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 …

The UK may be out of the recession – but publisher bosses are mindful of a slow recovery for video games.UK GDP rose just 0.1 per cent during Q4 2009, and industry heads are wary of the prospect of a ‘double dip recession’ – where the UK economy re-enters a …

New York General Attorney Andrew Cuomo says he has issued a subpoena to 22 leading online retailers, including GameStop, as part of an investigation into ‘deceptive practices’ which lure buyers into making unwitting purchases. In a statement issued last week, reported yesterday by Kotaku, the Attorney General said that, "when …

When does legitimate protection become draconian control?

The Hut Group-owned online retailer Zavvi.com has once again been accused of deliberately selling games early with listings for BioShock 2 on its eBay portal stating that game is now in stock and despatching”. Zavvi.com was caught up in a similar storm last year when some customers who had pre-ordered …

UK studio man explains why THQ turned two studios towards XBLA, PSN and iPhone

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, …

Microsoft has dashed hopes that the launch of a standalone SKU for the 250GB Xbox 360 HDD in Japan may lead to a similar move in the UK, while at the same time suggesting that the current top-end 120GB model is on the way out. Microsoft is now offering a …

According to recent findings from Top Global Markets, an integrated monthly report from leading providers of consumer and retail information in the video games industry, The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain, Inc., combined video game software unit sales across the world’s three largest games markets experienced a decline …

The world’s three biggest retail markets for video games saw a combined decline of eight per cent in sales last year according to a new report. A new Top Global Markets report from NPD, GfK-ChartTrack and Famitsu – which integrates data from USA, UK and Japan – shows the downtown …