Retail

Square Enix has reported an operating income of YEN 21.4bn for the nine months ending December 31st 2009, a jump of 67.7 per cent year-on-year. Net sales for the period were up 30.0 per cent at YEN 135bn. Its games operations in isolation saw net sales jump 97 per cent …

Platinum Games’ much applauded hack ‘n’ slash title Bayonetta has sold a total of 1.1m units worldwide since it went on sale in October last year (in Japan). Despite this feat the game fails to become Sega’s best selling game in the nine months ending December 31st – that accolade …

Square Enix’s cherished RPG series Dragon Quest has once again lived up to the hefty expectations placed upon it in the publisher’s homeland with news that Dragon Quest VI sold nearly 1m copies on its first week of release. The title is actually a remake of the mid ‘90s SNES …

MCV’s vital weekly retail digest, RetailBiz, is available to view online and download now. Click here to access the RetailBiz Previews section for a definitive look at some of the key titles approaching release in the near future. This week, we jump in the driving seat with Sega’s Sonic & …

Best Buy has refuted growing industry chatter about a partnership with European games specialist, GAME. Several industry nose-tappers have suggested the US retail giant is looking to buy GAME outright. Meanwhile, others suggested that branded in-store concessions would appear in Best Buy’s UK outlets when they open in the spring, …

Publisher Warner Interactive has announced that it has shipped over 1m copies of its critically acclaimed DS title Scribblenauts since it was first released last September. The game uses an innovative mechanic that requires users to spell out the name objects needed to solve puzzles and fight enemies. To date …

How-To-Draw author Christopher Hart wants to launch a series of art games that utilises the DS stylus, as well as Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3’s motion controllers. Hart’s books, which teach readers to draw a wide range of subjects – from Manga to human anatomy – have sold more than …

MCV’s vital weekly retail digest, RetailBiz, is available to view online and download now. Sony’s ambitious online first-person shooter MAG has debuted at No.1 in the PlayStation 3 charts. Given its multiplayer only focus, the game’s success is a testament to how prolific online functionality has become in games. MAG …

Retail giants Wal-Mart and Best Buy have pulled out of a plan to extend their reach in the games market via automatic store-based kiosks. In May last year Wal-Mart teamed up with E-Play to place kiosks in 80 of its 3,600 U.S. stores, while Best Buy also carried the experiment …

Gamers could face an unwelcome price hike at some stage this year as the price of procuring polycarbonate – a key material in the disc manufacturing process – continues to rise. DigiTimes reports that wholesale prices remained static throughout 2009 despite the increasing manufacturing costs, However, should the price of …