Stat-counters of the world reveal the best-selling video games of the last three months

madden-08-best-selling-game-planet-earth.jpg

What’s been the biggest-selling game around the world over the last three months? You’re probably thinking GTA IV or Mario Kart, or perhaps you’re being clever and thinking it’s something weird for girls and old people like Ubisoft’s mind-numbingly odd Imagine: Interior Designer?

If you are, you are WRONG – the best selling game around the entire world is Electronic Arts’ Madden 08, the latest annual update in the long-running US football sim. It shifted a ludicrous 2.994 million copies to inhabitants of Earth, beating Wii Fit (!) into second place, with the bizarre balancing exercise “game” amazingly managing to convince 2.089 million people that what they really need to start getting into is video game yoga…

Vivendi and Activision merger is official; bow to your new gaming overlord, Activision Blizzard

ActiBliz_Legion_of_Doom.jpg

Following shareholder consent and a nod of approval from the European Commission, the planned merger between video games publishers Activision and Vivendi is now go. The new corporate behemoth is going by the name Activision Blizzard, chosen for Vivendi’s Blizzard Entertainment subsidiary which is responsible for a little indie outfit called World of Warcraft.

BBFC says PEGI is just "a couple of blokes"

little_and_large.jpg

In the wake of the Byron Review, tension is beginning to simmer beneath the surface of the normally peaceable games ratings industry. Dr Tanya Byron’s recommendations put the UK ratings board, the BBFC, in a strong position to take on more responsibility (and work, and pay cheques presumably) but its rival, PEGI, is not out of the running yet. Big names in the industry like EA and Microsoft have come down in favour of the European-wide PEGI service.

Take-Two ordered to explain why it's not pulling its weight with FTC investigation into EA takeover bid

EA_FTC_T2.jpg

Shenanigans are afoot at Take-Two Interactive Software, publishers of that surprise video game hit, Grand Theft Auto IV. Shenanigans that lead to a full blown brouhaha if it’s not careful. A federal court has now asked the company to attend a hearing to explain why it has refused to comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into the takeover bid by Electronic Arts.