Take-Two makes Q3 profit

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:23pm on September 3rd, 2010

Take-Two has confirmed that they made a profit in the third fiscal quarter that ended on July 31st, 2010. The company managed $354.1 million in sales, which is up from $94.9 million for the same quarter last year. Net income clocked in at $6 million, which is up from a loss of $56 million last year.

Red Dead Redemption has been credited with achieving most of these numbers. The game has now shipped 6.9 million units. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, GTA IV, NBA 2K10 and Borderlands also managed to contribute. The company expects to be profitable for the full fiscal year with sales of $1.05 to $1.1 billion.

“Our results for the third quarter and our expectations for the remainder of fiscal 2010 reflect significant progress toward achieving our goals,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. “First, we expect to be profitable in a fiscal year without a major multi-platform Grand Theft Auto release. Second, Take-Two’s broad array of hit franchises highlights our ability to deliver a diverse product line. Third, Red Dead Redemption has shown that our creative teams can produce multiple mega-hit franchises.”

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Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | Rockstar Games | Take-Two

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Sony files US PSJailbreak lawsuit

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:23pm on September 3rd, 2010

Sony Computer Entertainment America has filed a lawsuit against an online distributor that was planning to sell the new PSJailbreak USB modchip. Sony believes that the device circumvents the PS3’s copy protection as it allows people to back up and play games copied to the system’s (and external) hard drive.

The distributor in question is Zoomba LDC, and they have been accused of copyright infringement, violations of the digital millennium copyright act and trademark infringement. Sony is beginning to clamp down on the device, having recently got a temporary injunction that stops the PSJailbreak being sold in Australia.

However, it looks like the cat is out of the bag as clones of the device have already started to crop up. Inventive folk can even make their own with a teensy board or a few other USB development boards.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PlayStation 3 | Sony

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PS3 3D Blu-ray update coming soon

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:11pm on September 2nd, 2010

Sony has confirmed the firmware update that will allow the PS3 to play 3D Blu-rays will be released this October. Sony announced the date at IFA, a big old technology fair. The company also unveiled a few 3D bundles, with Alice in Wonderland and Michael Jackson’s This Is It in the mix. An exact release date for the update is yet to be confirmed, but we’ll let you know when we find out.

3D | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PlayStation 3 | Sony | Tech News

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Epic Games working on their first Apple title

Posted by Chris Holmes at 10:11pm on September 1st, 2010

Apple head honcho Steve Jobs has confirmed that Epic Games is working on their first game for Apple platforms. He was joined on stage at Apple’s press conference by Epic president Mike Capps today to show off “Project Sword”. It is a first-person action adventure game and will apparently offer “epic sword battles”. It will also support Game Centre.

Epic will be licensing Project’s Sword’s engine out for other iOS developers to use, so in essence what we saw was the big screen debut of Unreal Engine for the iPhone. You can play around with a demo of the castle environment featured in the Project Sword demonstration on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad right now by downloading it here.

App Store | Apple | Epic Games | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | iPad | iPhone | iPod Touch

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New iPod Touch revealed

Posted by Chris Holmes at 8:25pm on September 1st, 2010

Steve Jobs announced a new iPod Touch (amongst other stuff) during an Apple press event today. Jobs claimed that currently, the iPod Touch outsells both Nintendo’s and Sony’s handhelds combined. He went on to show off the new version of the devise that has the same specs as the iPhone 4, minus the phone bits and pieces. It has an A4 chip and a 3-axis gyroscope, alongside an upgraded Retina Display screen. There’s also a front-facing camera for Facetime oddness if you’re into that sort of thing. The 8GB model will cost $229/£189, the 32GB will set you back $299/£249 and the 64GB model is $399/£329. It is available to pre-order right now.

It will come with iOS 4.1, which launches for regular folk next week. iOS 4.1 features Game Centre, TV show rentals, HD video uploading via WiFi, HDR photos and it fixes a few bugs with proximity sensing, Bluetooth. It also fixes the mess created by iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G.

Apple | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | iPod Touch

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Atlus dissolved by parent company

Posted by Chris Holmes at 2:52pm on August 31st, 2010

Atlus has been dissolved by parent company Index Holdings, according to a press release issued by the company today. Atlus are the folks that created the Shin Megami Tensai series and published a few Japanese RPGs in North America, including Demon’s Souls. Apparently, Index Holdings dissolved them to refocus on “profitable core areas”. It looks like the Atlus brand will continue on in some form or another, but there aren’t any more details on that yet.

