Mad Catz Cuts Harmonix Ties

JUNE 6, 2016 • After realizing less than expected revenue from its Rock Band 4 co-publishing deal with Harmonix Music Systems Inc., Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. has finalized an exit agreement and will clear out remaining Rock Band 4 peripheral inventory by September 9. In a financial conference call, chief executive Karen McGinnis explained that the game sold well when launched last October but consumer demand was significantly lower than expected. To try and bui.....

PlayStation 4 Tops 40 Million Sold

MAY 27, 2016 • As of May 22 the PlayStation 4 sales have reached 40 million units worldwide since November 2013. That total is up from the 35.9 million tally announced last January by Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. For the 2014 fiscal year Sony said 18.8 million P.....

Halo 5 Map Tools Go to PC

MAY 20, 2016 • Microsoft Corp. is bringing its Halo 5 Forge map editing tool to Windows 10 PCs as a free application later this year. Forge was first introduced with Halo 3 back in 2007 and was redesigned for Halo 5 to add more control. Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition takes that control philosophy another step forward by embracing mouse and keyboard control, which allows users a better opportunity to create higher-quality map levels. What sets the Windows 10.....

The Fall of Microsoft’s Game Business

MAY 16, 2016 • The recent news that Microsoft Corp. was shutting down its highly ambitious Project Spark game/service received only muted attention but it is a sign of how the company is becoming increasingly irrelevant in the game space. Project Spark was a virtual world building game along the lines of Minecraft. It was hampered by a clumsy freemium business model and never could gain much trac.....

Nvidia’s Pascal Doesn’t Disappoint

MAY 9, 2016 • Nvidia Corp.’s first GPUs based on its new Pascal architecture were unveiled on May 6 and the firm demonstrated performance specifications that exceeded its $1,000 top of the line TITAN X from last year. GTX 1080-based GPUs are slated to arrive at retail late this month, with the more affordable $379 GTX 1070s following two weeks later. A single GTX 1080 is more powerful than two GTX 980s working together in SLI mode, while the GTX 1070 is ab.....

Nintendo NX Console Set For March 2017

APRIL 27, 2016 • Nintendo Co. Ltd. released its consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ending March 31, and in the small print was a statement that the Nintendo NX console would be released in March 2017. At the accompanying earnings press conference held in Osaka, Japan, chief executive Tatsumi Kimishima confirmed the March launch for Nintendo’s next system. The executive did not say what markets the NX will be shipped to next March, nor ho.....

AMD Promotes Sulon Q VR

MARCH 15, 2016 • Topping early virtual reality announcements at this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was the Sulon Q headset from Sulon Technologies Inc. The device was unveiled on stage at an event held by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. What sets the Sulon Q apart from competit.....