Rob Fahey (Page 112)

Scotland's largest independent games developer, Visual Science, has announced record results in its 2003 financial year - with turnover up to UKP 2.8 million and a pre-tax profit of UKP 100,000.

Publisher Activision has reported record revenues for the first quarter of its fiscal year, thanks mostly to the strong performance of Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2, putting the company on target to exceed $1bn in revenue this year.

Japanese console giant Nintendo will not be exhibiting at the Tokyo Game Show this September, and its former annual SpaceWorld show will remain on hiatus for another year, a company spokesperson has confirmed.

The largest custodial sentence ever to be imposed by a UK court for games piracy was handed down by Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, with a man being sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for a counterfeiting offence.

Leading publisher Electronic Arts hopes to expand its business in the Far East massively in the coming five years, according to company CEO Larry Probst, who says that the firm wants to realise $1bn in revenue from the territory in 2010.

Activision's Spider-Man 2 on PS2 was the best selling game in the USA during the month of June, according to the latest figures from NPD, while EA's MVP Baseball 2004 has been the top seller for the first six months of the year.

Details have been announced of the Women's Game Conference, which will run alongside the Austin Game Conference this September in Austin, Texas, and will cover a wide variety of topics related to women in the industry and as game consumers.

Sony has won a landmark case in the British High Court, with a judge ruling that the sale of mod chip devices for the PlayStation 2 is illegal under the UK's implementation of the new European Union Copyright Directive.

Activision's Spider-Man 2 has remained in the number one spot in the UK software charts for a second week, with the launch of the film driving a 76 per cent rise in sales on PS2 and making it into the best sales week ever for an Activision title.

Top Cow Productions, publishers of the Tomb Raider comic book, have revealed that the next Tomb Raider videogame is currently planned for release in Summer 2005 in a statement on the future of the comic franchise.

NCSoft Corporation, the Korean company which runs some of the world's most popular massively multiplayer titles including the Lineage series and the recently released City of Heroes, has announced its intention to open a European division.

ION Storm's Warren Spector and BioWare's Ray Muzyka are to deliver keynote addresses at the European Developers' Forum this September in London, headlining a programme which features a range of speakers from around the world.

Metal Gear Solid 3 and Pro Evolution Soccer 4 will both be receiving their public debuts at the Leipzig Game Convention consumer show in Germany next month, ahead of their first UK appearances at Game Stars Live in September.

New information about the progress of the criminal investigation into the theft of source code and resources from developer Valve's network has emerged, including the fact that the "primary" hacker responsible was German.