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The latest figures from Viacom show a 65 per cent fall in net earnings compared to the previous year, a fall it at least partly attributes to its on going dispute with Harmonix.

For Q1 2012 the company showed net earnings of $212 million for the quarter ending December 31 2011. This figure showed a $398 million drop from the previous year's $610 million.

It was a drop that James W Barge, chief financial officer, blamed on the recent legal battle with Harmonix.

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SEGA Sammy has released its nine month financial report for the period ending December 31, 2011, revealing a shrinking videogames business but a resurgence in the sales of Pachinko machines.

Overall, the business made a profit of ¥34.4 billion (£284.7m) for the period, with sales of ¥311.7 billion (£2.58bn), a year on year increase of 0.5 per cent.

Of that total, ¥64.1 billion in net sales came from the Consumer Business arm, which includes SEGA's videogame business alongside its toy and animation sectors. That represents a shrinkage of 4.9 per cent from the same period in the year previous.

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Eutechnyx and Brain in a Jar - two UK racing specialists - are teaming for a new project to be announced later in the year.

Brain in a Jar focuses on simulations with its proprietary motorsports game engine, and has assisted developers such as Codemasters and Reflections in the past.

"We're very excited to be working with Eutechnyx on one of its biggest projects this year, as we're keen to demonstrate the two pillars on which our company is founded on - great technology and intelligent staff scaling."

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Nippon Ichi's latest consolidated earnings estimate for the fiscal year has increased totals for operating income and net income.

Net income estimates are up to ¥203 million from ¥59 million, and operating income is now ¥303 million, previously ¥107 million. Strong sales on both PlayStation Vita and PS3 for the Disgaea have helped boost the numbers for the Japanese publisher.

Sales are down from ¥2,288 million to ¥2,246 million, which the company attributes to release delays for The Witch And The Hundred Soldiers and the US edition of Disgaea 3 Return.

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Zynga's chief game designer Brian Reynolds and Nexon America vice president of live games Min Kim are now both members of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Board of Directors.

"Min will make a welcome addition to the Board," said Shuhei Yoshida, current AIAS board member.

"Through games such as their flagship title, MapleStory, and now recently, Dragon Nest and Vindictus, Nexon has paved the way for Free-to-Play titles over the last decade to push this genre forward to ever expanding audiences in MMO gaming. We will greatly benefit from that same passion - there is no doubt he will work to make great strides in pushing the mission of the AIAS forward."

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Seamus Blackley, who co-created the Xbox at Microsoft, has founded a new start up making iOS titles, investing personal money into the venture, but also raising investment from THQ.

Innovative Leisure also employs what Blackley calls the "dream team" or "Jedi Council" of veteran programmers from Atari's golden years, when the company dominated the arcade cabinet business with titles like Asteroids and Centipede.

Speaking to VentureBeat, Blackley said he sees iOS as the "new arcade" for gamers, with the common 99c price point representing the "new quarter" for a new generation.

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Former Microsoft head of product marketing Robin Burrowes, who lead marketing and management of Xbox Live in Europe, has made the move to Apple.

According to his LinkedIn profile he started the position last month, where he's now responsible for App Store marketing for iTunes Europe.

Burrowes joined Xbox UK in February 2005 following time with MSN and HMV. At Microsoft he was marketing manager for the console, and was responsible for promotions including Xtival Free LIVE Weekend and the Summer Of Football campaign.

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6Waves Lolapps (6L) CEO Rex Ng has denied that his company breached any NDA agreement with Triple town developer Spry Fox.

Spry Fox filed a lawsuit against 6L after the company's representatives denied accusations of plagiarism in an interview, calling the claims "part of the natural process."

Spry Fox is now trying to prove that 6L took core ideas and mechanics from Triple Town whilst it was in negotiations to publish the game, leading to its recently acquired mobile studio Escalation releasing the similar title Yeti Town for iOS.

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German company GFACE has launched the live beta for its new, Crytek backed, freemium social gaming service.

GFACE.com offers a mix of core and casual titles that can be played across multiple devices, iPhone, iPad, PC browser, along with a mix of social networking features. Crytek's free-to-play title Warface can be seen in some of the promotional screenshots.

"GFACE enables its users to discover and experience entertainment together in real time" said Cevat Yerli, GFACE director and CEO of Crytek.

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Video game talent agency Digital Development Management has appointed Tehyon 'Tae' Kim as its director of business development.

Kim comes with extensive mobile and social games experience, having worked with 5th Planet Games, Bionic Panda, Gaia and GamersFirst, amongst others.

