The US retail videogame market shrank by 21 per cent in December, according to market research firm NPD Group.
Total videogame sales at retail in December were $3.99 billion (£2.6 billion), down from $5.07 billion (£3.3 billion) in December 2010. That's largely down to hardware sales, which fell 28 per cent, and accessories, sales of which were down 27 per cent. Software sales fell 14 per cent year on year.
Just 35 per cent of UK teachers of information and communications technology (ICT) have a qualification considered relevant to their subject by the department of education.
CD Projekt has confirmed that it is to stop pursuing, and threatening legal action, against those it believes downloaded pirated copies of PC RPG The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings.
Electronic Arts' freemium label, Play4Free, now has more than 25 million registered users, the publisher has announced.
Play4Free includes Battlefield Heroes and Need For Speed World, each of which crossed the ten million user mark earlier this month, as well as Battlefield: Play4Free, Dragon Age Legends, Battleforge and Lord Of Ultima.
Playtesting games is very much a science. The process of designing tests, conducting them and analysing the results is much closer to running a psychology experiment than simply playing games.
But just as important as choosing the right methods is selecting the right players. So who are they, and is it possible to select the wrong players?
John Romero and Will Wright are among those contributing to the keynote which will kick off this year's Global Game Jam, organisers have announced.
As well as Doom creator Romero, the keynote will also feature his partner, social game developer Brenda Brathwaite. Game academic Gonzalo Frasca, and multimedia artist Baiyon, who has worked on the Pixeljunk games and LittleBigPlanet 2, will also speak - in Spanish and Japanese respectively - before The Sims creator Wright officially opens the event.
The Writers Guild Of America has announced the five videogames shortlisted for its annual award to the best-written videogame of the year.
Ed Stern is nominated for his work on Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter Brink, as is Naughty Dog's Amy Hennig for her Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception script. Also nominated are Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, and Mortal Kombat.
Cloud gaming service OnLive will soon be available on Google's Smart TV platform, Google TV.
Announced in a press release, the move will mean games are playable in HD, streamed from the cloud, on all internet-connected Smart TVs, Blu-ray players and media streamers running Google's platform.
GSC Game World, developer of PC shooter STALKER: Shadow Of Chernobyl, has told us that it is seeking funding to help it finish work on the game's sequel.
The organisers of Cloud Gaming Europe, which takes place next week from January 17 to 18 in London and includes speakers from Crytek, CCP Games, Square Enix, Sega, Gaikai and Jagex, have said that the event has nearly sold out.
Following on from Cloud Gaming USA, which took place in September last year, the conference aims to help developers keep pace with the market shift cloud gaming will usher in.
One of the platform holders is to bow out of the hardware race at E3 in June, according to an executive at cloud gaming service Gaikai.
Speaking to Industry Gamers at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Gaikai's chief product officer Nanea Reeves said: "Not all of the current console makers will have one more generation. That will be the big news at E3."
Should Nintendo be hoping to reclaim its hardcore credentials in time for Wii U, Zoë Mode isn’t on board. Crush3D is a remake of PSP puzzler Crush, but while whole levels have made the leap to 3DS intact, the original’s psychedelic stylings and dark-tinged, insomnia-fuelled storyline have not. They’re replaced by charming, toybox-style presentation, a blandly designed main character, and a gently comedic story. This is a warmer, friendlier take on Crush, but at least the game has found the platform it was made for.
Issue 237 of Edge goes on sale January 17 featuring The Last Of Us on the cover, Naughty Dog's character-driven tale of the world gone awry. In our in-depth preview of the game, we examine how Naughty Dog is taking a twisted turn from the Uncharted path.
Issue 237 of Edge goes on sale January 17 featuring The Last Of Us on the cover, Naughty Dog's character-driven tale of the world gone awry. In our in-depth preview of the game, we examine how Naughty Dog is taking a twisted turn from the Uncharted path.
Revered Japanese shooter developer Cave has put some of its current projects on hold and said it will focus more on social games after lowering its sales forecasts by over 15 per cent.
League Of Legends developer Riot Games has urged users to contact local politicians in a bid to ensure SOPA and PIPA are not passed into US law.
In a post on the game's official forums, CEO and co-founder Brandon Beck issues an impassioned appeal to users, asking that they email their congressperson to voice their opposition to the two controversial bills, which he describes as "misguided and harmful."
GSC Game World has said it is still working on STALKER 2 despite recent reports that the studio was to close its doors.
Last month a Ukranian news site claimed that Sergei Grigorovich, founder and CEO of the Kiev-based studio, had decided to close the company for unspecified personal reasons. A post on the official STALKER Facebook page, however, reveals that GSC is still in business.
Binary Domain, the tactical squad shooter from Toshihiro Nagoshi's Yakuza Studio, has been delayed by a week in Europe and a fortnight in North America, publisher Sega has announced.
Mario Kart 7 is the Japanese all-formats number one for a fourth consecutive week, with its host platform 3DS continuing its dominance of the hardware charts.
The 3DS racer sold over 157,000 units to take its lifetime sales past 1.3 million. The next three spots are also occupied by 3DS games, with Monster Hunter Tri G becoming the third 3DS title, after Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land, to sell a million units in Japan.
Our March issue, which is on sale February 14, will include a Post Script article that looks at The Old Republic's reliance on traditional MMOG mechanics.
Several UK retailers have said they would be prepared to share revenue from sales of second-hand games with publishers.
Speaking to MCV, a number of stores said they would be prepared to pass on a cut of their lucrative pre-owned business if publishers were to cut them some slack in return, either by reducing trade prices or doing away with online passes.
"We all know the business model in the industry is changing," said HMV in a statement. "So if there is any merit in this idea then it may be worth looking into."
Shares in Game Group fell by over 36 per cent yesterday after the UK's largest specialist game retailer reported a drop in Christmas sales.
When trading began yesterday, a share in Game cost 5.99p; by the end of the day, after Game had revealed that sales in the final five weeks of the year were down 14.7 per cent, its stock price had fallen to 3.8p - a drop of 36.6 per cent.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game of last year at retail in the UK.
The 2011 chart released by UKIE contains few surprises, with Activision's shooter beating FIFA 12 to top spot, ahead of Battlefield 3 and Zumba Fitness. This is the third successive year that a Call Of Duty game has outsold the competition in the UK.
PC peripheral manafacturer Razer has unveiled Project Fiona, a dedicated gaming tablet PC featuring side-mounted handles with integrated controllers.
Unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, Project Fiona runs on Windows 8 and Intel's i7 Ivy Bridge processor, meaning gamepad-supporting PC games will run natively on the tablet with no need for ports. Developers will, however, be able to add Fiona-exclusive control options to their games.
An Intel executive was caught trying to pass off a video as a realtime demo of Intel's Ivy Bridge processor's graphical capabilities at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.