Rob Fahey (Page 114)

Sony's hybrid hard disc video recorder, DVD burner and PlayStation 2 console, the PSX, will not be launched in North America until 2005 according to the head of the company's American electronics division, Hideki Komiyama.

The US Federal Trade Commission has issued its fourth annual report on the marketing of violent media to children, with praise for the games industry's ESRB rating system but criticism of ongoing marketing to unsuitable audiences.

British Formula One star Jenson Button has signed up to endorse Chicane, an F1 title being produced exclusively for the forthcoming Gizmondo handheld games console, which is set to launch in the UK later this year.

Former Microsoft Game Studios lead project planner Jon Kimmich has announced that he is leaving the company to join MechAssault developer Day 1 Studios, which is already working on a next-generation title for Xbox 2.

The first titles from Square Enix' mobile games catalogue to launch in Europe are set to arrive this summer, with Aleste, Actraiser and Drakengard rolling out on operator portals across the territory.

EA's European publishing boss Gerhard Florin and ESA president Doug Lowenstein are to deliver the keynote addresses of the conference programme at the European Games Network trade show in London this September, it has been announced.

There was no change at the top of the Japanese software chart this week, as Sega's Let's Make J-League Pro Soccer Club '04 made it a fortnight at number one - but sales slipped overall after last week's huge launches.

Publisher Ignition Entertainment has announced that it is to bring a range of titles from the SNK NeoGeo stable to Europe, including Metal Slug, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown and SNK vs. Capcom.

Mobile entertainment publisher MFORMA has announced its expansion into the Chinese market, with the establishment of local subsidiary MFORMA China and the opening of offices in both Shanghai and Bejing.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that development studio Swingin' Ape is to take over the completion of StarCraft: Ghost, following the end of original developer Nihilistic's involvement with the project last month.

Publisher Activision has shipped two million units of movie tie-in Spider-Man 2 to retail worldwide since the game launched last week - while the movie has smashed US box office records with the largest opening weekend ever.

Dino Dini, creator of the Kick Off and Player Manager football titles, has launched a scathing attack on the industry's lack of appreciation for development talent, and accused it of losing focus on gameplay in favour of production values.

Publishers Vivendi Universal Games and Novalogic have struck a deal which will see VUG distributing all of the smaller company's current and upcoming titles in North America, including Novalogic's latest, Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising.

A new report from analyst firm Piper Jaffray is predicting that the growth of the video game industry will slow significantly in the "transition" years of 2005/06 - but major games publishers are more optimistic, according to one senior source.

Leading European videogame retailer GAME Group has issued a trading update which confirms the company's predictions that the first half of 2004 would see a market decline, but the firm expects strong performance in the second half.

Japanese publisher From Software has acquired the rights to the Tenchu series from Activision, and will be handling the development and publishing of all future titles in the series - with plans to develop the brand beyond games.