In the turbulent times we are living globally, I thought it would be relevant to highlight some of the industry happenings as there are potential impacts to the gaming public. Hopefully this will continue as semi-regular Loot-Ninja feature. The following have been the recent headlines in no particular order. Hit the links for the Loot-Ninja articles.
- EA restructuring Casual Label, merges with Sims, now a broad audience gaming section.
- EA posts losses for Q2 2009
- EA stops chasing Take-Two
- THQ posts losses for Q2 2009 and announces lay offs
- Midway cancels licenses, posts losses for Q3 2009 and Shari Redstone resigns as Chairwoman, replaced by Peter Brown.
- Activision Blizzard posts losses for Q2 2009, drops Vivendi titles, and acquires Budcat Creations
- Brash loses some top management, announces layoffs then shuts down.
- Amazon acquires Reflexive Entertainment
- Square Enix sticks with revival titles and posts profit for Q2 2009, opens new studio in the US.
- Konami posts profit in Q2 2009.
- Tecmo & Koei merger announced. (I’m waiting for a Ninja Gaiden / Dynasty Warriors / DoA crossover)
- Wizkids to Cease Operations
- Avalanche Studios to Lay Off 77 Employees
- E for All for next year is cancelled
Lots of grim news financially and lots of studios shutting down, downsizing, rightsizing, etc. The global recession taking a toll on the gaming industry, probably. The above news updates are pretty similar to latest news in the banking industry. In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past year that means things are not very good.
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