Visa Buys PlaySpan

FEB. 10, 2011 • Visa Inc. is acquiring the digital goods transaction firm PlaySpan Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif. PlaySpan is being purchased for around $190 million in cash, plus additional consideration for performance milestones. The acquisition is expected to be completed in VisaR.....

Smartphones Outship PCs

FEB. 9, 2011 • According to research group IDC, consumer electronics manufacturers shipped more smartphones worldwide than PCs. The number of smartphones shipped during the last three months of 2010 were up 87% to 100.9 million, compared to 3% bump to 92 million PCs. .....

Guitar Hero Disbanded

FEB. 9, 2011 • In the release of it financial results for the calendar year ending Dec. 31, Activision Blizzard reported that it was disbanding Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinuing development on its Guitar Hero 7 game for 2011. The publisher is also intends to establish a new Call of Duty-focused development studio called Beachhead that Activision will use to create a digital platform for the Call of Duty community. .....

Jagex Finds VC Funds

FEB. 8, 2011 • Independent U.K. studio Jagex, creator of the hit MMO Runescape, sealed new agreements with venture capital firms to help fund upcoming projects.  Investments came in from three VC groups: Insight Venture Partners, Spectrum Equity Investors and The Raine Group. Cash and eq.....

HTC Invests in OnLive

FEB. 8, 2011 • Taiwan-based mobile phone manufacturer HTC invested $40 million in cloud streaming game service Onlive Inc. The investment gives HTC 5.3 million preferential shares of OnLive, each share priced at $7.50. The move was speculated to support content for HTC’s .....

Interview: InComm Primes Online Commerce

DEC. 14, 2010 • The emergence of the free-to-play online model as a major growth sector in the games business in recent years could not have happened as smoothy without companies such as InComm. Given the ranges of ages and incomes of people who play games online, the tried and true credit card payment systems was not sufficient. Many consumers would rather pay as they go, and are not comfortable with offering up their debit c.....

End of content

End of content