October 2009
Monthly Archive
Life Inside The Box30 Oct 2009 09:00 am
Weekend Deals: 10/30–11/01
Editorial&News29 Oct 2009 07:34 am
Nintendo’s H1 profits fall 59%, cuts forecast, announces discontinuation of hardware business.
Oh boy, this story. This news. Well let’s start off with a basic overview of it. Nintendo’s profits from the April to September 2009 quarter fell drastically from the astronomical heights of 2007 and 2008′s numbers to the slowdown we’ve been seeing over the past year.
Operating profit was 104.4 billion yen ($1.2 billion dollars) falling from last year’s 252.2 billion yen profit of H1 08.
The Wii has now outsold the SNES with lifetime sales of 56.14 million units while the DS is up to 113.48 million units. This is horrible as the SNES was a true gamer’s machine.
Last month’s price cut which took effect late in September, was still counted in the quarterly one report and eligible to be commented on by internet denizens as “Not good enough lol. Make some HARDCORE GAMES.”
So today all hardcore gaming journalists can rest easy knowing that they’re finally winning the battle between the plebeian casuals and their casual games. TRUE HARDCORE GAMERZ knew that the Wii’s success and failure hinged only on smoke and mirrors, and this news in no way, shape or form represents the Iwata-acknowledged fact that there was shit all to buy in the first quarter first-party-wise aside from Wii Sports Resort and Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Oh and I love how almost everyone reporting on this story includes a mention of Apple’s success with the iPod and iPhone. I mean yeah they’re successes but I don’t reeeeeaaaally think parents hold a game console (these articles are the same ones that rightfully mention sluggish Wii sales in their title as the reason for the drop in profit) in one hand and an iPhone in the other and it’s this big battle and OH MY GOD APPLE PLEASE MAKE A CONSOLE IN FACT I’M GONNA WRITE AN ARTICLE BASED ON CONJECTURE AND SPECULATION ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW.
I mean, if they were talking about the iPhone being a competitor to the DS then yeah that’s a valid comparison they’re both portables. But just randomly inserting phrases like “Low Wii sales may also be related to the rise of the of the PSPGO and the iPhone” in these professional news stories (and these are professional online news outlets I’m seeing this at, not hobbyist gaming blogs) is…..GAH. -The Ben
Update: You think I was JOKING ABOUT THAT LAST PARAGRAPH? Goddamn FORBES just did it:
HONG KONG — Super Mario Brothers, Cooking Mama, Donkey Kong and all the other game characters Nintendo has conjured up weren’t powerful enough to fend off the challenges of a stronger yen and a new competitor called the iPhone.
Ha ha, I love a cheeky opening to a news story.
Demand for Wii, the bestselling videogame console produced by Nintendo, has been cooling down in the past few months as Apple’s iPhone has been growing in popularity as the platform of choice for handheld game players.
But…they’re two different…GAH.
Life Inside The Box26 Oct 2009 12:00 am
Life Inside the Box – 065 – Matchmaking, Matchmaking, Make Me a Match
This week, Brian, Kyle, Stephen, and Kevin get into a heated discussion on Infinity Ward’s recent decision to not include mod and dedicated server support in the upcoming Modern Warfare II. Also covered are the September NPD numbers and the results of indie developer 2D Boy’s recent “name your own price” sale of World of Goo. The guys also cover what almost seems to be insider trading by GameStop Director Leonard Riggio.
Weekend Deals: 10/23–10/25
Cities XL: City Management Stumbles Headfirst into the Online World.
By Kyle Krueger
Having covered cities, planets, farms, ant colonies, theme parks, helicopters, and more, Wil Wright’s massive Sim empire has long been the king of the genre. Yes, yes, there are imitators, and some might point to the expansive Tycoon franchise, but anyone who has played simulation games extensively will tell you that there is simply no contest. This year, however, French developer Monte Cristo is trying their hand at dethroning the long-time king with their city-building sim, Cities XL. However, unlike other clones that simply remade Sim City and hoped that people would bite, Cities XL takes the genre into relatively foreign territory by including massively multiplayer online play.
(more…)
LITB Gaming News – Oh no my dividends. Also somethig about profit and Nintendo.
Hey Matt Martin of gamesindustry.biz what’s up with Nintendo’s profits these days?
Nintendo could announce its first drop in profits for six years, according to market watchers.
Income for the Japanese giant is likely to fall 11 per cent to JPY 249.3 billion, the first drop since the 12 months ended March 2004, according to Bloomberg.
“Nintendo may cut its profit projection about 30 per cent because of sluggish sales in the first half, the price cut for the Wii and currency-related impact,” said Satoru Kikuchi, of Deutsche Bank AG in Tokyo. “Investors are expecting the company to fully reflect its business environment in its forecast.”
The company will announce its results on October 29, and had originally forecast JPY 300 billion net income this year.
Sales of the Wii console have been falling, with the hardware outsold by Sony’s PlayStation 3 last month in the US.
Nintendo was the last of the big three hardware manufacturers to cut the price of its console in the US, Japan and Europe, although the street price remains the same in the UK.
Oh no, a foreseen drop in momentum could lead to a decrease in profit that will still be higher than most of the industry’s profits for the first half? Oh God NO! Only a total company overhaul in preparation for the Wii HD could possibly save them now. The mythical Wii HD as foretold by Michael Pachter that doesn’t actually exist so don’t get your hopes up and stop trying to get people to believe that one’s coming.
And people writing this month’s news that the PS3 outsold everything like it was a shock, a SHOCK. No it wasn’t a shock. It was expected by everyone. Everyone. EVERYONE. – The Ben
LITB Gaming News – Sept 09 NPD numbers. PS3′s Counter-Attack.
