News (Page 3878)

Ambitious new UK publisher Play It has announced details of its release schedule between now and Christmas, revealing that at least 15 more £9.99 priced PlayStation 2 games are planned by the end of the year.

A number of layoffs at Microsoft's Japanese Xbox operation are once again making headlines, three months after they were originally revealed, as ex-employees complain of poor treatment during the course of the layoffs.

Nintendo's was this week celebrating the second anniversary of the launch of the Game Boy Advance in Europe - with sales of over two million units of the pint sized console and its successor, the GBA SP, in the UK alone.

Online gaming specialists Eurogamer and Terraplay have signed an agreement which will see their technology solutions working more closely together on future projects, starting with SCEE's This Is Football.

Reports are suggesting that Vivendi Universal has temporarily shelved the sale of its games division following lower than expected bids, but other conflicting rumours state that Microsoft and Take 2 may have teamed up for a bid.

Development on Sony's Cell microprocessor continues apace, with SCE boss Ken Kutaragi promising a shareholders meeting in Tokyo that demonstrations of the technology will happen within the current financial year.

Publisher Acclaim is set to cease development for Nintendo's GameCube once its current projects are finished, with CEO Rod Cousens stating that the platform does not supply "appropriate yields".

Atari's Enter The Matrix is still the best selling game in the UK this week, marking its sixth week at number one and setting it well on its way to being one of the biggest selling games of the year.

Two new PlayStation 2 online titles have launched in Japan, supporting the arrival of Sony's PlayStation BB Pack, which incorporates a console and network adapter - but neither title is setting the charts alight.

Following last week's triumphant announcement by Nintendo that it had won a victory over Hong Kong based mail order retailer Lik-Sang, one of the company's founders, Alex Kampl, has spoken about the ruling.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun has withdrawn statements attributed to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer in which he said that the next-generation Xbox would arrive in 2006, stating that they were not made by Ballmer after all.

Bristol-based SN Systems has increased its presence in the Japanese games market by opening an office in Tokyo and signing an agreement with Sega, moves that will go some way to strengthening their position in the region.

Atari's licensed multi-platform Matrix title has sold more than 2.5 million units in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), making it the biggest and fastest-selling title since the publisher's rebranding.

Hong Kong based Lik-Sang, a mail order company which distributes videogame software and hardware worldwide, has lost a crucial court case brought by Nintendo over the sale of devices which could copy Game Boy software.

Peter Moore, the one-time head of Sega of America who is now a Microsoft corporate VP for retail sales and marketing, has launched a scathing attack on Nintendo's strategy in the console market and on handheld gaming as a whole.

Speaking in an interview with Japanese journalists, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has pinned down 2006 as the year when a successor to the Xbox will be released - a time frame which could see Xbox 2 being the last of the next generation consoles to appear.

First quarter results from Vivendi Universal reveal a slide in revenues and increased operating losses - but the future of the division is set to become clearer shortly, with the company planning to collect acquisition bids officially on June 23rd.

The fallout from Sega's ill-fated merger plans continues, with Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer commenting to a conference in the USA that the company has no intention of buying into the Japanese publisher.

A host of new details about Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Portable (PSP) console have been revealed by SCEE president Chris Deering at a summit in London, including software pricing details and the company's view on the Game Boy Advance.

PlayStation Portable (PSP) is not the first time that Sony has developed a handheld gaming system, it has emerged, with a Japanese business publication revealing details of the company's one-time plans to release a portable platform in 2000.

A number of games companies are making a strong showing on the stock markets following positive reports from key analysts - with Electronic Arts today hitting its highest share price of all time, and significant gains expected across the industry.

Enter The Matrix maintained its fifth straight week at the top of the UK All Formats chart this week, refusing to buckle under the pressure of some big new releases including Sony's PS2 online adapter and its launch titles.

Hackers working on breaking the copy protection systems employed by Nintendo's GameCube have caused a stir by posting binary images of several Cube games to the Internet - but their claims are more than slightly exaggerated.