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Sega Q1 2010 Results, Makes $80.8M Profit

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:37:52 +0000

You read that right.

In the first quearter of 2010, Sega reported a 7 billion yen ($80.8 million) profit for the period that ended on June 30. During the same quarter last year, Sega reported a loss of 10.3 billion yen ($118.9 million).

Sales rise 51% year-on-year to 91.3 billion yen ($1.05 billion).

Alpha Protocol, which was less well received by critics, sold a total of 700K units globally. Iron Man 2, meanwhile, sold 1.12 million copies worldwide.

Total game sales broke down as follows: 1.68 million games in the US, 1.33 million in Europe, and a mere 270K copies in Japan and other regions.

Thanks, VG247

PS3 Outsold Xbox 360 By 28% In Last 12 Months

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:45:53 +0000

VG247 reports that PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360 by 4 million units in the 12 months ending June 30, by far the most significant lead Sony has placed over Microsoft since it launched PS3 in 2006.

Microsoft reported last week that it had sold 10.3 million consoles in its last financial year, which ended June 30. Sony confirmed yesterday that it sold 14.3 million PlayStation 3s in the same period, pushing the machine’s total sales to 38.1 million; the gap between the two consoles now stands at a slender 3.6 million units.

Sony boosted PS3 sales over the 2009 Christmas period with the introduction of Slim and a general price cut.

The figures mark a significant reversal in fortunes for the two consoles: in the preceding 12 months, 360 beat out PS3 by 11.1 million to 9.6 million units.

Below are the results over the last twelve months:

Sony Q1 2010 Report: PS3 Sales Up 118%, Software Sales At 24.8M

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:48:29 +0000

Previously, we reported that Sony posted a Q1 2010 profit of $342 million.

Here are the updated data.

Global PS3 hardware sales stood at 2.4 million for the quarter, a rise of 118 percent compared to the 1.1 million sales the machine managed in the same period last year.

Worldwide PS3 hardware sales now stand at 38.1 million, and ever-closer to the global 360 total at 41.7 million.

PS3 software rocketed 68 percent in the quarter, up to 24.8 million compared to 14.8 million a year earlier.

NPS sales rose to ¥325 billion from ¥246.1 billion in the same period last year, up 32.4 percent.

The division narrowed its loss from ¥36.7 billion in the previous year to ¥3.8 billion this year.

PSP “go”? Not quite

The figures weren’t all smiles and light, however. PSP hardware sales actually dropped for the quarter, down from 1.3 million in Q1 ‘09 to 1.2 million in the same period this year.

Global PSP hardware sales now stand at 48.6 million.

PSP software sales rose slightly, up from 8.3 million to 9.2 million in the current year.

PS2 managed to keep its end up on the hardware side, with sales remaining static year-on-year and 1.6 million. PS2 software sales, however, continued to crash: they were down from 8.5 million to 3.4 million this year.

Thanks, VG247

Nintendo Q1 2010 Report: In The Red, Sales Down 25.6%

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:44:47 +0000

Nintendo’s shown big drops in both profit and sales for the period ending June 30, with the company making a loss for the period.

Sales were down 25.6 percent for the quarter, dropped to ¥188.6 billion from ¥253.5 billion in the same period last year.

Operating income dropped 42.2 percent, down to ¥23.3 billion from ¥40.4 billion in the previous year. The company was actually in loss for the quarter, with net income minus ¥25.2 billion yen compared to a profit of ¥42.3 billion yen last year, a drop of 60.6 percent.

Wii the Invincible; DS, not so much

Wii hardware sales stood at 3.04 million units, up from the 2.23 million sold in the first quarter of FY ‘09, a rise of 36.6 percent

Wii software dropped, however, down to 28.17 million copies in the period from 31.07 million last year. That’s a fall of 9.3 percent.

DS hardware sold 3.15 million units in the quarter down from 5.7 million in the same period last year, a slide of 44.7 percent.

DS software managed 22.42 million sales, down from 29.09 million in Q1 ‘09, a decrease of 22.9 percent.

