Sony Computer Entertainment is negotiating an in-game currency policy for all virtual items traded on PS3, the CEO of CCP Games has said. Hilmar Pturssontold Developthat the studioexpects that the negotiations will establish pricing tiers of virtual items, as well as the revenue split between Sony and developers. The talks …