Counterfeit Nintendo Gear Nabbed By Oz Customs The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service have seized game copiers (commonly referred to as R4 cards) and other counterfeit Nintendo products from an importer attempting to distribute the products in Australia.
Call Of Duty Creators Sue Activision For US$36 Million Activision is being sued by two former employees for US$36 million for ‘breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and wrongful termination in violation of public policy.’
Government Receives 55,000 R18+ Submissions The Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, announced that more than 55,000 submissions were received in response to the R18+ Classification for Computer Games Discussion Paper.
Desperate Sony Try To Take On Apple Leaks Reveal Sony is moving closer to a head on fight with Apple, who in recent years have flattened the Sony brand, with a range of unique products, better designs and patents on technology that give them a distinct advantage over the struggling Japanese consumer electronics Company.
PlayStation Network Crash Fixed Sony has announced that its PSN issue is now resolved, with machines restoring themselves automatically without a patch.
Video Games & Violence Closer Than Smoking & Cancer COMMENT: Psychologist Dr Wayne Warburton has claimed that the link between games and violence is much stronger than the link between smoking and lung cancer.
Nintendo OZ Boss Quits EXCLUSIVE: Rose Lappin, the long-time boss of Nintendo Australia, has retired, with Mr Yuji Bando, who is currently based at Nintendo Japan, set to replace her.
EFA Urges Gamers To Comment On R18+ With just over two days to go until the deadline for public comment on the proposed R18+ rating for videogames, Electric Frontiers Australia has made its submission public.
46,000 Gamers Support R18+ Rating EB Games has received over 46,000 submissions in support of the introduction of an R18+ rating for computer games.
OZ Snubbed Over Nintendo Release Announcements Once again the gaming world has decided Australia is not important enough for major announcements, with a stunning lineup of Nintendo games being announced at the company's US media summit.
Big Nintendo Summit A Fizzer Nintendo's media summit at the company’s Melbourne HQ today was a disappointment, with none of the anticipated products making an appearance.
Thousands Urge Rudd Government To Intro R18+ Gaming Thousands of Australians who logged online to advocate the introduction of an R18+ category for computer games in Australia are set to see their submissions handed over to the Australia Federal Government's Attorney-General’s Department.
New Sony Gaming Controller Patent As Sony moves to delivering gaming content to its Bravia TVs, gaming consoles and PCs via its new content network, the company is considering the launch of a universal gaming controller, recent patents have revealed.
Social Game Company Worth Over $3bn Social games are becoming big business, with a new report indicating that developer Zynga could be worth more than US$3 billion—with the entire games industry worth $38bn at E3 2009.
Nintendo DS Pirates To Pay $620k UPDATED: Nintendo has scored a second piracy win in Australia—this time a $520,000 settlement from distributor GadgetGear for selling R4 chips.
Michael Atkinson Reveals Gamer Threat Details A spokesperson for Michael Atkinson, the SA Attorney-General opposing the R18+ rating for video games, told News Ltd that the threatening note slipped under the Attorney-General’s door was delivered over a year ago.
Rising Social Gaming Trend Driven By Women According to a recent survey by PopCap games, women are driving the latest video game trend—and the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman.
PlayStation Network Coming To Mobile Phones With Microsoft yesterday announcing that its new Windows 7-based phone will have Xbox Live, it is no surprise that today Sony announced the PSN is coming to Sony Ericsson phones.
Nintendo DS2 To Have Motion Control? Developer kits for Nintendo’s DS are already in the hands of third-party developers, according to a rumour report from GoNintendo.
Nintendo Wins Victory Against Video Game Piracy Nintendo has confirmed the settlement of a Federal Court action against an Australian for illegally copying and uploading to the Internet a Nintendo title not yet released.
JB HI FI Reports Record Profit More Stores Planned JB Hi-Fi has reported a record half-year net profit of $76 million from $1.55 billion in sales. This is significantly higher than both Harvey Norman and the Woolworths-owned Dick Smith stores.
Gamers Willing To Compromise Over R18+ Rating Consumers who have read the discussion paper on the gaming classification issue welcome the allowance of an R18+ rating whereby restrictions still remain over some games.
Strong Sales Pushes Nintendo On Top Nintendo has reported that it has sold through more than 760,000 DS units, 730,000 Wii consoles, as well as 200,000 copies of its Wii game, New Super Mario Brothers Wii. The company also said that the Nintendo Wii had a unit sales share of 33 per cent despite not passing on the announced price cuts to Australian consumers.
Massive 2009 Sales For Video Game Industry According to sales data compiled by GFK, video and computer gaming sales reached a record of $2.05 billion. This is an increase of 4 per cent from 2008 despite last year’s challenging economic climate.
Big Sony PlayStation Losses PSP Faces Axe Sony Computer Entertainment, which faces being merged into Sony Australia this year in an effort to cut operating costs, is facing an online battle in Australia with Microsoft in an effort to lure consumers to buy products direct from SCE via its new Sony Network.
Video Games Market Set To Shrink As Consumers Go Live The Australian video games market is tipped to shrink this year with vendors like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo set to discount their gaming consoles even further than what they did in 2009 in an effort to drive sales.
