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13Celebrating Newsstand's opening, we're giving away our full October issue.
13Huge drop in revenue causes half-yearly losses to rise by a factor of 35; company forecasts first annual loss in videogame era.
5Even as developers look to streaming tech like Gaikai, Facebook remains relevant, says marketing head.
EA says the issues affecting Battlefield 3's online component since its launch last week are all but fixed. As we reported last week, the Xbox 360 version was the hardest hit, with server connectivity problems when the game launched in North America last Tuesday and again following the game's midnight launch in Europe on Friday. More >
1Mobile monetisation and analytics firm Tapjoy is to launch an iOS software marketplace of its own, though it insists it is not doing so to escape Apple's new advertising policies. Tapjoy fell foul of a change to Apple's policy which prohibited apps the practice of "pay-per-install". Tapjoy's core business model involves advertising one app within another; when the new app is downloaded and played the user is rewarded with virtual currency in the game they were playing before. More >
Epic Games has released the October build of its Unreal Development Kit (UDK), with new features, including Facebook integration, now available to iOS developers. Developers can now enable their games to make Facebook wall posts, download friends lists, and request additional permissions from users. More >
Angry Birds is now the most copied brand in China, but it seems developer Rovio doesn't mind at all. Speaking at the Disrupt conference in Beijing, CEO Peter Vesterbacka said the widespread availability of unlicensed Angry Birds merchandise proved that there was a sufficiently large audience in the country to justify Rovio's Chinese expansion. More >
Microsoft plans to launch a commercial version of its Kinect SDK early next year, giving businesses the opportunity to create their own software to make us of the device's unique capabilities. Microsoft product manager David Dennis told Gamasutra that over 200 brands across 25 countries have signed up for the program. While most are remaining anonymous for the time being to avoid tipping off competitors, Toyota and marketing agency Razorfish are among those confirmed to be involved. More >
GameMaker developer claims most web game dev tools are like “trying to open a bottle with a sledgehammer.”
Battlefield 3 tops n the UK all-formats chart in its first week on sale. DICE's EA-published shooter enjoyed the tenth-best launch sales of all time, beating the combined sales of all previous entries in the series. More >
Minecraft has won the GameCity Prize 2011, becoming the first-ever recipient of the award at the annual Nottingham festival. Swedish developer Mojang's beloved indie sandbox was given the award - which recognises artistic, rather than financial success - at a ceremony on Saturday. It was selected by a panel including South Bank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly OBE, musician Nitin Sawhney and Labour MP Tom Watson. More >
Capcom will release on-rails Wii shooters Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles for PlayStation 3. The company made the announcement at an event to celebrate the series' 15th anniversary according to Andriasang. The games, released for Wii in 2007 and 2009 respectively, will be released together, in HD with Move support. More >
Suda 51's Grasshopper Manufacture studio is to form a dedicated social games company with DeNa, owner of hugely popular Japanese mobile social network Mobage. The company, provisionally named Grasshopper Social Network Service, will develop mobile games exclusively for Gree, with Grasshopper to transfer its existing mobile operations to the new company and DeNa to provide funding. More >
Sega Sammy's latest financial results show declines across the board, with revenue down by almost a third and profits falling 83.7 per cent. Sales revenue for the six months to September 30 was ¥152.6 billion (£1.25 billion), with net income falling from ¥24.3 billion this time last year to ¥3.9 billion (£32.6 billion). More >
Nintendo's first annual losses in 30 years, Grand Theft Auto V and warring pandas - a week in videogame news.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told investors he feels "greatly accountable" for the company's dismal performance this year which has left it facing its first-ever annual loss in the videogame business, and outlined a programme of change in a bid to reverse the company's decline from the incredible profitability of the Wii and DS era. Speaking to investors following the announcement of Nintendo's financial results earlier this week, Iwata outlined several major changes on which rest the prospects of a reversal in fortunes - and, perhaps, of him hanging onto his job. More >
8Sony has at last confirmed a release date for downloadable multiplayer shooter Payday: The Heist. The game, developed by Overkill Software and to be published by Sony Online Entertainment, will be released on PlayStation Store next Wednesday, November 2 - the same day as the biggest PS3 game of the year, Uncharted 3, hits shelves. More >
The Sims 3: Pets is the new number one in the Nordic chart, which combines sales data from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, in its first week on shelves. Astoundingly the EA-published expansion has outsold Batman: Arkham City, which sold two million copies worldwide in its first week and, in the UK, topped the chart and enjoyed the fourth-best launch of the year so far. More >
1Unity Technologies' 3D development platform Unity is to power a new virtual world to help soldiers to keep in touch with friends and family. Billed as a "community hub," the Army OneSource Virtual World is set in a virtual army campus split into several areas in which soldiers and their loved ones can interact not only with each other, but with those in similar situations and develop emotional and physical resilience, dubbed Virtual Resiliency. More >
Electronic Arts sustained a loss of $340 million (£212.2 million) in the three months to September 30, a rise of 69 per cent year on year. The loss comes despite an increase in the publisher's net sales revenue of 13 per cent, to $715 million (£446.3 million). Among factors contributing to that discrepancy are sales and marketing costs, as well as R&D.; More >
Nintendo is to give a thorough overhaul of the 3DS download service, eShop, with demos, sleep mode downloads, and a browser version of the store for PCs and smartphones. Speaking to investors following its latest financial results, company president Satoru Iwata said: "We are aiming to accelerate our digital business, the importance of which is expected to become even higher in the future. Several new functions will be added to the Nintendo eShop." More >
It appears Xbox 360 owners continue to have a tough time with Battlefield 3, with European gamers picking up copies at midnight launches last night encountering server problems, and some unable to access the game's multiplayer component at all due to single-use, in-box codes being invalid. Reports on Twitter and gaming forums overnight show that once again EA's servers are struggling with demand, as was the case following its North American launch on Tuesday. More >
13Mike Morhaime, president of World Of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment, has apologised for homophobic comments made in a video shown on the closing night of last weekend's Blizzcon festival. The comments came from Cannibal Corpse frontman George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, who was performing vocals for Blizzard's staff band Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain. While the video was censored, Fisher was clearly heard using homophobic slurs against members of the Alliance faction. More >