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Sony Suffers Profit Loss

mayudahitman — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Despite PlayStation 3 sales up, Sony’s profit down 72%. Sony reported from Tokyo, a quarterly profit decreased of 72%. Even though PlayStation 3 sales doubled compare to last year this time. The company said it sold 2.43 million PlayStation 3 consoles during the quarter, an increase of 86% over the same period a year ago.

Sony said Wednesday it posted a net profit of 20.8 billion yen ($214 million) for the July-September period compared with 73.7 billion yen a year earlier. Sales in the fiscal second quarter slipped 0.5 percent to 2.072 trillion yen ($21.4 billion).

Sony makes about 80 percent of its sales overseas and is vulnerable to fluctuations in exchange rates. A rising yen erodes the overseas profits when converted into the Japanese currency.

“We already expect a poor performance for the Christmas shopping season,” Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda told reporters. “On how things will fare after Christmas, I can only say we will continue to keep a careful look.”

Interesting news is PlayStation 2 out sold PlayStation 3 in the market. Still PlayStation 2 is much popular in countries like India, Russia. Many low budget titles are still released for PlayStation 2.

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Sony Suffers Profit Loss

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Belgium Outlaws Game Rental

mayudahitman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Belgium European nation has outlawed game rental. Many gamers call this move a ridiculous.

Kotaku reports that stockists in Belgium have been unable to buy new titles for rental purposes since June in preparation for the change. As of December 1st, however, it will become completely illegal to rent any games software.

Shops are unable to buy any new game for the purpose of rental since June. In December, the law will come in fully; meaning no Belgian gamer will be able to rent any games.

Gamers believe that this fever will not spread to other nations around the world.

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Belgium Outlaws Game Rental

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Aussie Radio Becomes 2UE-Wii

mayudahitman — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

2U-Wii

Australian radio station 2UE has joined hands with Wii to promote their product. In order to help out Wii, the radio station has changed their logo as shown in the image. They have changed their logos in each and every possible. For next two weeks the radio will be named after Wii and will be called as “2UE-Wii”.

Unlike other game consoles, Wii focusing on all age group of people for their product. This is a initiation from Nintendo to reach the market using mass media. Listeners are set to become the big winners during the 2U-Wii promotion with the station planning to give away over $20,000 worth of Wii products.

Check out the 2U-Wii’s website to see just some of the changes that have already been made – something that will immediately catch your attention is that all their radio personalities’ faces have been changed to their Miis.

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Aussie Radio Becomes 2UE-Wii

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Economy Crisis Hits Nintendo Too

mayudahitman — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Nintendo Co. said Thursday that strong sales of its hit Wii and DS video game consoles enabled it to buck a slump in the Japanese electronics industry and stay on course for record profits.

The company downgraded its outlook slightly in light of the strong yen but still expects annual profits to rise by about one third, a more than respectable performance compared with many other Japanese manufacturers.

Nintendo Co. said Thursday it posted a 9.4 percent gain in first-half profit but cut its full-year outlook as a surging yen undercut brisk sales of its popular Wii console and DS handheld device.

The Kyoto-based company booked net profit of 144.8 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in the April-September period. The result was higher than last year’s 132.4 billion yen profit, though missed Nintendo’s own expectations for 165 billion yen in profit.

But Nintendo to cut its annual net profit forecast by nearly 16 percent because of the yen’s recent strength, which erodes overseas earnings.

Although the company saw brisk, Profits at Nintendo soared 34 per cent higher in the first half of the year, providing hope for the Japanese titan that its “cheap and cheerful” DS and Wii machines may prove the ultimate Christmas recession busters.

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Economy Crisis Hits Nintendo Too

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Avalanche Studios Layoff

mayudahitman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Current economic crisis troubles almost ell the industries that exist in this world. Game industry is no exception. We hear stories about how game industry affected by the global economic crisis. Swedish video game developer Avalanche Studios has laid off 77 employees from their organization after loosing two publisher deals.

Avalanche Studios is founded in 2003. Avalanche employed 160 staffs before the layoffs.

“We have lost two publisher deals this year — those deals were worth around $34 million,” Avalanche CEO Christofer Sundberg told GamesIndustry.biz.

“We lost the first deal in February but we could survive that one because we had a shortage of staff in other projects and we decided to put together a team to work on a original IP that we had in development. But the team that was working on a project that was terminated last week — there were about 67 people on that team.”

Anyhow company has decided to continue with their current projects such as “Just Cause 2” and “The Hunter”.