Super software

Despite general woes, Nintendo saw some huge sales from its top software line-up, as seen below:

* Super Mario Galaxy 2 – 4.09 million.
* Wii Sports Resort – 3.02 million
* Wii Sports – 2.73 million
* Wii Fit Plus – 1.87 million
* New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 1.1 million

Source, VG247

Capcom Profits Drop 90.4% In Q1 2010, Income Down By 72.6%

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:42:07 +0000

Ouch, it must hurt being Capcom.

The Japanese company reported that net sales decreased to 19,037 million yen (down 2.4% from the previous year). As for profits, operating income decreased to 1,005 million yen (down 72.6 % from the previous year), and ordinary income decreased to 216 million yen (down 94.8 % from the previous year). Net income for the current period decreased to 213 million yen (down 90.4 % from the previous year).

In flagship Consumer Online Games Business, profitability was drastically declined because the performance of “Lost Planet 2″ (for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) struggled to grow. Furthermore, the increase of new flagship titles release from the same term of the previous year, when most sales were made of repeat titles, resulted in the higher game development costs.

XBLA Nets Over $46M In First Half Of 2010

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:39:07 +0000

Analyst firm Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment, which specializes in the digital download market, has issued a financial report on Xbox Live Arcade, showing the Microsoft division earning $46M so far in 2010.

This leads FADE to suggest XBLA is on track for a record year, despite the slow start in January and February, when sales were down year-over-year for both months.

Spring was very good to Microsoft

Overall, XBLA grew 13 percent to $46.1 million by June 30, which saw the first half of the month gain 36 percent in sales compared to the same time-frame last year.

The report states MS’s Block Party event in March contributed to the first-half surge, with Toy Soldiers and Perfect Dark both bringing in $2 million and placing each among the top five by revenue. The free-to-play Game Room also netted a million downloads shortly after release.

All in all, March provided the service with a 41 percent year-over-year increase in revenues, which began a consecutive 4-month run of double digit gains in revenue when compared to 2009.

Come April, the report states Microsoft began to “aggressively promote price drops on dozens of titles”, with its Inventory Blowout sale in April, with many titles gaining revenue increases of between 50-200 percent.

“We saw Microsoft take a very different approach to product deployment strategies this year,” said Benjamin Schlichter, director of research and analysis for FADE. “The second quarter of the year has traditionally been their weakest, and they made great strides to improve the performance during the period, as revenue increased 24% compared to the year prior during a period when much of the rest of the industry is down.”

Sales expected to hit $130-$140 million by the end of 2010

FADE predicts Xbox Live Arcade will realize an estimated $130 million to $140 million by the end of the year, following strong hardware sales due to the upcoming holiday lineup, the slimmer 360 console, and the marketing blowout coming for Kinect.

The Summer of Arcade is expecting “impressive sales, following the implementation of their new Destination Arcade UI”, which will, of course, no longer be around after the summer promotion ends.

Summer of Arcade titles scheduled through August are: Hydro Thunder Hurricane – yesterday; Castlevania: Harmony of Despair – August 4; Monday Night Combat – August 11; Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – August 18, with Limbo releasing last week.

With Kinect, FADE expects the hardware’s pricing may dampen sales slightly, but the “possibilities of the platform may yield impressive revenues for Arcade developers looking to leverage the new platform for mini-games and unique, affordable experiences”.

FADE Top 10 estimates for first-half of 2010, by revenue

* Toy Soldiers (Signal Studios) – $4.6 million (1200 MSP)
* Trials HD (RedLynx) – $4.4 million (800 – 1200 MSP)
* Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – $2.9 million (800 – 1200 MSP)
* Battlefield 1943 (EA DICE) – $2.5 million (800 – 1200 MSP)
* Perfect Dark (4J Studios) – $2.4 million (800 MSP)
* Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) – $1.8 million (800 – 1200 MSP)
* Family Game Night (EA Bright Light) – $1.7 million (400 – 800 MSP)
* Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment) – $1.2 million (800 – 1200 MSP)
* Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – $900,000 (800 MSP)
* Call of Duty Classic (Infinity Ward) – $800,000 (1200 MSP)