Atlus | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News

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Ubisoft lays off Red Storm Entertainment staff

Posted by Chris Holmes at 1:00pm on August 27th, 2010

Ubisoft has announced that they have laid off 38 members of staff from Red Storm Entertainment. Red Storm was founded by Tom Clancy and Navy veteran Doug Littlejohns. The studio has produced quite a few titles, including Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and America’s Army: True Soldiers. Currently, Red Storm is working on the multiplayer component of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | Ubisoft

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UK’s first videogame channel coming November

Posted by Chris Holmes at 1:00pm on August 26th, 2010

The UK will be getting its first videogame TV channel this November. It’s called Ginx and will be available on cable and satellite services. “For us it’s about light gamers,” said CEO Michiel Bakker at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Ginx will start out with game reviews, but will eventually feature more shows that will go into other subjects. The channel will apparently explore HD and 3D in the future. Ginx already produces GameFace for Bravo, which launched during August 2009.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | UK

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This Is Vegas cancelled

Posted by Chris Holmes at 6:06pm on August 25th, 2010

Warner Bros. has canned This Is Vegas, even though the game was less than a year from completion. The title formerly belonged to Midway, but they sold it after spending more than $43 million on the game. Some retailers pulled listings for the game last August, but Warner Bros. said the project was still alive at the time. Surreal Software, the game’s developer, was closed down earlier this year. The game was in development for the PC, PS3 and 360 before it was finally put to rest.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PC | PlayStation 3 | Warner Bros | Xbox 360

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Realtime Worlds unveil APB stats

Posted by Chris Holmes at 1:07pm on August 24th, 2010

Troubled developer Realtime Worlds has lifted the lid on some APB stats as administrators try to entice a buyer for the studio. The stats confirm that APB has 130,000 registered players, and the average player plays for four hours a day. Paying gamers average $28 per month on game time and user to user marketplace trading.

“These are healthy numbers and reflect positively on APB as an ongoing concern,” Administrator Paul Dounis said. “They prove this is a very sticky and enjoyable game, which is shown by the average player daily playtime and an ARPPU (Average Revenue per Paying User) that is highest of any game out there.”

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PC | Realtime Worlds

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Modern Warfare 2 becomes the UK’s best-selling game ever

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:47pm on August 23rd, 2010

Stats from Gfk ChartTrack have unveiled that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the best-selling game of all time in the UK. It has finally overtaken Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training after 41 weeks of being on sale. Modern Warfare 2 has spent three weeks outside the top 10. Dr Kawashima took about 36 months to overtake Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the previous record holder.

Activision | Gaming Culture | Industry News | Infinity Ward | News

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Tesco joins the used games market

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:52pm on August 20th, 2010

Tesco has started to buy used games from people across the UK. The supermarket chain is offering credit for your games that can be used to buy anything else in store. Current adverts doing the rounds indicate the company will pay £19 for Red Dead Redemption on the 360, £19 for Mario Kart Wii and £12 for 2010 FIFA World Cup on the PS3. Obviously, those are just examples of what to expect in return for your games. Tesco will then re-sell the games across their stores nationwide. Currently, about 60 Tesco stores now accept pre-owned games.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | Pre-Owned Games

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USB modchip unveiled for the PS3

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:39pm on August 19th, 2010

A USB modchip for the PS3 has been developed by a Chinese firm, called “PSJailbreak”. It allows games to be dumped onto the console’s HDD and external drives and allows you to play them without the original disc. Apparently the device can work on all PS3 models and supports the current PS3 firmware. The PSX-Scene team have verified the product and famed Australian mod-shop OzModChips has posted some videos of it working to YouTube (the second one is after the jump). Have a look:

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Gaming Culture | Industry News | Mods | News | PlayStation 3

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ITV Player coming to the PS3

Posted by Chris Holmes at 7:52pm on August 18th, 2010

ITV has confirmed that they will be bringing ITV Player to the PS3 before the end of 2010. They have made a deal with Sony and it’s going to be implemented with a software update in the near future. Apparently it’s the start of a “wider strategy to roll out the highly successful ITV Player to platforms beyond itv.com – including games consoles and TV”. Shows on the player will be free, but there will be ads on before, during and after them to fund the service.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PlayStation 3 | PlayStation Network | Sony

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Mana to go international

Posted by Matt Purslow at 9:41am on August 5th, 2010

Last month we visited the Mana Bar in Brisbane, Australia and reported that it was really, REALLY frakking cool. But things may have just got more awesome.

‘After only four months of being open, I can confirm that we will be expanding and opening up Mana Bars in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as internationally’ Guy ‘Yug’ Bomberg said to Delimiter.com.au today.

This confirmation comes just hours after Yug posted on the bar’s Facebook page ‘It’s going to happen … sooner than you think … stay tuned’

The plans for inter-state and international Mana Bars are ‘all kicking into gear within months … very very very fucking exciting’ Yug said. ‘People like to drink cocktails and play video games, and now we get to prove that all across the world!’

Whilst knowing we can visit three Mana Bars in Australia is a great prospect, what’s most interesting is the international aspect of this announcement. Whilst there has been little information so far, Delimiter seems to suggest that San Francisco will be the first place to see an international branch. The NPCs can only hope that one will emerge on British soil very, very soon.

Gaming Culture | News

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