Retail

HMV hopes to use its stake in digital delivery service 7Digital to take on the likes of Steam and Metaboli. The retailer acquired a 50 per cent stake in 7Digital last week, for 7.7 million in cash. The London-based firm has a catalogue of over six million digital music tracks …

Namco Bandai has told MCV its will spend in excess of 1 million on marketing for its upcoming beat-‘em-up, Tekken 6. The company has prepared an extensive campaign, incorporating print, online and TV advertising, as well as the use of social media and sampling to drive sales for the game …

GAME Group has reported that its pre-owned sales have jumped to 177 million for the six months ending July 31st. It is a 12.3 per cent increase over 2008’s figure of 157.8 million, and means that pre-owned sales accounted for 25.7 per cent of the company’s first half sales. Last …

GAME Group’s profits have fallen from 35.5 million to 14.5 million for the six months ending July 31st, a drop of 60 per cent. The fall is in line with company expectations, while sales have dipped seven per cent to 690.8 million and like-for-like sales were down 16.3 per cent. …

Koei games sold outside of Japan currently only account for 8 per cent of the company’s total sales. That’s according to Sony Japan Studios’ senior vice president Yasuhide Kobayashi, who discussed how Japanese companies are failing to engage audiences outside of their home market. Kobayashi claimed Koei is struggling the …

NCsoft has announced its upcoming MMO, Aion: The Tower Of Eternity, has generated almost 400,000 pre-orders. The game, which introduces aerial combat to the usual MMORPG fare, is due for release on September 22nd in the US and on September 25th in the UK. Anyone who has pre-ordered the game …

Bethesda has at long last set the date for the long-awaited arrival of Fallout 3’s numerous DLC releases on PS3, with the first offering – Broken Steel – set to arrive on PSN on September 26th. Its release will be followed on October 1st by both Operation: Anchorage and The …

Leading Netherlands-based retailer Nedgame is currently carrying a detailed explanation on the front page of its site explaining the many reasons why it won’t be stocking Sony’s new PSPgo – and imploring customers to shun it too. The main reasons cited include the €80 price difference, the inflexible price of …

Chinese web giant Shanda is to sell off a 22 per cent share in its online gaming unit next week, as part of an IPO estimated to be worth $725 million. Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd, the parent company of Shanda Games, has agreed to a Nasdaq-listed initial public offering set …

Microsoft has announced a limited edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 console complete with 250 GB hard drive. The machine will be made available exclusively through GAME and Gamestation, and boasts a warzone design, two wireless controllers, an Xbox 360 headset and a standard copy of Modern Warfare 2. The …