Interesting tidbit on the PSP Go: Some retailers are getting arsey about stocking a device aimed exclusively at digital distribution, because they can’t sell games for it.
It smacks of King Canute. As things turn to digital distribution, refusing to stock platforms will surely send business elsewhere and hasten the ebb of bricks and mortar?
(CC image [...]

Duncan Gough is one of the minds behind PMOG, and certainly on the interesting fringe of MMO design rather than the flabby, World of Warcraft copying centre. Here, he talks about seasonal pricing models and free content, citing in particular an interesting comment from Valve:
“we’ve learned that we’re no longer making stand-alone games but creating [...]

The headline says it all; the BBC report on game sales, sourcing from ELSPA. Games are truly ascending into the mainstream, and without recession they would have done even better.
Sale shopping in late December and early January was very strange this time around. We’d wander into stores after saying “They’ve gone into administration, let’s take [...]

A couple of stories this week highlighted the current boom in games. Not only were analyst forecasts for UK game sales doubled recently, but Chief Exec of HMV Simon Fox told The Sun:
“Within the next 12 to 18 months, it’s possible games will be bigger than music for us.
“Music is in our DNA and we [...]

Grand Theft Auto hit retail on Tuesday, and is expected to eclipse the launch of Halo 3 last year. GamesIndustry.biz reports that play.com was receiving 80 orders per minute on launch day (though it doesn’t specify how long for), and Jason Kingsley of Rebellion has spoken up for Britsoft:
“This is world’s biggest launch in the [...]

The DSGi group have announced that they are going into videogames publishing, starting with a casual and PC focus, potentially moving into mobile. They’re looking to engage developers, and are certainly thinking about this along a lot of vectors, including digital distribution. MCV are the only source of an original report right now:
We’re working on [...]

A couple of MCV pieces caught my attention recently. It’s surprising just how well games did up to the end of 2008, particularly as retailers in other sectors were having such a bad time. MCV reported:
In the week that the retail analyst SPSL stated that many days during the Christmas period retail performance were ‘hugely [...]

The Competition Commission have given out more details on their concerns over the merger between Game and Gamestation that we blogged earlier this year. This is their website, and here are direct links to the PDFs of the news release and issues statement.

It’s only two months since an 80% fall was reported, but in advance of their AGM, GAME have just announced a 74% rise in sales.
A growing base of current-gen systems has eased things somewhat, nonetheless GAME expect margins to shrink:
As we said in April, the higher volumes of new generation platforms will increase hardware participation [...]

UK retailer GAME has acquired Gamestation for £74M. MCV reports:
“The two brands will be kept separate within the newly-expanded business as GAME looks to increase its appeal to the mainstream consumer, with Gamestation very much focused on the core gamer.
The total investment includes £300,000 which will be set aside for new stores, and an assumed [...]