Publishing

It won’t be a shock to hear that Microsoft has admitted that it has ceased production of Zune hardware. The Zune brand will live on, however, as the face of much of Microsoft’s content sales service. It can still be found, for instance, on the Xbox dashboard as the branding …

Its spiritual predecessor, Demon’s Souls, was renowned for being tough. And that Dark Souls is harder still has seemingly enchanted critics even more. The review embargo for Namco Bandai’s latest lifted last night to reveal near universal praise for the RPG from game critics. Dark Souls requires intense focus. This …

MCV sits down with U-Trax president Richard van der Giessen about the state of the localisation and quality assurance sector. How have publisher attitudes towards the sector changed in the past year? There’s no way to make a general statement about this for all publishers. Some of them really get …

Publisher Sony has confirmed that all future SCE Worldwide Studios game will require the buyer to use the in-the-box Online Pass code to access online functionality. Destructoid obtained the confirmation following news that next month’s PS3 release Uncharted 3 will adopt the Online Pass system. As usual, those who buy …

Having been on Ubisoft’s release schedule without a firm date for some time, the publisher has at last announced a (hopefully) final release date for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The company told Joystiq that the title will be released in the US on March 6th. Which, incidentally, is the same …

EA close to Facebook games breakthrough

PS3 platform holder Sony has predicted a huge impact’ to its earnings as a result of the deepening European financial crisis. Bloomberg reports that Sony buys very few components from Europe, meaning the list of possible actions it can take for mitigating circumstances is significantly reduced. Europe is one of …

With Gears of War wrapped up, Cliffy B explores how and why developers can become superstars

Sony could be on the verge of announcing yet another retro franchise HD remake – Jak and Daxter. CVG reports that a listing on the website of South African retailer BT Games mentions the SKU, though there has been no corroboration of these claims from any other sources. It’s not …

Hardware, IP, technologies, delivery platforms – there are several aspects of the games business that are profitable for publishers. But lest we forget the newest: the consumer. Publisher EA has unveiled EA Legend which, in its own words, is a dynamic platform developed to provide marketers with campaign and audience …