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- The brand Acclaim Entertainment officially returns to the video game industry. (Gamasutra)
- Shanda, a Chinese developer of MMORPGs, announces financial results for the fourth quarter of 2005. Net revenue was 360.5 million RMB ($44.8 million), a 16.3% decrease, and net loss was 538.9 million RMB ($67 million) compared to the Q4 2004 profit of 231.4 million RMB ($28.7 million). (Gamasutra)
- Midway announces financial results for the last fiscal quarter of 2005, ending December 31, 2005, as well as the full fiscal year. Net revenues for the quarter were $69.8 million, down 9.6% from 2004. Quarter loss was $37.8 million, compared with profits of $17.6 million in 2004. (Gamasutra)
- Mark "Chip" VanDeVelde, a vice president of Crave Entertainment and a long time video game industry veteran, dies. Crave Entertainment starts a scholarship fund for VanDeVelde's daughter who is then 11 years old. (Gamespot)
- Atari releases a statement stating that they are restructuring the company "which will result in a worldwide workforce reduction of approximately 20%". (Gamasutra)
- CERO, the Japanese video game rating organisation, will implement a new rating system, starting from March 2006. (Gamasutra)
- NVIDIA releases financial results for the quarter ending January 31, 2006. Revenue was up 12% to $633.6 million, and profits were up 104% to $98.1 million. (Gamasutra)
- NCsoft, the Korean company behind titles such as Guild Wars and City of Heroes, reported financial results for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2005. Revenues were up 17% to 338.8 billion Won ($346.5 million), a record high for the company. Operating income fell to 76.6 billion Won ($78.3 million), due to rising costs and expenses. (GameDaily BIZ)
- VGMix is closed temporarily due to hacking attempts.
- Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime announces several new features for the Nintendo DS, including a new DS download service, and a voice chat feature to be included with Metroid Prime Hunters. The company also has a new overall strategy dubbed Blue Ocean. (GameDaily BIZ), (Gamasutra)
- Microsoft announces that Halo 2 will be released on the PC exclusively for Windows Vista. (Gamasutra)
- Atari publishes results for the third quarter of 2005, with revenue down to $100.8 million, as compared with $156.4 million in the same period in 2004. The company posted a loss of $4.8 million ($19.6 million profit in Q3 2004). Atari CFO Diane Baker resigned, although the company stated this was not directly related to the poor results. (GameDaily BIZ)
- God of War wins seven awards, including Game of the Year, at the 2006 Interactive Achievement Awards. Other winners include Guitar Hero (5 awards), Shadow of the Colossus, and Battlefield 2 (both 3 awards). (Gamasutra)
- 1UP announces the results of its Game of the Year competition. Among the winners are Resident Evil 4 for "Game of the Year", and Nintendogs for "Most Innovative". (1UP).
- Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, will deliver the keynote address at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. The title of the keynote is Disrupting Development. (Gamasutra)
- EVE Online, the MMOG by CCP Games, reaches 100,000 subscribers. (Gamasutra)
- Multiverse Network, Inc. debuts its Multiverse Platform, a free middleware platform to help independent developers enter the MMOG market. James Cameron, who recently announced his Project 880, is on the Multiverse board of directors. (Gamasutra), (Multiverse), (Busniness Week)
- Sega Sammy announces financial results for the first nine months of its fiscal year, with revenue up 5.4% to 420.8 billion yen ($3.56 billion) and profits of 63.5 billion yen ($537 million), up from 46.2 billion yen ($391 million). (Gamasutra)
- Casuality Europe, a conference on casual games, gets underway in Amsterdam. (Casuality), (GamesIndustry.biz)
- Wired News unveils its 2005 Vaporware Awards. A number of video game related products are included in the list:
- 7. Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms
- 6. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- 5. StarCraft: Ghost
- 2. Phantom Game Service
- 1. Duke Nukem Forever
- Duke Nukem Forever had previously won the awards in 2001, 2002, and was given the Vaporware Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. (Wired)
- Famitsu releases a survey of readers, game developers, and retailers on the level of interest in both next-generation and current game consoles. The results indicate that the PlayStation 3 is first, closely followed by Wii. (Revolution Report), (Gamasutra)
- James Cameron, director of Titanic, Terminator, and Aliens, announces that his new project, Project 880, will be launched as a MMOG, followed by a motion picture release. (Gamasutra)
- THQ announces the opening of Kaos Studios. The new development studio will be comprised of veterans from Trauma Studios, the company behind Desert Combat and Battlefield 2. (Gamasutra)
- THQ also announced revenue for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 of $357.8 million and a profit of $47.6 million, exceeding the company's own expectations. Revenue was down over the same period last year, however. (Gamasutra)
- Following yesterday's lay-offs, Electronic Arts today announced that net revenue for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 was down 11% compared to the quarter in 2004, to $1.27 billion. Profits were down 31% to $259 million . (Gamasutra)
- The winners of the 2006 Imagina Games Awards are announced. The winners:
- In response to recent accusations that Activision's title GUN promotes racism and genocide, the company stated "Activision does not condone or advocate any of the atrocities that occurred in the American West during the 1800s. GUN was designed to reflect the harshness of life on the American frontier at that time." ... "It was not Activision’s intention to offend any race or ethnic group with GUN, and we apologize to any who might have been offended by the game’s depiction of historical events which have been conveyed not only through video games but through films, television programming, books and other media." (GamesIndustry.biz)
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