Rob Fahey (Page 100)

US publisher THQ has almost completed negotiations to sign Juice Games' street racing title Juiced, reuniting the Fund 4 Games owned title with the Acclaim-owned name - while legal clouds gather over Exclaim's involvement.

The Zodiac multimedia handheld device is set to launch in the UK on October 22nd, with creator Tapwave signing up an exclusive deal with Dixons and PC World which will see the arrival of two models of the award-winning device.

Electronic Arts' CFO Warren Jenson has told an investment conference in the USA that the company currently expects the Xbox 2 and PS3 to launch within six months of each other, in a window beginning in late 2005.

Further details of Nintendo's plans for the imminent launch of the Nintendo DS handheld in the USA have emerged today, with the firm planning eight to twelve launch titles for the console at a $29.99 price point.

Developer Valve Software has begun accepting purchases for forthcoming title Half-Life 2 on its Steam digital content delivery service, with Counter-Strike: Source being made available immediately to those who buy the game online.

Microsoft's Xbox Live service has proved a huge success in Asian markets, with 15 per cent of Xbox owners in the region playing online only six months after the service launched there.

Microsoft VP Peter Moore, head of the company's worldwide marketing and publishing for Xbox, has told a Japanese business publication that the firm's next console will not repeat the mistakes which were made with Xbox in Japan.

The new publishing venture being planned by Acclaim CEO Rod Cousens, provisionally titled "Exclaim," intends to launch next week, according to sources at the former Acclaim studios in Cheltenham and Manchester.

Developer BioWare has been named as one of the top 100 employers in Canada by Mediacorp Canada and Macleans magazine, and has also been placed in Deloitte's Canadian Technology Fast 50 listing.

Publisher Vivendi Universal Games has announced the sale of its educational games division, Knowledge Adventure, to a pair of Californian venture capital firms - but will continue to perform sales and distribution roles for its titles.

Leading UK videogame retail chain GAME Group has announced its interim results for the six months ended July 31st, revealing that turnover fell in line with expectations but gross margins grew to over 30 per cent.

Activision has returned to the top of the UK software charts once more, with Star Wars Battlefront climbing one place to knock EA's The Sims 2 from the top of the ranking, while four new entries made it into the top ten.

Fluctuations on the international currency markets have given Nintendo's profits for the first half of its fiscal year a major boost, with the weakening Yen almost doubling profit expectations despite a drop in sales.

Microsoft-owned developer Bungie has finished work on the hugely anticipated Xbox exclusive first-person shooter Halo 2, according to the latest weekly update from the team, with the game on track for a November 9th launch.

Namco's RPG title Tales of Symphonia has gone back to number one in the Japanese software charts thanks to a release on the PS2, selling some 265,000 copies despite following on the heels of a Cube release last year.