Source, VG247

Sony Sees Q1 2010 Profit Of $342 Million

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:28:54 +0000

According to Japanese publication Nikkei (via ABS-CBN), Sony’s set to announce a first quarter net profit of 30 billion yen ($342 million) thanks in large part to “aggressive cost-cutting.” Related posts:Sega Q1 2010 Results, Makes $80.8M Profit Sony Q1 2010 Report: PS3 Sales Up 118%, Software Sales At 24.8M Nintendo Q1 2010 Report: In The Red, Sales Down [...] Related posts:

Rumor: Microsoft Killed Cross-Gaming Project Between PC And Xbox 360

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:20:30 +0000

Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and current CTO of HP’s gaming business, has written on his blog that “there was a project that got killed at Microsoft [which] was designed to allow console gamers and PC gamers to interact and battle over a connected environment.”

This project was killed because PC players “destroy[ed]” the console player “every time”.

“This project was designed to allow console gamers and PC gamers to interact and battle over a connected environment,” wrote Sood. “I’ve heard from reliable sources that during the development they brought together the best console gamers to play mediocre PC gamers at the same game… and guess what happened? They pitted console gamers with their “console” controller, against PC gamers with their keyboard and mouse.

“The console players got destroyed every time. So much so that it would be embarrassing to the Xbox team in general had Microsoft launched this initiative. Is this why the project was killed – who knows, but I’d love to hear from anyone involved — what happened?

“Those of us who have been in the gaming business for over a decade know the real deal. You simply don’t get the same level of detail or control as you do with a PC over a console.”

According to Sood, the goal was to “bridge Xbox gamers with PC Gamers so they could play against one another in games like Unreal, or Gears of War”.

“This was all part of their Live strategy, and had Microsoft just stuck to their guns and made it work, PC Gaming might be in a much better position than it is today,” he said.

“It’s a real shame that Microsoft killed this — because had they kept it alive it might have actually increased the desire of game developers and gamers alike to continue developing and playing rich experiences on the PC which would trickle down to the console as it has in the past.

“Instead they wanted to keep an old business model alive, and as a result they are (all) getting attacked by the most unlikely competitor.. Apple. Had they allowed something like this to take place then perhaps the desire to have the best platform would still be there.

“Perhaps the scale of the PC would have allowed Microsoft to get away from the hardware business and focus on their core, software. Perhaps we could have finally integrated the Xbox into the PC.

“Game developers follow the money. This isn’t a labor of love.”

WSJ Corrects StarCraft II $100M Figure

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:25:38 +0000

Previously we wrote that the Wall Street Journal reported that Blizard has so much faith in StarCraft II that it has spent more than $100 million in producing the game.

Seems they got the facts a bit mixed up. StarCraft II did not take $100 million to develop. It was actually World of Warcraft.

Here’s the full correction:

Activision Blizzard Inc. hasn’t disclosed development costs for its Starcraft II videogame. A July 16 Technology article about the Starcraft sequel incorrectly said the company spent more than $100 million to develop the game; that figure referred to its World of Warcraft game.

NPD: Digital Game Distribution And Physical Sales Go Head To Head

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:56:27 +0000

The digital download games service must be really booming. So much so in fact that they are almost on par with boxed copies sold in stores.

NOD tracked some 21.3 million PC games sold through digital distribution such as Steam and D2D while 23.5 million boxed PC games were sold at retail last year.

Very close if you ask me and soon digital distribution will overtake retail PC games sales.

Ubisoft Q1 2010-2011 Sales Figures Up 94%

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:45:46 +0000

Ubisoft has just released their first quarter 2010-2011 sales figures.

Sales for the first quarter totaled €161 million, up 94% from the same period in 2009-2010 which was €83 million.

