Rob Fahey (Page 96)

Market analysts in the United States have issued markedly different responses to Atari's announcement of second quarter results, which revealed that the firm's revenue missed predictions but also showed a smaller than expected loss figure.

A report this morning in a UK magazine has speculated that Nintendo plans to launch the DS handheld in late March 2005 in Europe, with a UK price point of UKP 129.99 (186 Euro), significantly higher than the equivalent US dollar pricing.

Nintendo has taken the top spot in the Japanese sales chart this week, with Mario Tennis GC selling some 186,000 units as the launch of several new games saw overall game software sales rising by almost 40 per cent week on week.

Hugely anticipated PC massively multiplayer title World of Warcraft is set to launch in North America later this month, with developer Blizzard announcing a November 23rd date for the title which will be "shortly followed" by Asian and European launches.

British developer Rare has announced a further delay to its Xbox-exclusive title Kameo: Elements of Power, with the Microsoft-owned studio pushing back the title to an unspecified date, raising speculation that the game may be Xbox 2 bound.

British publisher Eidos has revealed details of the next title in its popular Hitman series, with Io Interactive's latest set to be titled Hitman: Blood Money and planned for launch next Spring on PC, Xbox and PS2.

Companies including market leader Electronic Arts have moved in to hire key members of the winning teams from the Dare To Be Digital competition, which seeks out the best game development talent from amongst Scottish and Irish students.

One of the largest videogame retail chains in the USA, GameStop, has halted its preorder campaign for the forthcoming Nintendo DS handheld, indicating that the chain has already sold out the launch allocation of the eagerly awaited console.

Sales of Sony's PlayStation 2 console edged ever close to the seven million unit mark in the UK last week, as the launch of the slimline redesigned PS2 console - dubbed PStwo by the media - drove a threefold increase in weekly hardware sales.

British development group Warthog Plc has arranged a deal with Tiger Telematics Inc, parent company of Gizmondo Europe, which will see all of the firm's subsidiaries being taken over by the handheld console manufacturer.

The latest in Namco's popular series of flight combat simulators, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, has gone in at number one in the Japanese sales charts, racking up around 173,000 sales in its first weekend at retail.

A number of the industry's top publishers have been targeted in a lawsuit taken by Texas law firm McKool Smith, which alleges that 3D graphics display techniques used in their products infringe on a 1988 patent.

Namco Hometek, the US subsidiary of Japanese publisher Namco, has cancelled another of its internal projects and laid off a number of staff, but has refuted rumours that it is closing its entire US development operation.

A pirate operation providing video game systems featuring unlicensed NES titles has been shut down by Nintendo of America, with the US District Court granting a temporary restraining order against two companies involved in their sale.

Speaking in an interview with Japanese site Impress PC Watch, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has admitted that graphically intensive game will drain the PSP's battery more rapidly than the quoted figures.