Capcom Shifts Strategy

APRIL 19, 2013 • Changing consumer preferences in favor of mobile and online game platforms has led Capcom Co., Ltd. to announce a serious restructuring of its product plans. Capcom reviewed its business expansion strategy and restructured its game development organization to account for what it characterized as its own delayed response to the shift to digital media delivery being seen throughout the video game industry. Furthermore, the company admitted a decli.....

Disney Axes LucasArts Game Development

APRIL 3, 2013 • Acquired as part of the $4.05 billion buyout of LucasFilm by the Walt Disney Co. last October, LucasArts’ new owners have decided the game division will no longer internally develop new titles moving forward. The status of new content under development, such as Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault, is unclear as the developers working on the titles have been laid o.....

John Riccitiello Out at Electronic Arts

MARCH 19, 2013 • Six years after taking the reins at Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello resigned as chief executive and board member. In a blog post to EA employees, Riccitiello described his departure in financial terms. “My decision to leave EA is really all about my taking accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year. It currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued t.....

LG Acquires WebOS

FEB. 25, 2013 • Major South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer LG Electronics Inc. is buying the WebOS operating system source code from the Hewlett-Packard Co. The latter acquired the mobile phone system when it purchased Palm, Inc. in 2010 for $1.2 billion. Financial terms of the LG deal were n.....

Wargaming Buys Gas Powered Games

FEB. 15, 2013 • Financially ailing Gas Powered Games, which had pegged its future on its new Wildman action RPG property and a $1 million Kickstarter campaign to fund the project, agreed to be acquired by F2P World of Tanks publisher Wargaming. In the three weeks since starting the funding drive, Gas Powered Games had just over $500,000 in pledges and had been forced to lay off most of its staff. Following the acquisition by Wargaming, the indie developer cance.....

Philips Electronics Quits Consumer Electronics Biz

JAN. 31, 2013 • Once the largest maker of radios in the world during the first half of the 20th Century, and a perennial mainstay within the consumer electronics industry, Philips Electronics has called it quits and sold its audio, multimedia, video and accessories units to Japan’s Funai Electric Co. in what the Wall Street Journal termed the token sum of €150 million ($204.1 million). Philips had a long history of innovation that saw the developm.....

Junction Point Studios Closed

JAN. 29, 2013 • Despite the recent corporate acquisition of LucasFilm and LucasArts by the Walt Disney Co., Disney Interactive is still paring down its development assets with the shuttering of Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios in Austin. Spector is best known for the Thief and Deus Ex franchises. Junction Point was acquired by Disney in 2007 and was tasked with developing Disney E.....