News (Page 3865)

Media giant Viacom has considered purchasing leading publisher Electronic Arts, but decided that such a buyout would be unfeasible due to the high price tag attached to the company - believed to be around $20 billion.

Embattled publisher Interplay has had its headquarters in California shut down by state authorities, after it emerged that the company failed to pay employees last month, and has no workers' compensation insurance.

Publisher Midway has announced that its current chairman, Neil Nicastro, will be resigning from the role immediately after its forthcoming annual shareholder's meeting, with a successor to be announced soon afterwards.

A disagreement between UK games distributors Gem and 20:20 has come to legal blows, it emerged this week, after 20:20 reacted to allegations that it plans to open a chain of videogames stores.

Rockstar's GTA: Vice City, distributed by Capcom, failed to hold on to top spot in its second week on sale in Japan, as Super Robot Battle MX and a Fist of the North Star Pachinko title jacked its position.

The future is looking increasingly bleak for Xbox in Japan following the cancellation this week of MMORPG True Fantasy Live Online.

Bill Gardner's newly formed publishing firm has announced that it has signed a clutch of developers and plans to reveal its first full game line-up in the near future.

US reports suggest that troubled veteran publisher Interplay may have finally bit the bullet, but offical word has yet to emerge.

VU Games' improving market position hasn't helped the divisions' financial fortunes in the first quarter of FY 04/05 as its operating losses increase by almost 61 per cent compared to the same period last year.

VUG reveals nine new titles for its concerted assault on the pre-Christmas High Street spend, with new Crash and Spyro titles, but still no confirmed date for Half-Life 2 or Starcraft: Ghost

Armed and Dangerous scribe Planet Moon Studios has become one of the first developers to back Sony's ambitious PlayStation Portable handheld format at the expense of other formats, with Sony's desire for original ideas cited as a major factor.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts' New Talent Award will be presented for the first time at the Edinburgh International Games Festival this year, recognising creative success on an individual basis.

The Independent Game Developers' Association plans to launch a new European games development conference this September 1st-3rd, with a full programme to be announced in the coming weeks.

Microsoft has been gauging public reaction to a possible "Xbox Next PC" device, encompassing current and next-gen Xbox and PC software support and multimedia functionality, but top X-ecutives claim we shouldn't read too much into it.

Atari has posted under-prediction operating profits and issued cautious guidance, driving shares down a further six percent.

Nintendo's net profits have been hit by a massive 51 per cent, the company revealed today, largely due to currency fluctuations, but it expects profits to double in FY 04/05.

Nintendo has revealed that its next major home console platform will be showcased at next year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.