Retail

Supermarket giant Tesco has called on the Government to delay a rise in VAT scheduled for January 1st, according to this report on the Daily Telegraph. Set to increase from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent, VAT was cut in November in a move to combat the recession. Many …

HMV CEO Simon Fox could be set to leave the retailer to become the new boss of ITV, according to reports. According to The FT, HMV shares fell more than two per cent yesterday as the City digested the news. Fox, 48, took the top job at HMV in 2006, …

MTV parent company Viacom has revealed declines across the board for Q2 2009, with the losses in its media department pinned squarely on lower-than-expected sales of music series Rock Band. Revenues at Viacom’s Media Networks division decreased by eight per cent to $1.97bn – a figure principally due” to a …

Best Buy Europe has named its CEO ahead of next year’s introduction of ‘big box stores’ into Europe. Scott Wheway, 42, moves up from his role as COO – which he accepted in May, and now relinquishes. Wheway will report to the shareholder board of Best Buy Europe. He assumes …

New research shows more Internet users in China use the web for online gaming than shopping. New research from the China Internet Network Information Center shows approximately 200 million of China’s web users regularly play online video games. This places the pastime the sixth most-used application for the Internet, while …

Codemasters has signed a deal with EBS Sales to increase its presence in Benelux. The agreement, which was signed during IDEF in Cannes, will see EBS Sales market Codemasters’ games, such as the updated Bestsellers series for PC, PS3 Platinum and Xbox 360 Classic, to non-traditional gamers. We are seeing …

Some say that licensed games have enjoyed their time in the sun, but Atari has proved many naysayers wrong with news that licensed action outing Ghostbusters: The Video Game has sold over 1m copies in North America. Of course, unlike in Europe where all non-PS3 owners are having to wait …

The concern that Nintendo consoles are not a suitable platform for mature-rated games will be tested yet again later this year with the news that the BBFC has granted EA’s upcoming Wii-exclusive Dead Space: Extraction an 18 certificate. No cuts were made to the game, which is an on-rails take …

LucasArts has announced Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 this Christmas. The new SKU will feature the full version of the game and three new levels that explore alternate storylines of the original Star Wars trilogy: two from DLC and …

THhe Discovery Channel is eyeing mass market consumers as it moves into video games, the company has told MCV. At E3, the TV channel announced plans to develop its own iPhone, PC and next-gen titles – and now MCV can reveal that it has signed a deal with UK developer …