Via GAF courtesy of the NPD Group, it’s the September NPD Sales Results:
PlayStation 2 146.0K
PlayStation 3 491.8K
PSP 190.4K
Xbox 360 352.6K
Wii 462.8K
Nintendo DS 524.2K
HALO 3: ODST (360; Sep-09) 1.52M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS (WII; Jul-09) 442.9K
MADDEN NFL 10 (360; Aug-09) 289.6K
MARIO & LUIGI:BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY (NDS; Sep-09) 258.1K
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND* (360; Sep-09) 254.0K
MADDEN NFL 10 (PS3; Aug-09) 246.5K
MARVEL:ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2 (360; Sep-09) 236.0K
BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUM* (PS3; Aug-09) 212.5K
GUITAR HERO 5* (360; Sep-09) 210.8K
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND* (WII; Sep-09) 208.6K
Right away we can see how effective the PS3 Slim has been in terms of giving the PS3 a new lease on life in terms of Hardware popularity. Expected by just about everybody out there, this is a performance we might not see again for a while from the PS3 until the Holiday Season, but maybe Uncharted 2 will keep the PS3 numbers from free falling as quickly as they rose up.
Other than that it’s a pretty standard September month, the usual bunch of gamers who waited until Madden drops in price one month after it’s release keep it on the charts. Halo 3: ODST did really well, but didn’t help the 360 to overtake a Wii that managed a last minute price drop in the latter half of September to try and get back to previous highs that the system experienced last year. PS3 SKU of Batman:AA is seeing continued success, the Joker helping the SKU staying in the Top 10.
And just for old times sake Mario pops in to say hi, the reign over the Top 10 Sales chart for almost this entire year all but gone now.
Hope the rest of the NPD reports for 2009 are this exciting. – The Ben
Life Inside The Box19 Oct 2009 12:00 am
Life Inside the Box – 064 – Name Your Price Podcasting
This week, Brian, Kyle, Stephen, and Kevin get into a heated debate over commercialization and the effect it has on games, with a focus on pre-order benefits. They also make a point to give props to the gaming companies that are sticking their necks out and benefiting from it. Also covered this week is a nod to Valve and recent developments on criticism of their methods from industry member Randy Pitchford.
LITB Gaming News – Modern Warfare 2 for PC won’t have dedicated servers.
Bomshelled during a ustream chat, Infinity Ward Community Manager Rob Bowling let loose the little notice that the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will not have dedicated servers, but that this WILL make selling DLC easier for the PC version and inevitably will be more beneficial to Activision’s bottom line in the end.
Look, nobody’s blaming Bobby Kotick for everything negative action that Activision has put forth for the last few years. Certainly one man can’t be the direct cause for dropping games that can’t be “exploited”, trying to make the removal of features for games such as LAN for StarCraft 2 look like a good idea, and now this business with no dedicated servers for the PC version of a highly-anticipated multiplayer-focused FPS title that they know is going to sell more copies of itself than a few game consoles have sold more hardware in their entire lifespan. Money’s not the problem here.
But I can see how one might think the entire company is influenced by the face of Activision.
Actually, most of these descisions this year have seemingly been targeted towards PC gamers more than anything else. No, I’m not saying Bobby Kotick is trying to systematically dismantle PC Gaming or anything of that sort. I mean even if he’s the guy who “joked” about creating a work environment that purposefully depresses it’s employees he’s….he’s….
Alright yeah it looks like he’s somehow single-handily taken Activision from it’s “Plucky Tony Hawk and Spider-Man developing underdog development company” of the early years of this decade to “The New EA” and all the spoils that that title comes with. – The Ben
Weekend Deals: 10/16–10/18
Life Inside The Box12 Oct 2009 05:04 pm
Life Inside the Box – 063 – Achievement Unlocked: Good Podcast
This week, Brian, Kevin, Kyle, and Stephen headline with a nice talk about achievements in video games, including what makes them fun, what makes them pointless, and their overall effect on the gaming world. They also talk heartily about Valve’s involvement in their community, with the recent hiring of a DotA developer, and about the trends of single player games and whether they are killing story telling.
Deals09 Oct 2009 09:29 am
Weekend Deals: 10/09–10/011
LITB Gaming News – Natal going to be priced more like a console add-on.
Straight from Gizmodo, Matt Buchanan reports from a Microsoft round table with Microsoft’s Robbie Bach detailing how Natal will follow a price curve “like anything else” the update says. Matt expands upon that saying that it will start at a more expensive point and gradually get cheaper as time goes on. He then makes a pretty strange comparison to the SEGA 32X add-on and how Natal will be marketed.
The statement isn’t so strange in it’s meaning, both the 32X and Natal were/are supposed to prolong the life cycle of their respective consoles with new and unique ways of gaming you couldn’t previously get on those systems. It’s strange in the fact that the 32X, along with SEGA’s other notable console add-on the SEGA-CD, weren’t all that successful in keeping the Genesis alive in the long run.
Matt ends the update with his own opinion of believing Natal to end up costing around $150 at launch. Everyone knew this add-on wouldn’t be cheap, but that does seem reasonable when you consider it as a full fledged add-on instead of looking at it as a mere accessory like an Eye Toy or Motion Plus. – The Ben
Life Inside The Box05 Oct 2009 12:00 am
Life Inside the Box – 062 – Shadow of the Podcastlossis
This week, Brian, Kyle, Stephen, and Kevin talk about everything under the sun, including the necessity (or lack thereof) of pre-release game demos, and the viability of artsy games being made into movies. Also on the lineup this week is a discussion of the possibility of a game developer’s guild, and one on the way gamers react to strangers. Also, rumors of a new Planetside game give the guys nostalgia as they discuss what would have to happen to make a sequel viable.
Weekend Deals: 10/02–10/04