The strong growth in sales can be attributed to:

* the solid performance of Splinter Cell Conviction™, which sold in 1.9 million units

* a good performance by back-catalog and casual titles, spurred by the sustained sales of Just Dance®, as well as Assassin’s Creed® 2 and Avatar

* a favorable exchange rate impact

Q2 2010-2011 Sales Outlook:

The second quarter will be highlighted by the releases of:

* H.A.W.X.® 2 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
* R.U.S.E™ for Xbox 360, PS3, MOVE and PC
* Racquet Sports for MOVE

Sales for the second quarter of 2010-11 are expected to come in at around €83 million, in-line with the second quarter of 2009-10.

Full year 2010-2011 Outlook:

Ubisoft confirms its previous forecast for the full year 2010-11 of an expected return to profitable growth and positive cash flow from operating activities.

New Halo Already In Development At 343 Industries?

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:11:17 +0000

A resume update by a fellow designer at 343 Industries reveals that he began “designing new levels and missions for the next Halo project” starting this month.

Moreover, the 343 Industries website list a total of 25 vacancies, from Technical Artist, Game Engineer to Prodcuer and what not.

Nothing is concrete as of yet but could this be the long awaited sequel to Halo 3? Only time will tell.

Pachter: New Xbox Accounted For 40 Percent of US Sales

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:54:38 +0000

By now you probably know Michael Pachter, the Wedbush Morgan analyst for video games and his own web-show.

Pachter has said that the new Xbox 360 Slim accounted for 40% of Microsoft’s overall sales in the US in June 2010.

The contributing factor has been the pride drop rather than the introduction of a new model, according to Pachter.

The Slim retails for $300 while the Elite (now discontinued) retailed for $400.

The analyst attributed 35% of sales to the Arcade model, which was reduced to $150 last month, and 25% of sales to the Elite model, which also reduced in price.

Xbox 360 Slim UK Release Exceeds PS2, PS3 Slim Launches, Says Chart-Track

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:39:52 +0000

Chart-Track a UK company that monitors retail sales of music, video and software in the UK reports that the launch of Xbox 360 Slim in the UK has surpassed those of both PS3 and PS3 Slim.

The report states:

“Microsoft’s new, improved, slimmer Xbox 360 console, the Xbox 360 250GB (or Xbox 360S) achieves the biggest launch in the UK for a ‘revised’ home console, surpassing the launches of both PS2 Slim and PS3 Slim and recording over two days around the same as the original Xbox 360’s launch sales total back in week 48 2005.

This is even more impressive when you take into account that the original Xbox 360 was launched across two versions (Pro and Core).”

Codemasters Want To “Sell Unfinished Games” To Combat Piracy

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:11:27 +0000

Piracy is bad. We get it. And no matter how intrusive your DRM is (I’m looking at you AC II), it will likely get cracked.

Even before you release the game.

So what does Codemasters have in mind? According to a recent statement by CEO Rod Cousens, the answer lies in selling us “unfinished games”. Before you go WTF, read what the man has to say:

“My answer is for us as publishers is to actually sell unfinished games — and to offer the consumer multiple micro-payments to buy elements of the full experience. That would create an offering that is affordable at retail — but over a period of time may also generate more revenue for the publishers to reinvest in our games.

If these games are pirated, those who get their hands on them won’t be able to complete the experience. There will be technology, coding aspects, that will come to bear that will unlock some aspects. Some people will want them and some won’t. When it comes to piracy, I think you have to make the experience the answer to the issue – rather than respond the other way round and risk damaging that experience for the user.”

StarCraft II Cost More Than $100 Million To Develop

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:05:09 +0000

[Update] This has been an error on part of the Wall Street Journal. It was actually World of Warcraft that took $100 million to develop.

A Wall Street Journal article reports that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, has said that Blizard has so much faith in StarCraft II that it has spent more than $100 million in producing the game.

The article doesn’t mention where the figure originates from but if it’s true then StarCraft II is one of the most costliest games ever made.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty releases only on the PC in July 27 2010. And here you thought PC gaming was doomed.

EA Sells Their Entire Stake In Ubisoft

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:13:17 +0000

EA is selling off its 14.8% stake in Ubisoft which it acquired six years ago.

