This is sure to put analyst Michael Pachter on someone's naughty list: Recently he said that Activision needs to start charging a fee for the multiplayer portion of its Call of Duty games. Wedbush Securities industry analyst Michael Pachter made his comments during the Digital Game Monetization Summit in San Francisco, California (as reported by GamesIndustry International). During his presentation he said that Activision made a serious mistake when it didn't implement a subscription-based model for Call of Duty multiplayer.

According to analysis by Gamasutra columnist and blogger Ryan Langley, the Xbox Live Arcade version is almost as popular as its PC and Mac counterpart in terms of sales. According to the analysis Mojang's popular world-building game for Xbox Live Arcade is currently selling between 40 - 60,000 copies every week.

Today the UK Government published a document proposing strong support of Chancellor George Osborne's earlier Autumn Statement, which would give qualified games companies tax-relief set at a rate of 25 percent.

"Following consultation on their design, the Government will ensure that the reliefs are among the most generous in the world by offering a payable tax credit for all three reliefs worth 25 per cent of qualifying expenditure," the document read in part.

Two more employees from social gaming giant Zynga's management team have reportedly left the company for greener pastures, according to this GII report. They join many other high profile executives that used to work at Zynga who ultimately jumped ship for better offers or to start new companies.

Recently Mojang co-founder Markus "Notch" Persson said that he was considering the possibility of charging a monthly fee for one game mode in his upcoming space-themed game 0x10c. The game will offer three modes, two of which would be free to play without a fee: Single Player and Multiplayer online or via LAN.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told attendees at the Credit Suisse 2012 Technology Conference in Scottsdale Arizona that he expects some third-party publishers to die off as they attempt to make the jump to the next console generation.

According to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, the Wii U has sold 400,000 units in the United States. Speaking to CNET, Fils-Aime said that 300,000 Wii consoles and 500,000 portable devices also sold during the same period, for a grand total of 1.2 million hardware units sold in the US.

All it will take for the Wii U to be profitable will be the sale of one game with the system, claims Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. Fils-Aime made the comments in a recent interview with Mercury News. Without having that one-game attach rate the Wii U is selling at a loss. Fils-Aime's comments would suggest that the console is very close to breaking even if all it takes is the sale of one game - we assume he means a first-party title developed and published by Nintendo...

A new report from research firm Newzoo, the "2012 US Country Report," comes to the conclusion that the U.S video games market spending grew one percent, or $21.9 Billion, in 2012. The report also notes that, of the 157 million gamers in the U.S., 86 million spend money on games. Time spent on games in the US is also up significantly: 26 percent versus 18 percent for Europe.

Another day, another milestone met for Mojang's ultra popular sandbox building game, Minecraft. It has managed to surpass the 8 million sales mark on the PC platform, according to a tweet from Mojang co-founder and Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson.

"The PC version of Minecraft just passed 8 million sales," said series Persson via Twitter.

"My face is making grinning sounds, so I assume it's grinning," he added.

With the Wii U launch less than a week away, many game publishers have strong opinions about Nintendo's newest platform. In an upcoming interview with GamesIndustry International, CEO Yves Guillemot offers his. While Ubisoft is one of the biggest third-party supporter of Wii U at launch, the company's CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledges that Nintendo may have to lower the price of the console.

Following yesterday's poor financial results for the fiscal second quarter, THQ had delayed several titles and has an outside firm to explore its options. The titles getting pushed included South Park: The Stick of Truth, Metro: Last Light and Company of Heroes 2. THQ recorded a loss of $21 million during its fiscal 2013 second quarter on sales of $107.4 million. The company says that it has about $36.3 million of cash and equivalents, down nearly half from the $76 million it had a year ago.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that Electronic Arts and Activision's mismanagement of big first-person shooter titles could end up contributing to another month of "terrible" software sales for the game industry in October. He is referring to Medal of Honor: Warfighter, a game that was supposed to be a major release for EA in October and Activision's 007 Legends, which fared worse than Medal of Honor.

New sales figures from Microsoft reveal that its ultra popular Halo franchise has generated nearly $3 billion in revenue since launch, with more than 46 million Halo games sold. Halo: Reach was responsible for around $200 million of that revenue in just 24 hours across Europe and the US, with Halo 3 managing to bring $170 million in the US on day one. Halo 2 was no slouch either; it raked in $125 million.

Take-Two Interactive today released its earnings report for the three months ended September 30, posting booming revenues for the quarter, but warning that it would fall drastically short of its full year projections. It posted net revenues of $273.1 million, up from $107 million from the same period a year ago. During that same period a year ago Civilization V: Game of the Year Edition helped drive the company's revenues.

