Sony reported a net loss of $197 million, or ¥19.3 billion in the second quarter of its current fiscal year. Despite a boost in revenue from positive currency exchange rates and decent smartphone sales, the company saw a 24.5 increase in net losses. As a result, the company has lowered net revenue expectations by about 40 percent to ¥30 billion, or $305 million, due to what it calls lowered expectations for sales of "certain electronic products."

Nintendo says that it sold 460,000 Wii U units worldwide in the six month period that ended on September 30. The figure was revealed as part of the company's financial results for the last three months. In this quarter the company only sold 300,000, despite knocking $50 off the price tag of the system a few months ago. The company also had a number of high profile releases to go alongside that price cut including Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.

Apple claims that its iPhone sales has grown 26 percent in its fourth quarter, thanks to two new iPhones. As part of its fourth-quarter earnings report for the period ended September 28, Apple saw iPhone saw sales jump by 26 percent.

With the new deal between Supercell, GungHo Online, and Soft Bank, the video game sector has surpassed $5 billion dollars related to mergers and acquisitions in 2013. This is according to data from Digi-Capital, who notes that much of the investment comes from investors in Korea, China, and Japan. Some of the deals contributing to the $5.2 billion number including the 51 percent stake taken by Soft Bank and GungHo's in mobile and social game developer Supercell and Ourpalm's recent acquisitions of China's Playcrab and Shanggames.

In a post on his Facebook page, Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron announced that he is leaving the publicly traded social gaming company.

Softbank and GungHo Online are making a substantial investment in Finnish free-to-play and mobile gaming juggernaut Supercell. The company is selling a 51 percent stake for $1.53 billion to Japan’s SoftBank and game developer GungHo Online Entertainment. The strategic investment will make Supercell a subsidiary of Softbank, with the funds being used to fuel Supercell’s global expansion.

Ubisoft has changed the release window for three titles today. First, the good news: Ubisoft announced that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will launch globally on October 29 for Wii U, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, an improvement on its previous target date of Nov. 1 in Europe and Oct. 31 release in Australia. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions will still get the game at launch on Nov. 15 (Nov. 29 in Europe) and Nov. 22 in Australia. The PC version of the game was originally scheduled to release alongside the current-gen versions, but was pushed back to the next-gen release.

Activision Blizzard has closed a deal to buy back shares from France-based conglomerate Vivendi a day after a Delaware Supreme Court judge lifted an injunction on the plan put on the deal by a lower court judge in response to several shareholder lawsuits.

With the deal complete Activision Blizzard now has a controlling interest in itself. Activision Blizzard now owns $5.83 billion of stock, with CEO Bobby Kotick and his partners owning $2.34 billion. Vivendi's stake has been reduced significantly to 12 percent.

The Delaware Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that put a temporary injunction on Activision Blizzard‘s plan to buy back most of Vivendi’s stake in the video game maker for $8.2 billion.

With the injunction lifted, Activision Blizzard can move forward with the plan. In a hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for Activision Blizzard argued that the provision was inapplicable, since it applied only to a merger, while the company’s plan was a stock repurchase.

A new study from research firm Gartner claims that the worldwide PC market is in decline, losing 8.6 percent from the same quarter a year ago. They say that consumers are shifting away from PCs to tablets and smartphones for their daily computing needs.

Publisher Majesco has been given 180 days more to get its share price at $1 or be delisted by the NASDAQ stock exchange, according to a new SEC filing by the company.

Nintendo expects sales of more than 5 million of its 3DS handheld console units in Japan this year, according to this Bloomberg report. Speaking at a Capcom event today in Tokyo, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata also said that the company sold more than 5.5 million units of its 3DS last year. Nintendo expects global 3DS sales of around 18 million this fiscal year, up from 13.95 million last year.

In a memo sent to employees today, Big Fish Games CEO Paul Thelen announced that the company is laying off 49 employees in its Seattle office and shutting down its office in Vancouver. Projects in the Vancouver office would be moved to Seattle.

The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation's handling of a $75 million loan deal to 38 Studios continues to have an effect on politics in the state, and today more reforms are being discussed so that the failure of that deal can never happen again.

In an email sent to Zynga staff and published on the company's official blog, CEO Don Mattrick revealed that three more executives have left the social game maker for greener pastures. The three departing executives are Cadir Lee, Colleen McCreary, and David Ko, who are leaving the company "to pursue other interests," according to Mattrick.

Game developer and publisher Atlus is responsible for tons of awesome games from notable RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey and Persona to unique experiences like Catherine and the Trauma Center series.