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Avalanche Studios Layoff

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World of Warcraft Movie

mayudahitman — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:36:53 +0000

Some years back Blizzard was planning to make a movie, but later on the news faded away and people forgot the buzz. Now Blizzard is saying that, they have not buried the idea of making a movie.

Blizzard president Mike Morhaime told that “there are still plans for a World of Warcraft movie.” And what are they? “The script is being written but if they say anything more than that they will be shot.” That’s one of the shortest updates we’ve ever heard, but it sounds like a World of Warcraft movie is still in the works.

Some critics complain about the movie “real question here is whether anyone would actually want to watch it. Isn’t the whole point in playing World of Warcraft to come up with your own story? Why pay to sit and watch someone else’s quest when you could be off on the internet, living in your own buxom elf-babe world?”

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World of Warcraft Movie

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Video Game Sales Goes Down

mayudahitman — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:00:16 +0000

Video game sales have gone down in September. Some people argue that its all happened because of the economy crisis but it’s good to note that comparisons were skewed by “Halo 3,” the blockbuster from Microsoft Corp. that accounted for more than a third of all game sales in the same month last year.

Americans spent $1.27 billion on video games last month, which is 7 percent down compare to September, 2007. Hardware sales also have dropped by 9 percent to $497.98 million.

September sales of the Xbox 360 took off on a Microsoft price cut, according to new data from The NPD Group. The console sold 347,200 units in the month, versus 232,400 for Sony’s competing PlayStation 3.

“This increase, despite the acceleration of economic turmoil during the month of September, is (a) solid indicator of the health of the industry heading into the holiday season,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in an e-mail statement.

Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox 360 at the beginning of September, with the cheapest version selling for $200, less expensive than the Wii, which retails for $250. The cut “certainly had its intended effect,” said Microsoft spokesman David Dennis.

“Spore” and “Warhammer Online” sold very well in September, both from Electronic Arts Inc.

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Video Game Sales Goes Down

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Manhunt 2 UK Release

mayudahitman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:39:59 +0000

Manhunt 2

Many UK games are eagerly waiting for the release of Manhunt 2. Rockstar Games has confirmed that Manhunt 2 UK release date has finally been agreed. Game will hit the market on October 31.

One year ago, the game was released in U.S. but for some reason it was refused and delayed in UK. Earlier British Board of Film Classification said “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone”. After talks and negotiations it was awarded an 18 certificate.

Now Manhunt 2 will be released for PS2, Wii and PSP on October. Existing review scores are also likely to work against Manhunt 2, which is shackled to a less than impressive average score of just 66/100 on leading review aggregation Web site Metacritic.com

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Manhunt 2 UK Release

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US Economy Crisis Hits Gaming Industry

mayudahitman — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:23:09 +0000

Since September 26th the NASDAQ has fallen 11 percent. This event is having an impact on video game industry too. The video game sector dropped much more sharply than the Nasdaq. According to a recent LA Times report, this last quarter of the year, which for video game companies should be the plentiful sales season, is instead looking like a time of forced belt tightening.

Game publisher Activision, who publishes World of Warcraft and Call of Duty tops the lists by losing 4 billion dollars in shareholder value. Meanwhile Electronic Arts also known as EA lost 2 billion dollars.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter – who specializes in analyzing the video game industry, remains confident about the future however. “We’re still going to spend the same amount of hours entertaining ourselves,” Pachter said. “It’s just a matter of which entertainment we choose to buy, and games are still perceived to be a super value.”

It is said that 2007/2008 is the best year for gamers.

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US Economy Crisis Hits Gaming Industry

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Nintendo’s Share Prices Are Declining

mayudahitman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:21:36 +0000

Nintendo

Nintendo’s share prices are declining further 8.7% after its remodeled DS, the DSi, failed to impress investors. The new model, which will feature slightly larger screens, a camera and a built-in web browser, will retail in Japan for JPY 18,900 (USD 179) from November 1, but the move has left investors cold.

Nintendo’s share price has fallen steadily as the global financial markets meltdown. Meanwhile Sony’s stock remained stable across the day, falling only 0.3 percent.

It should be noted that, response to the DSi from the industry is mixed. Some gamers praised it, while others found nothing more than an integrated hand held music & game player.

Release date of the DSi in USA and Europe is not yet been decided by Nintendo, but it’s expected in the U.S. market in spring 2009.

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Nintendo’s Share Prices Are Declining

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