Retail

MTV parent company Viacom has revealed declines across the board for Q2 2009, with the losses in its media department pinned squarely on lower-than-expected sales of music series Rock Band. Revenues at Viacom’s Media Networks division decreased by eight per cent to $1.97bn – a figure principally due” to a …

Best Buy Europe has named its CEO ahead of next year’s introduction of ‘big box stores’ into Europe. Scott Wheway, 42, moves up from his role as COO – which he accepted in May, and now relinquishes. Wheway will report to the shareholder board of Best Buy Europe. He assumes …

New research shows more Internet users in China use the web for online gaming than shopping. New research from the China Internet Network Information Center shows approximately 200 million of China’s web users regularly play online video games. This places the pastime the sixth most-used application for the Internet, while …

Codemasters has signed a deal with EBS Sales to increase its presence in Benelux. The agreement, which was signed during IDEF in Cannes, will see EBS Sales market Codemasters’ games, such as the updated Bestsellers series for PC, PS3 Platinum and Xbox 360 Classic, to non-traditional gamers. We are seeing …

Some say that licensed games have enjoyed their time in the sun, but Atari has proved many naysayers wrong with news that licensed action outing Ghostbusters: The Video Game has sold over 1m copies in North America. Of course, unlike in Europe where all non-PS3 owners are having to wait …

The concern that Nintendo consoles are not a suitable platform for mature-rated games will be tested yet again later this year with the news that the BBFC has granted EA’s upcoming Wii-exclusive Dead Space: Extraction an 18 certificate. No cuts were made to the game, which is an on-rails take …

LucasArts has announced Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 this Christmas. The new SKU will feature the full version of the game and three new levels that explore alternate storylines of the original Star Wars trilogy: two from DLC and …

THhe Discovery Channel is eyeing mass market consumers as it moves into video games, the company has told MCV. At E3, the TV channel announced plans to develop its own iPhone, PC and next-gen titles – and now MCV can reveal that it has signed a deal with UK developer …

Will we see a cessation in rampant price-cutting from UK retail this year? That was the question from trade experts this week, as the High Street began to contemplate its reaction to Argos’ bold step of raising – not dropping – prices in its new catalogue. Leading outlets have told …

The latest research from TNS Worldpanel Entertainment suggests that the average selling price for video games has fallen over the last year. In the 52 weeks ending May 24th 2009, the average price across all formats fell to 21.97, a decline of two per cent, according to the firm. The …