A federal antitrust complaint filed by virtual-currency and payment-processing provider Kickflip (doing business as Gambit) claims that Facebook destroyed its business when it took over the virtual currency used in games on its social network. Prior to that move, Kickflip claims that it was a "leading virtual-currency and payment-processing provider to software developers that published games on Facebook and other social networks."

Today publisher Take-Two announced that it would delay releasing its second quarter earnings report for the fiscal year 2013 and conference call due to the "catastrophic weather conditions in the regions of its corporate headquarters." New York City is currently suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which caused widespread flooding, power outages, and a closure of most means of transportation in and out of town.

After dealing with a child sex scandal earlier this year, Sulake - the owners of the social teen hangout Habbo Hotel - had to make some serious changes and win back the trust of the community. With that controversy mostly behind them (the company changed much of how it handles communications within the virtual world and added other features that protect its young members), the company says that it wants to make Habbo Hotel a place where third-party developers can launch their own game titles.

While THQ's Darksiders II has sold an estimated 1 million copies so far, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter says that the game is having a very hard time making it past the 2 million milestone it needs to reach for THQ to break even on the title.

"Darksiders II's performance and a history of game delays and cancelations leaves us skeptical that THQ can successfully execute its turnaround strategy, which centers on a streamlined release slate," says Pachter.

Hacktivist group Anonymous has made a very public threat to social game developer and publisher Zynga - apparently in response to the company's layoffs of 100 employees and the closure of over a dozen studios. The group said that it would release confidential information about Zynga on November 5 for its "outrageous treatment of their employees and their actions against many developers." They also refer to a business plan the company is using, though details on this secret plan have not been revealed...

Samarion S.E., an investor in online games, has taken over one of Europe's biggest online game companies Gamigo from newspaper publisher Axelrod Springer AG. Gamigo publishes and operates free-to-play MMORPGs and browser-based games. Axelrod Springer AG purchased a majority stake in the German company four years ago. Now it wants to focus on the "non-gaming aspects of its digital business" so it has decided to unload its holdings in Gamigo.

As is usually the case with new consoles, Nintendo's Wii U will initially be sold at a loss to the company when it releases in November. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed during the company's financial results briefing this week that the Wii U would be sold for far less than it cost to make, but the conventional wisdom is that the company will make most of its money on software.

Nintendo today lowered its full-year (fiscal year ending March 31, 2013) sales forecast, pointing to sluggish hardware and software sales and yen appreciation. the company also said that it expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U units by April of 2013. The Wii U is set to launch in November in Europe and North America. Previously the company expected to post profits of 20 billion yen ($250.7 million), but has lowered that number to 6 billion yen ($75.2 million).

Until now France's Hadopi system only took claims from the recording and movie industry, but apparently a new partner is about to join in on the action. According to French publication PCInpact (by way of TorrentFreak), next year France's Hadopi agency will get strong backing from the video game industry in the country.

A new research paper from Google reveals what most gamers already know: the majority of tablet users spend more time playing games than anything else on their device of choice - whether it be Android, Windows, or iOS-based. In fact, Google's research found that gaming is the most popular activity on tablets right behind checking email.

The federal government of Australia is planning to introduce brand new incentives to help grow and support the country’s game industry, according to an MCV Pacific report.

Microsoft announced that it has sold 70 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide since it launched in November of 2005. The news was part of the company's first quarter 2013 financial results (July 2012 - Sept. 2012), which saw the Xbox division post total revenue of $1.95 billion, down 1 percent from the same period a year ago. During the quarter, Microsoft sold 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide, down 600,000 units (29 percent) from the same period a year ago. Microsoft also said that Xbox Live gold memberships were up now at 40 million.

Nintendo announced this morning that it has slashed the price of the Wii to $129.99 in the United States. The lower-priced SKU also comes bundled with two games - Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort along with one black console, and a black Wii Remote Plus controller and Nunchuck - of course. The two games will be included on a single disc - just like they did with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Look forward to seeing those packed-in discs for sale at GameStop in about a month....

According to data from research firm NPD Group, the video game industry saw retail sales slide by 24 percent to $848.3 million, compared to the same month a year ago. Hardware sales suffered a huge drop in September, down 39 percent from a year ago to $210.9 million. Meanwhile, video game software sales dropped 18 percent. Software sales were down only 14 percent when PC game sales were factored into the number. Accessories were also down 11 percent.

Speaking to the New York Times, social game developer Supercell claims that it is raking in copious amounts of cash with its mobile endeavors. How much cash is it making on a daily basis of its games? According to the company, it is averaging over $500,000 a day from two of its most popular releases.