No Sony Gran Turismo 5 Anytime Soon Sony has stalled the launch of Gran Turismo 5 with speculation mounting that the new game could be released in full 3D. It is now expected that the popular game will be released in November in time for the peak Xmas buying period.
OZ A Content Wasteland For Console Sellers Nintendo has no plans to replace its highly successful Wii gaming console this year in Australia, nor does it plan to deliver content similar to the US, with Australia being described as a “content wasteland” by a GFK analyst at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.
First Video Game Bar Launched Four Brisbane locals will be opening the first bar in Australia that will allow people to enjoy a drink while playing the latest video games at the same time.
Major Sony Shakeup Job Losses Tipped Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Australia could be forced to merge in an effort to cut costs. The move could result in several people being made redundant, with others forced to move to North Ryde where Sony Australia is located.
Adult Classification For Computer Games The Rudd Government has raised the possibility of introduction of an R18+ rating for adult computer games after years of rebuffing moves by the games industry for this type of classification.
Game On: US Game Company Sues UK Blogger In OZ Court The New South Wales Court is today scheduled to hear an explosive court case where a US online gaming company is taking action against a UK blogger in an Australian Court. The action if allowed to go ahead could set a precedent for the way defamation laws are applied to the online world.
Game Gear Sales Crash Industry Not In Play This Xmas The video games industry, the onetime darling of the consumer electronics industry is facing a bleak Christmas with both software and console sales crashing running into the peak buying period.
Logitech Working On UMD For New Sony PSPgo Swiss accessories company Logitech is tipped to be working on a Universal Media Disc Player (UMD) that will allow users to play games on the new Sony PSPgo.
Burson Marsteller Walks Away From LG Leading PR agency Burson Marsteller has chosen not to re-pitch for the LG PR account in Australia after LG Korean chose to call a pitch for the business two months ago. This resulted in several WPP PR Companies, including Hill & Knowlton, PPR and Pulse, fighting for the account, which is believed to have gone to Pulse.
Big 3 Gaming Companies Sued Over Controllers A Canadian company is suing Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft for using dual-shock wireless technology in their games controllers, which the company claims infringes patents held by them.
Nintendo Wii Sales Slump Sales of Nintendo Wii are slumping, with the Japanese vendor not getting the sales lift it expected after slashing prices around the world, with the exception of Australia, where the company chose to bundle additional games.
Derwent Howard Cuts Deal With Porn Publisher For $160K The phone lines between Spain and Sydney could be running hot tonight after Jim Flynn, the former CEO of failed technology media company Derwent Howard, bought his failed company back for $160,000 after placing the company into administration with debts of over $4M in August.
XBox 360 & Sony PS3 Publisher Paid Out $4M Weeks Before Going Bust Serious questions are tonight being raised as to whether creditors, including a former director of failed technology media company Derwent Howard, were given preferential payments ahead of the collapse of the company after it was revealed that $4M was paid out in the six months prior to the Company being placed into administration in August 2009.
Gaming Consoles Set To Come Under Threat You won’t need a Sony PS3, Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii in the future claims a European Company who this week revealed a new video game service that allow video games to be played in the home via an existing subscription TV network similar to Foxtel.
Sony Playstation3D Firmware Upgrade Coming Sony, who is banking on 3D technology to deliver those profits in the future, is set to update both their new Slim PS3 and their old PS3 to be 3D compatible however the upgrade is useless without a 3D TV or display screen to view 3D content.
Single Game Title Generates $660 Million + In First Week Worried about weak consumer spending on gaming, Activision Blizzard, has produced a blockbuster with "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" scored record sales of over $630 million in its first five days.
Gaming On PS3 & XBox 360 Under Threat The gaming industry which is facing a bit of a crisis as vendors like EA Games slash 1500 jobs and game sales start to soften, could be facing another crisis as consumers start using their PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles to watch movies and Internet movies as opposed to gaming.
HD Movies To Be Available On XBox In Oz As the live network battle between Sony and Microsoft ramps up, Microsoft has moved to deliver HD content to their Xbox 360 console in Australia.
Hewlett Packard Staff Win $82 Million Hewlett Packard could be looking for a few extra staff after several of their employees scooped a record $82 Million dollars in the lottery.
Sony Set To Crank Up PS3 Marketing Sony Computer Entertainment who last month dropped the price of their Playstation 3 offering while also introducing a new slim model is now set to roll out a multi-pronged, multiplatform strategy to grow the popularity of the Blu-ray-enabled console with a combination of content and experience marketing. They have also recently launched a 250GB model.
Big Growth For Gaming Industry Despite the global financial crisis, the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association has reported strong sales for gaming consoles and games for the third quarter. The association also expects to surpass the sales records set last year.
GFK To Track Online Game Sales Leading product research Company GFK is set to tracking the sale of downloaded PC games.The service will start early in 2010 according to Company executives.
New Larger Nintendo DSi Also A Touch Screen Reader? Nintendo is looking at a new larger, Nintendo DSi concept that is also a touch screen reader similar to the popular Kindle product which was launched in Australia last month Amazon.