Seth and Timothy Peterson have come up with an interesting business idea for California: an arcade game rental service that charges a monthly fee to get classic arcade game cabinets in the hands of classic arcade gaming aficionados. The San Francisco-based company is called "All You Can Arcade," and lets customers rent such arcade classics as Tron, Ms. Pac Man, and Donkey Kong for $75 a month. The brothers launched the service last month.

On the same day that Trion Worlds, makers of the Defiance MMO, announced that Scott Hartsman was the new CEO, it shut down its San Diego office. The lion's share of the work being done at the San Diego office was related to Defiance. Trion Worlds confirmed the shutdown of the studio and that development on Defiance would be moved to its Redwood City office.

The Sony board has rejected a proposal by Third Point LLC CEO Daniel Loeb - one of Sony's largest investors - that would have spun off 20 percent of its entertainment divisions into a separate entity. The board's rejection of the idea was unanimous. A letter to Third Point from Sony expressed that the company sees value in owning entertainment content in this connected, digital age. Sony also told Third Point in its letter that maintaining total ownership of its divisions encourages "internal collaboration and efficiency."

Social game giant Zynga will close OMGPOP.com despite the fact that the original team behind it offered to buy the games portal in hopes of retaining its userbase and content. According to Eurogamer, several former OMGPOP staff members offered Zynga an undisclosed amount of money in order to keep it open, but Zynga rebuffed those offers.

Sega is one of twenty companies interested in buying out Atlus from Japanese parent company Index Holdings, according to a Blomberg Japan report (by way of CVG). Index Holdings purchased Atlus in 2006, but last month was forced to file for bankruptcy in the Tokyo District Court for over millions of dollars in debts it faced.

Activision Blizzard shareholder Todd Miller filed a derivative lawsuit on Thursday against the company and other parties associated with an $8.17 billion deal to buy back a controlling interest from major stakeholder Vivendi. In his lawsuit filed in Superior Court, Miller claims that the deal to buy back stock from Vivendi gives "insiders" a windfall of more than $600 million on the discounted sale of stock from Vivendi, while Activision Blizzard shareholders get no enrichment from the deal.

Laurie White (president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce) and Michael Sabitoni (president of the Rhode Island Construction and Building Trades Council) teamed up to pen an op-ed in the Providence Journal to warn lawmakers and the public that what happened with 38 Studios should not cast aspersions of future state investments into other industries.

Three more executives have left Zynga this month, according to a GII report. The latest executives to exit stage left include Jesse Janosov, Vice President of casino gaming; and John Osvald and Nathan Etter - who are both Vice Presidents in the games division.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward S. Williams says that Activision Blizzard's plan to buy back its shares from Vivendi is a good thing and has reiterated his firm's rating of "outperform." Last night Activision Blizzard announced that - with its own cash on hand and investments from outside sources - it would buy back a total of 601 million shares from Vivendi to the tune of $8.2 billion.

Activision Blizzard announced that it will purchase approximately 601 million shares from Vivendi to the tune of $8.2 billion with the help of outside investments. There had been some talk that Vivendi would force Activision into giving Vivendi a special dividend of $2 - $3 billion to raise funds for paying down debt. Vivendi currently holds a controlling stake in the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publishers, but this plan would make Activision an independent entity again.

Warner Bros. has secured the rights to publish CD Projekt Red's next game in The Witcher series in North America. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will distribute and promote The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in North America. We assume this includes all versions of the game except on digital distribution platforms such as Steam and Good Old Games.

Financial analyst Edward Williams from BMO Capital Markets send out a research note this morning telling investors that EA's mostly flat revenue for the latest quarter was good enough to earn the company a positive rating from the firm. Yesterday EA reported non-GAAP revenues of $495 million and a non-GAAP EPS loss of $0.40, respectively. This compares to $491 million in revenues and a loss of $0.41 last year. BMO expected $451 million in revenue and a loss of $0.61, while consensus estimates were $454 million and a loss of $0.60.

New U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents obtained by Gamasutra reveals some of the companies that managed to successfully bid on various Atari franchises that were being sold off at auction as the company liquidates its assets as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Vivendi may force Activision Blizzard to pay a special dividend that would give the company $2 - $3 billion to help it pay down some of its debt. The company's board will discuss the move at a regular meeting on Monday and may seek Activison's board members to approve it at a meeting later this week, WSJ claims in its report. Since six of eleven Activision board members are from the Vivendi group or its units such a vote would likely be approved.