It took a few weeks, but *Sony* CEO Sir Howard Stringer has responded to *Activision* CEO Bobby Kotick’s very public threat to stop making games for the PS3 if Sony (NYSE: SNE) didn’t slash the console’s price to boost sales: “He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer told…

Financial details about ZeniMax Media’s acquisition of Quake-developer id Software were kept under wraps—but a new SEC filing reveals that ZeniMax raised $105 million in debt financing to facilitate the deal. We’re working on confirmation regarding where the funds came from.

It’s not just indie companies like ngmoco or Zynga trying to grab a slice of the mobile gaming market—TV networks like *Disney*, *ESPN* and Nickelodeon have all recently made aggressive moves into the space. Nickelodeon just launched the AddictingGames iNetwork, a mobile offshoot of its AddictingGames.com casual games portal. The…

A little Independence Day-themed news ... GGL Global Gaming, a social network and online gaming platform, has teamed up with Pro Vs GI Joe to launch Military Online Gaming (MOG), an online gaming network that gives U.S. military troops overseas a central hub where they can chat, play games together…

So how exactly does unlikely Pirate Bay bidder Global Gaming Factory X intend to profit from the scourge of the entertainment industry, and pay content owners? CEO Hans Pandeya, who offered SEK 60 million (£7.4 million) this week, tells paidContent:UK he wants to sell users’ unused hard disk space to…

And now it’s done. Midway Games has been sold to Warner Bros. for $33 million—ending about six months worth of financial turmoil and headline-grabbing legal disputes surrounding the bankrupt Mortal Kombat publisher. Warner gets most of Midway’s assets in the deal, per the Chicago Tribune; disputes between the publisher’s unsecured…

It’s been two years since Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) first started selling applications for the iPhone through the App store. In that time, investors have flocked to the opportunity, pumping slightly more than $100 million into 17 companies. The figures are being reported today by “the ChubbyBrain database,” which keeps a…

While Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is beefing up Xbox Live with social networking tools and more video content for gamers, it’s also adding a plethora of new ways for advertisers to reach them. The newest option will be IAB-standard rich media ads, which the company plans to roll out later this…

Retailers like *Best Buy* and *Amazon* know that GameStop is raking in roughly $2 billion a year from used games sales, which is why they want in on the market. Now new stats from Wedbush Morgan quantify how many units that actually breaks down to: 100 million games, or a…

Swedish publicly listed software company Global Gaming Factory X says it wants to buy The Pirate Bay SEK60 million ($7.8 million) and will begin compensating copyright ownersfor material its users find and download. GGF announced today said it will also buy P2P technology company Peerialism and plans “to launch new…

First, China introduced a tax on real-world profits generated from the sale of virtual goods; now, China’s Ministry of Commerce has released its first regulation of virtual currency. The law explicitly bans the use of virtual money to buy real-world goods or services, and restricts minors from buying any virtual…

Just a few months after rival *Activision* brought in *Yahoo* vet Dan Rosensweig to head up its Guitar Hero division, comes news that MTV Games has added two new senior execs to its roster to prep for the launch of The Beatles: Rock Band. THQ’s former EVP of publishing Scott…

Sluggish sales forced *THQ* into crisis mode late last year: the game publisher shut down or spun off seven of its studios and laid off about 600 people. The goal was to slash about $220 million in costs for its fiscal year 2010; with that achieved, THQ (NSDQ: THQI) is…

ZeniMax Media has purchased id Software, the studio behind games like Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein, creating a company with a portfolio of top first-person shooter and role playing games. ZeniMax is a publisher and also owns the studio behind games like Fallout. It also runs ZeniMax Online Studios, which develops…

Take-Two Interactive (NSDQ: TTWO) is ready to make its first big leap into the online gaming arena, and it’s partnering with Chinese internet and gaming portal Tencent to do it. The publisher has inked a multi-year deal with Tencent to launch the best-selling NBA 2K sports franchise in China. It’s…

» What the future looks like for *Netflix*, now that mailing things has become passe (and not everyone decided to get an Xbox 360).  [WSJ.com] » Good thing Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) has a backup plan because Redbox has its own plan for DVD dominance. [Yahoo Finance] » The new owners of the San…

News that *Best Buy* planned on getting into the $2 billion used video game business leaked a few months ago, but details on how the retailer’s program would work—and whether it really stood a chance of competing with GameStop’s—weren’t clear. CMO Barry Judge revealed today that Best Buy is going…

It’s one thing when indie developers, bloggers and a couple of analysts plead with Sony (NYSE: SNE) to come down on the price of the PS3. It’s another thing when the CEO of *Activision*—currently the biggest gaming company in the world—says that it might stop making games for the PS3…

Social gaming startup Playdom has scored its most high-profile new hire yet: EA COO John Pleasants, who’s taking the reins as CEO. Pleasants told us about EA’s interest in social gaming—not to mention his belief in the viability of the industry’s low-cost, high-ROI business model—so it’s not surprising that he’s…