A Paris based stock trader said, “Electronic Arts was seen as a natural bidder for Ubisoft, though a lot of people had given up with this idea a long time ago. On the other hand, it may open the door to new investors who were not willing to enter Ubisoft and try to shake up things as Electronic Arts already owned 15 percent but was not doing anything with its stake.”

A Ubisoft representative told Dow Jones Newswires, “this is good news for Ubisoft which regains its independence, although Electronic Arts has always supported our strategy.”

In May of this year, Electronic Arts only owned 14.8 percent of Ubisoft, with Yves Guillemot’s founding family owning 11.3 percent and 20 percent voting rights.

Ubisoft shares were down by 1.3 percent at €6.88 during the opening bell.

June 2010 NPD Sales Data, Xbox 360 Sells More Than Wii

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:56:18 +0000

The NPD sales data are out for June 2010, with sales plummeting 15%.

Following the release of the Xbox 360 Slim, it moved up as the second best selling console trailing behind the DS but overtaking the Wii.

Here’s the raw data:

Top 10 Games

1. Red Dead Redemption (360) – 582.6K
2. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – 548.4K
3. Red Red Redemption (PS3) – 380.3K
4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 200.9K
5. Just Dance – 174.8K
6. Wii Fit Plus
7. Toy Story 3 (DS)
8. UFC 2010: Undisputed (360)
9. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Wii)
10. UFC 2010: Undisputed (PS3)

Hardware Sales

DS – 510.7K
360 – 451.7K
Wii – 422.5K
PS3 – 304.8K
PSP – 121.0K

NPD Sales Data: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii Figures, Alan Wake Sells Under 200K

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:17:41 +0000

The NPD sales figures are out.

First off, Microsoft. The Xbox 360 sold 195,000 hardware units in May 2010. Microsoft said that Xbox 360’s software attach rate was an “industry-leading” 8.9. The attach rate is the average number of video games sold per a specific console.

Sony’s PS3 sold 155,000 units in the US in the same period, an 18% year-on-year increase. Software revenue was up 58% says Sony.

Sony Computer Entertainment America’s senior director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold, said that the supply of PS3s are improving:

“While tight inventory had an impact on sales numbers in recent months, we are now beginning to experience greater availability of product.”

Nintendo had good sales figures, with the Wii coming in at 335,000 units and DS at 384,000 units in May.

Nintendo of America sales and marketing EVP Cammie Dunaway said: “”These May results show that consumers are really responding to the value proposition of our new Wii configuration that now includes Wii Sports Resort and a Wii MotionPlus accessory.”

Now onto the software sales figure.

What is surprising is that Alan Wake sold just 145,000 in total in the entire North American region. The #1 seller was Red Dead Redemption on Xbox 360, selling 945,900 copies.

Here are the top 10:

1. Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego/Take-Two, Xbox 360), 945,900
2. Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego/Take-Two, PS3), 567,100
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo, Wii), 563,900
4. UFC 2010: Undisputed (Yuke’s/THQ, Xbox 360), 221,100
5. UFC 2010: Undisputed (Yuke’s/THQ, PS3), 192,300
6. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii)
7. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii)
8. Alan Wake (Remedy/Microsoft, Xbox 360) 145,000
9. Pokemon SoulSilver Version (Game Freak/Nintendo, NDS)
10. Skate 3 (EA Canada/Electronic Arts, Xbox 360)

PlayStation Home “A Huge Success”, Says Sony

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:24:30 +0000

PlayStation Home boss Jack Buser has told Gamasutra that Home has been a “very good business model for PlayStation, and quite profitable.”

He added: “With numbers like we have, it goes without saying that Home has been a huge success for our company, something that we have been very proud of.

We’ve released over 5,000 virtual items on the platform, and we know that once those items reach maturity, they are profitable. So you see us creating a tremendous amount of virtual items, because it is such a high margin business for us to be in.”

PlayStation Home has 14 million users since launch, as of last month.