"We are pleased to welcome Tae to our exceptional team," offered Jeff Hilbert, founder of DDM

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Harvest Moon creator and erstwhile Grasshopper COO Yasuhiro Wada has revealed his new Japanese studio, Toybox.

Wada was most recently employed at Grasshopper, but left after finding that company's culture difficult to adapt to. He is most famous for creating the long-running Harvest Moon series.

Very little is known about Toybox yet, but Wada seems keen to do more than just entertain.

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Japanese company DeNA has become the latest industry name to set up operations in Canada, opening DeNA studios Canada later this month.

Irfan Virk, the current CEO of DeNA subsidiary Gameview Studios, will oversee the new Vancouver operation.

"We are excited to begin operations with the great talent in Vancouver," he said.

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The GAME Group has been thrown a lifeline by its creditors in the City, which have renegotiated its lending terms to allow the company to continue to operate.

Announced in the early hours of this morning, the new deal will enable the chain to remain trading, with the executives confident that GAME will pass its covenant tests for the year ending January 31.

A projection of an $18 million loss for that year has been made, prior to the cost of tax and non-recurring items.

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It's official at last - after being publicly groomed as Sir Howard Stringer's replacement for the past couple of years, PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai has been confirmed as the new president and CEO of Sony. On April 1st, Stringer will step aside (becoming chairman of the company's board of directors, a separate and more hands-off role from company chairman at Sony) and Hirai's reign will begin.

In doing so, Hirai could be seen as completing the plan which PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi was never able to accomplish. Kutaragi was widely tipped as a future Sony boss after the extraordinary success of the PlayStation and PS2, and various executive moves between 1997 and 2003 seemed to be aimed at installing him in the role. The botched launch of PS3 sank Kutaragi's ambitions, though - so it's Hirai, instead, who fulfills the dream of a PlayStation boss taking over the entire company.

We've become so used to the idea of Hirai as the natural successor to Stringer that it's easy to be blasé and underestimate just how important this move is. Sony, for all its recent difficulty in turning a profit and the challenges it faces in many markets, is an absolute giant of a company - one for whom the videogames market started out as little more than a hobby. Hirai's appointment isn't just a testament to his own abilities as an executive - it's a recognition that the confluence of hardware, software and network services in modern consumer electronics has made videogames into the front line of a war between competing visions of the future of entertainment and communications.

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THQ is currently looking for a partner to bring its MMO Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium to market.

In a conference call to investors following the release of the company's third quarter results, CEO Brian Farrell confirmed that the high costs of development are putting a burden on the project.

"While the game in development promises to be a high-quality consumer offering, because of the large financial commitment and associated risks, we are being realistic about our resources and we are actively seeking a partner for this compelling MMO," he said.

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Troubled publisher THQ recorded a $56 million net loss for the third quarter ended December 31, compared to losses of $15m for the same period in 2010.

Sales of Saints Row: The Third were high during the three months - 3.6 million copies, but these were countered by poor performance of novelty Wii tablet uDraw and its software. Today it confirmed it was no longer manufacturing uDraw hardware.

Net sales for the three months were $305 million, down from $315 million the previous year.

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Take-Two turned a profit of just over $14 million in the quarter ending December 31, 2011 - largely thanks to strong sales of its only major release in the period, NBA 2K12.

A busier release period in the same quarter in 2010, combined with stronger catalogue sales, netted a profit of $40.86 million.

Sales for the third quarter totalled $236.33 million, down from $334.29 for the same quarter in the year previous.

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America's most influential analysts are putting paying subscribers for EA's Star Wars: The Old Republic at 1.3 million, and a conversion rate of 75 to 80 per cent.

Doug Creutz from Cowen estimated estimated the figure of paying players to be between 1.3 million and 1.5 million, with 200,000 to 400,000 still enjoying their first month's free trial.

Baird Equity Research concurred with the 1.3 million estimate, despite originally predicting the number to be 1 million.

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Oklahoma State Representative William Fourkiller has introduced a bill to introduce extra taxes on games rated teen or higher.

Bill HB 2696 wants a 1 per cent rise in tax on games rated by the ESRB as Teen, Mature or Adults Only. According the bill, that money would then go towards programmes combatting bullying and obesity in children.

The bill describes the situation as an emergency.

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Kinect for Windows and its commercial SDK and runtime has now launched in 12 countries, giving companies the chance to put the technology to use.

"Kinect has had an amazing first year, selling over 18m sensors," said Steve Clayton on Microsoft's official Technet blog.

"Now it's game on for businesses to show us what they can do with this technology - once they have Kinect for Windows hardware and have installed the SDK, they're free to innovate away. Just how we like it."

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