SCi Restructures

FEB. 29, 2008 • Eidos parent SCi is undertaking a radical restructuring of its operations in order to reduce costs as much as £14 million annually. Revenue for the six months ending Dec. 31 were down £73 million, while operating costs for the period had grown £81.4 million compared to 2006. The plan inc.....

Tabula Rasa’s Fiery Sendoff

FEBRUARY 27, 2008 • Tabula Rasa was not the first MMO to be shut down, but it was one of the few that went out with a bang. Instead of simply switching off the servers on Feb. 27, subscribers of the NCsoft title were treated to a final-day epic onslaught of alien invaders in a huge special event. They alien ravagers, controlled by game GMs, wreaked havoc, and despite a valiant defense, the Earth was destroyed. Game over. Impact: By their very nature .....

Sims Online Now EA Land

FEB. 26, 2008 • EA has relaunched The Sims Online as EA Land. The original MMO did not match the popularity of single-player Sims games, and was discontinued after a year in October 2003. The widely held reason for the MMO’s lack of success was not supporting player-made content. So the original subscription r.....

Guild Wars Tops 5M

FEB. 26, 2008 • Since April 2005, NCSoft’s Guild Wars MMO has sold more than 5 million units worldwide. Guild Wars was developed by ArenaNet, which is currently working on Guild Wars 2. Impact: While Guild Wars is often called an MMOG, it is much more like a tradi.....

Harrison Resigns From Sony

FEB. 25, 2008 • Sony Computer Entertainment announced that Phil Harrison, president of its game development studios, had resigned. No reason for the departure was provided, and chief executive Kaz Hirai said he would take on Harrison’s responsibilities. Harrison had been with Sony since 1992, and was a veteran of the original PlayStation launch on 1995. Impact: Phil Harrison was a leading driver of making the PlayStation platforms family friendly w.....

Take-Two Rejects EA

FEB. 24, 2008 • Take-Two Interactive rejected a $2 billion ($26 per share) acquisition offer from Electronic Arts. The offer was 64% higher than the Feb. 15 closing price. EA had previously offered $25 per share. Take-Two’s board of directors rejected the tender by arguing the offer undervalued the publisher, which is.....

New 360 MSRPs

FEB. 21, 2008 • Microsoft began a series of Xbox 360 price reductions starting in Canada. The price of the Pro model there was lowered to C$349 ($350) from C$399, the Elite went from C$499 to C$449 ($450), and the Arcade dropped to C$279 ($280) from C$299. On March 10, the company dropped €80 of each of .....

PC Gaming Alliance

FEB. 21, 2008 • Attempting to standardize hardware requirements for PC games, as well as promote the platform, has led Acer, Activision, AMD, Dell, Epic Games, Intel, Microsoft and Nvidia to create the PC Gaming Alliance. The group hopes to improve PC Game sales by promoting innovation, and improving the game experience for consumers through joint software and hardware standards. Impact: A major problem with the PC game industry has been the lack of .....