I've been thinking about virtual goods again. They've been big news for a while now. A quick Google search - I mean, my well-honed legal mind - reminds me, for example, that the US virtual goods market is forecast to hit $2.9 billion in 2012.
A designer at Saints Row The Third developer Volition has welcomed reports that Microsoft's Xbox 360 successor will include some kind of anti-used game system, saying such a measure would be "a fantastic change for our business."
Microsoft's free-to-play reboot of the Flight Sim series, Microsoft Flight, is out of beta and will be released on February 29.
Apple has removed a host of cloned games from the iOS App Store, all of which are apparently the work of a single developer.
The games, developed by Anton Sinelnkov, had instantly familiar names, including Plant Vs Zombie, Angry Ninja Birds, and Temple Jump. In a tweet, iOS developer David Smith noted that last week Sinelnikov had 68 apps on the store; at the time of writing, that has fallen to nine.
Event organiser David Hayward’s vision for Bit Of Alright, his latest gathering of London’s vibrant indie development community following last year’s World of Love, was that it would be a conference unlike any other.
Event organiser David Hayward’s vision for Bit Of Alright, his latest gathering of London’s vibrant indie development community following last year’s World of Love, was that it would be a conference unlike any other.
Event organiser David Hayward’s vision for Bit Of Alright, his latest gathering of London’s vibrant indie development community following last year’s World of Love, was that it would be a conference unlike any other.
Ben Cousins, general manager of Ngmoco Sweden, believes that the recent spate of mobile game cloning is "a blip" that will be eradicated as development budgets increase.
Speaking to us ahead of his keynote address at the inaugural F2P Summit in London next month, Cousins tells us that cloning simply won't be an option as the sector matures and companies are forced to ramp up production values to ensure their games stand out.
Japanese mobile gaming company Gree has announced that profits during the final three months of 2011 more than trebled year on year.
Net income during the period, the second quarter of Gree's fiscal year, rose 206 per cent year on year to ¥12.7 billion (£105.7 million), while net sales revenue totalled ¥41.5 billion (£344.6 million), an increase of 190 per cent.
Electronic Arts has confirmed a "small number" of staff at its Vancouver studios have been laid off.
The company says the job losses, which are believed to have hit both EA Canada and Need For Speed: The Run developer Black Box, were necessary as the publisher continues its shift in focus towards digital. In 2011, EA's digital revenues exceeded a billion dollars for the first time.
Nintendo's 3DS was the dominant force at Japanese retail last month, its games occupying the top three spots and half of the top ten overall.
Leading the pack was Mario Kart 7, with sales of 388,760 units between December 26 and January 29, according to Enterbrain data passed along by Andriasang.
Square Enix's profit during the nine months ending December 31 rose 175.2 per cent year on year, to just over ¥5 billion (£41.6 million).
Ricky Haggett of Honeyslug, the developer of Vita debut Frobisher Says, puzzle game Kahoots and many more, is angry about Capcom's Ghost Trick. Having been playing its newly released iOS port, he's infuriated by its incessant explanatory text boxes.
Screen Yorkshire has announced a new £15 million content fund, which it will invest in games, film, TV and digital creative works produced in the region.
Half of the Yorkshire Content Fund comes from the European Regional Development Fund, set up by the European Commission to stimulate regional economic development. The remainder will be provided by private sector investors.
Sony's online service PlayStation Network will this week be renamed Sony Entertainment Network, as the company begins to consolidate all its online operations under one name.
The switch, which Sony says is "a change in name only" which will make it "clearer and easier" for users to access all Sony services with a single account, takes place tomorrow.
Sony's online service PlayStation Network will this week be renamed Sony Entertainment Network, as the company begins to consolidate all its online operations under one name.
The switch, which Sony says is "a change in name only" which will make it "clearer and easier" for users to access all Sony services with a single account, takes place tomorrow.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the new UK number one, the Square Enix RPG ending FIFA 12's five-week dominance of the all-formats software chart.
In a busy week for new releases, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection enters the chart at number two, with Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur V, fittingly, making its debut at number five. FIFA 12 slips to fourth, while Battlefield 3 climbs two places to number three.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the new UK number one, the Square Enix RPG ending FIFA 12's five-week dominance of the all-formats software chart.
In a busy week for new releases, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection enters the chart at number two, with Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur V, fittingly, making its debut at number five. FIFA 12 slips to fourth, while Battlefield 3 climbs two places to number three.
Outside of Heavily Armed Compound.
You are standing in a smouldering field of wreckage before a heavily armed compound. To the east, south, north, and west, invisible walls have sprung up. A tree with low branches stands nearby. There is a leaflet resting on the ground.
>read leaflet
“Welcome to ZORKWAR, a text-based secondperson adventure game of running, hiding, shooting, and further running.”
>climb tree
Only 13,000 of the 30,000 gamers who signed up fulfilled a pledge to spend the weekend playing Half-Life 2 in protest at Valve's lack of communication about Half-Life 3.
Kotaku reports that, while the number of those playing Valve's classic FPS fell far short of what was expected, it still exceeded the game's normal Steam activity by 10,000 players.
THQ has announced a "strategic agreement" with Innovative Leisure, a mobile game startup founded by Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley.
Blackley revealed his new company last week in an interview with VentureBeat. He described the iPhone as "the new arcade," and the 99¢ pricepoint as "the new quarter." With that in mind, he has assembled a team of industry veterans who were behind much of Atari's arcade output in the 70s and 80s.
Stephen "StepTo" Toulouse has resigned from his position as Xbox Live director of policy and enforcement, and will leave Microsoft on February 15.
Toulouse, who has been with the company for 18 years and admits to not knowing what he'll do next, revealed the news on his personal blog.
Pachinko kept Sega Sammy in profit during the final nine months of 2011, despite declines in the company's videogame and arcade businesses.
Tail Drift has been selected as the winner of Unity's Flash In A Flash Creation Contest, which tasked entrants with porting Unity-authored games to Adobe Flash.
Developer Cameron Owen has won $20,000 for his flight-based arcade racer, which was selected ahead of more than 500 fellow entrants.
I read about Josh Sutphin's strange tactical war game in the back pages of this month's PC Gamer, where it was described as deadly Tetris. That was enough to get me on board. Now I've played it, I can think of several other equally appropriate descriptions, as well: Machiavellian tennis, say, or Advance Wars for nasty people.