WoW China Caught in Red Tape

JULY 22, 2009 • World of Warcraft fans in China have not been able to play the MMO for nearly two months. First there was the downtime as Blizzard switched China operators from The9 to NetEase. Then the Chinese government got involved since NetEase now qualified as a “new operator,” which opened the title for a.....

Ghostbusters Game Sells 1M

JULY 21, 2009 • In an interview with the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Terminal Reality president Mark Randel told the newspaper that it’s recently released Ghostbusters game was completed on a budget between $15 million and $20 million. The title has sold more than 1 million units. .....

Swedish Tax Agency Looks Online

JULY 18, 2009 • The Stockholm News reported that Sweden’s Tax Agency has assigned 60 of its officers to investigate unreported online income. So far most attention has been focused on online gambling, from which has been recovered 350 million SEK. But the Tax Agency is also looking at the sale of online game item.....

WB Games Chicago

JULY 17, 2009 • Although many of Midway Games’ Chicago development staff were retained after the auction acquisition by Warner Bros., all of the former’s corporate office employees were laid off. On July 28, the studio was rebranded as WB Games Chicago. Staff at Midway studios in San Diego, Calif.; and Newcastle,.....

New EA Studio for Mobile

JULY 13, 2009 • Trying to capitalize on the popularity of the iPhone as a games platform, Electronic Arts has launched a new micro studio to specialize in developing for the platform, 8lb Gorilla. The location of the new team is not widely known on purpose, EA wants the studio to operate separately like a hungry independent .....

Netflix on Sony TVs

JULY 10, 2009 • Sony Electronics has partnered with Netflix where unlimited subscribers of the latter can stream more than 12,000 films and TV shows on Internet-capable Bravia televisions this fall. The agreement does not extend to PlayStation 3s, for now. Impact: The Netflix partnership with the Xbox 360 has been surprisingly compelling.  However, we wonder how long the uniqueness of the relationship will last.  The idea of streaming video rentals.....

Ubisoft Gets Ontario Funds

JULY 6, 2009 • The Canadian provincial government of Ontario is investing $263 million during the next 10 years to help Ubisoft Entertainment set up a game development studio in Toronto. Ubisoft will invest $500 million of its own funds to launch the new studio, which is expected to create 800 jobs by 2019. In addit.....

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