JULY 4, 2008 • New Zealand’s independent The Gamesman video game retail chain is being acquired by GameStop. Adding The Gamesman’s eight locations brings GameStop’s holding in the country to 38 stores. Impact: GameStop continues with its steady acquisition .....

JULY 3, 2008 • Empire Interactive parent Silverstar Holdings has ordered staff cuts at the publisher totaling 30% of staff. The goal is to save $3 million per year in cost efficiencies. The majority of the cuts will be accounted for by the sale of Empire’s Razorworks internal studio. .....

JULY 03, 2008 • Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany with an office in San Francisco, Calif., Gameforge focuses on both browserand client-based massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Gameforge products are in a category that DFC Intelligence is now calling MMOG Lite. This is a rapidly emerging area and features products that are not as complex as traditional MMOGs and do not have the $10+ monthly subscription fees associated with high-end MMOGs. Gameforge’s products are mainly .....

JULY 1, 2008 • The Entertainment Merchants Association released its annual report and noted that the video game industry has surpassed DVD sales in U.S. revenue for the first time. Compared to the $18.85 billion in video game revenue the NPD Group reported for calendar year 2007, DVD revenue for last year totaled $16 billion, .....

JULY 1, 2008 • Flagship Studios, the developer of the recently released Hellgate London, laid off substantial numbers of its Northern California staff. Some reports cited financial difficulties despite sales of more than 1 million units of Hellgate London. Lawyers representing the game’s Korean publisher, Hanbi.....

JUNE 30, 2008 • A big theme of recent DFC Intelligence research has been platform diversity.  In 2007, four game platforms shipped over 10 million units, the Nintendo DS and Wii and the Sony PSP and PlayStation 2.  The Nintendo DS alone shipped nearly 30 million units.  Notably absent from that list was the Microsoft Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  However, if you look at most the biggest budget games in development they are almost all being developed for either the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3.....

JUNE 23, 2008 • Since its 2006 launch, Sony reported to the SEC that the PlayStation 3 has cost the consumer electronics manufacturer $3.3 billion (¥316.3 billion). Worldwide sales to date of the console are approximately 13 million. In related news, the company has signed up 9.8 million PS3 and PSP subscribers to the.....

JUNE 20, 2008 • “A New Game Everyday.”  That is the slogan and general mantra at Big Fish Games in Seattle. The company was founded by Paul Thelen in May, 2002 with $10,000 of his own money.  Prior to starting Big Fish, Thelen was the Group Product Manager at RealNetworks where he helped launch RealArcade......