
Hopes to emulate iOS equivalent’s success; launches January 6.
Apple has announced that it will launch a version of its App Store for Mac computers on January 6.
The Mac App Store will be available to OS X Snow Leopard users in 90 countries at launch, and will be a free download.

Confirms existence of project which appeared on leaked five-year release schedule.
Blizzard has admitted that Titan, its rumoured next MMOG, is real.
The project appeared on a leaked five-year release schedule that resulted in the departure of Blizzard China’s general manager Ye Weilun.

Chris Donlan takes to the sky with the aerial combat game that puts tactics over twitch.

New group purchasing system launched to social network’s 50 million users.
Mobile social gaming network OpenFeint has announced a new group purchasing system.
OpenFeint, which boasts 50 million users across iOS and Android and continues to grow despite Apple’s launch of Game Center, has launched Game Channel, an app which offers Groupon-style discounts for multiple purchases of games.

Riccitiello frustrated at Nintendo focus on first-party software; suggests Wii price cut.
John Riccitiello, CEO of publisher Electronic Arts, has expressed his frustration at Nintendo’s limited efforts to support thirdparties.

Market research firm looks at purchasing habits over last three months; Steam leads the charge.
An analysis of videogame purchasing habits by market research firm The NPD Group has found that 29 per cent of games bought in the last three months were done so digitally.
Of those surveyed, 47 per cent of digital buyers said they made their purchases using online gaming sites and services, such as BigFishGames and Steam. 42 per cent bought through app stores or mobile phone carriers, with thirty per cent using console services such as Xbox Live and PSN.

We visit Naughty Dog to see Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception in our latest issue, out December 21.

Publisher meets goal of turning a profit without a GTA release as Red Dead sales near 8m.
Take-Two Interactive has reported profits of $42.5 million for the twelve months ending October 31.
Over the same period last year the publisher sustained losses of $140m. Net revenue rose to $1.16 billion, an increase of 65% on the previous year.

Blizzard MMOG the week’s highest new entry; Black Ops holds second place.
World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm evidently had a successful launch in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, topping the Nordic all-format software chart in its first week on release.
Call of Duty: Black Ops holds onto second place, with last week’s number one, PS3 racing sim Gran Turismo 5, falling back to third.
Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country Returns climbs two places to eighth in its second week on sale.

Sega joins forces with Japanese social network Gree; portable super-deformed face-smashing on the way.
Sega has announced that its popular Yakuza series is coming to mobile devices.
The publisher has teamed up with mobile social network Gree and will release Yakuza Mobile For Gree – or Ryu Ga Gotuku Mobile For Gree, to use the series’ Japanese name – this winter.

Nintendo UK general manager chairs annual festival; 2011 dates announced.
Organisers of Edinburgh Interactive have announced the appointment of David Yarnton, general manager of Nintendo UK, as its new chairman.
He takes up the reins from Chris Deering, who will remain an active supporter of the annual festival which has been running since 2003, celebrating “the creative and cultural values of interactive entertainment.”

Reveals entire character roster, DLC plans, Frank West omission; appears genuine.
Details of Capcom’s upcoming Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, including a complete roster of characters and several key decisions taken during development, have been leaked on Twitter.
While the account, klennox22, has since been deleted, fighting game website Shoryuken archived all its tweets.

NYC engineers close to restoring one of the world’s first videogames to its original state.
Engineers at New York City’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are close to successfully restoring Tennis For Two, one of the first videogames ever created.

We look at the WiiWare GTA demake which mines your memories and paints them on the screen in all their 8bit glory.

Appeals court upholds some arguments in Blizzard v WoW Bot maker, overturns others.
A US court of appeal has upheld the illegality of WoW Glider, a bot which automates many gameplay mechanics in Blizzard’s MMOG World Of Warcraft, allowing users to bypass the levelling-up process, reports GamerLaw.

Blames poor sales and harsh reaction to FFXIV; Deus Ex release pushed back.
Square Enix has revised its earnings forecasts for the current fiscal year. The publisher now expects net sales of 130 billion yen, down from the originally forecast 160 billion, and net income of a billion yen, down from 12 billion.

Level 5 / Ghibli RPG sales still not enough to unseat Monster Hunter.
Ni No Kuni, the collaboration between Professor Layton developer Level 5 and anime darling Studio Ghibli, has sold 170,548 copies in its first week on sale, according to the latest figures released by Media Create (translated by Andriasang).

Criticises overseas studios over poor quality, development speed and sales.
Namco Bandai is to shift its development focus back to Japan after half of its software releases were unprofitable, according to Bloomberg.

Non-profit PC gaming promoters appoint Intel man; new vice-president too.
The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA), the consortium of manufacturers and publishers which seeks to drive the worldwide growth of PC gaming, has named Matt Ployhar as its new president.

Academy says Rockstar declined to submit the game for consideration.
While Red Dead Redemption seems set to feature on most year-end lists – as we reported in Monday, it won the Game of the Year award at the weekend's Spike VGAs – it will not be lauded at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Video Games awards.

Problems with submission system hampers XBL Indie Games campaign; Epic Dungeon sells well regardless.
The organiser of the Indie Games Winter Uprising, a campaign to promote quality on the Xbox Live Indie Games service, has admitted that it has only enjoyed mixed success.

We talk transhumanism and development tribulations with the Deus Ex team leaders at Eidos Montreal.

Activision shooter continues to bestride world’s sales data like an annually iterated colossus.
The Nordic Chart – a collation of sales data in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland – has released its chart for the month of November. Of course, Call Of Duty: Black Ops is top of the pile.

Conference organisers reveal initial set of five talks for February’s San Francisco summit.
The organisers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2011 have announced details of talks at the Artificial Intelligence Summit.

Chair Entertainment confirms iPhone hit was conceived for 360 motion sensor; first DLC coming next week.
Epic Games’ iOS smash Infinity Blade was originally conceived for the Xbox 360 motion sensor Kinect.
Donald Mustard, co-founder of developer Chair Entertainment, confirmed the news in an interview with Joystiq.