Posts tagged economy,recession 
Man forced by kidnappers to purchase a PlayStation 3
You can tell the recession is dramatically affecting folks all over the United States when stories about kidnappers forcing their detainee to buy them gaming consoles arise. That's exactly what Kyle Yarkosky is alleging that David Daniels and another unnamed suspect did to him, after forcing him at ...
Atomic Games unable to secure funding for Six Days in Fallujah, reduces staff
(click to embiggen) Citing a lack of "full-scale funding" for controversial game Six Days in Fallujah, Atomic Games is reporting today that it's trimming staff. According to Atomic, the 75 employees of the studio remained until this week when an undisclosed amount were let go. Though the ...
Disney Interactive posts 20 percent losses in third quarter, citing bad economy
Businesses don't adhere to the same rules we silly humans do; the cycle of the Earth around the sun, for instance. Disney Interactive Media Group is no exception, posting its quarter three financial results -- the quarter that ends in June, folks -- just this week. According to Gamasutra, revenue ...
Amazon stock drops citing 'an industry slowdown in video games and consoles'
The global economic recession is finally hitting home, folks. That's right -- the Internet. Major online retailer Amazon.com is citing, "video games and consoles" as one of the primary culprits causing the company's financial hardship. According to the Wall Street Journal, though the company ...
Two Midway studios facing possible closure in two weeks
If you've got an extra few million bucks lying around, we can think of a couple of video game development studios that could really use it. According to a recent report from Guardian.uk, Midway's Newcastle and San Diego studios are facing closure if they can't find buyers by the end of June. For ...
Used game sales balloon GameStop Q1 2009 numbers
Now here's a real economic indicator: during the fiscal quarter ending May 2 of this year, used game sales at GameStop increased by 31.9 percent, while new game sales decreased by 2.8 percent. Game sales in the US aren't declining, new game sales are -- to the tune of 548.5 million dollars in Q1 ...
Time editorial (sort of) explains why video games are a good economic indicator
Time Magazine thinks that video games are a good economic indicator -- as in, if the gaming industry is doing poorly (it's not), that speaks volumes about the national economic situation. And Time's reasoning is sound, more or less: "When people cannot spend $300 on a console or $50 on a game which ...
Factor 5 shuts down US operations
Factor 5 officially announced the closure of its US operations recently, concluding a story that feels like it's been just out of reach for half a year. The developer had been having some rough times since the poignant failure of Lair. Following that, there was its falling out with Brash ...
Analyst calculates layoff totals, the belief in a 'Gaming Renaissance Movement'
M2 Research market analyst Wanda Meloni estimates that 8,450 game industry employees have been let go since July 2008. North America had approximately 6,300 layoffs (75 percent), which represents 12 percent of the region's workforce -- her piece was published on Gamasutra last Friday, so it likely ...
Disney Interactive revenue down citing lack of console games
Disney Interactive has been having a pretty rough year. The company kicked off 2009 with a handful of layoffs, and now, according to reports at Gamasutra, it's also facing a near 20 percent drop in year-over-year revenue. Big surprise? Not exactly, considering the publisher only internally ...
