Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz has questioned whether expected upcoming hardware price cuts can rescue flagging console and software sales.
According to Creutz, investors are anticipating a $100 cut on the PS3, a $50 cut on the Wii, and the Xbox 360 Elite to receive a new price point of $300. The analyst forecasts hardware price cuts “on all platforms by September, with announcements possibly as early as next week’s Gamescom in Leipzig.”
Screen Digest believes that the online console market won’t be commercially exploited to its full potential until the next generation of hardware comes along.
While current generation console manufacturers Microsoft and Sony - and to a lesser extent Nintendo - have released online-enabled platforms, the research firm believes that “key members of the traditional games value chain… are acting as bottlenecks to the overall development of the online console market.”
Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival about how EA Sports had escaped what he described as "the burning platform" of their old business model, Peter Moore said that the publisher’s bid to expand the game playing audience wouldn’t lead the company to neglect core consumers.
The first braw bricht morning of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival kicked off with Peter Moore’s keynote on how EA Sports had escaped what he described as "the burning platform" of their old business model - games on a disc, bought in a shop once a year. "Our game had become stale, it had become predictable," he told attendees. There was a perception that EA Sports was "big, monolithic, huge, we were using large marketing vehicles to talk to our consumers." What's a smooth executive to do?
Sega president Mike Hayes says the publisher will continue to take risks on the Wii by releasing core titles for the platform.
Realtime Worlds founder and creative director Dave Jones says that the release of PC MMOG APB will usher in a number of cultural changes at the Scotland-based developer.
Speaking in the second part of our recent interview, he explained how the growing independent studio will no longer simply be just a game developer following the title's launch.
GRIN co-founders Bo and Ulf Andersson have confirmed that the developer has been forced to close its doors.
“It is with a heavy heart we announce today that GRIN has been forced to close its doors. This as too many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cash flow situation,” they said.
The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) has announced eight new members.
BFG Technologies, Bigfoot Networks, Flextronics, GameStop, GameTap, Gas Powered Games, Howie’s Game Shack and InstantAction have joined the non-profit consortium, which was formed last year to promote the PC gaming industry.
A number of ex-GRIN employees have established Outbreak Studios.
The Sweden-based development studio was founded by lead programmer Peter Björklund, who has been credited on GRIN’s Terminator Salvation, SimBin’s Race Pro, EA’s Battlefield: Bad Company and Avalanche’s Just Cause.
Tom Crago, the president of the Game Developers Association of Australia, says he’s embarrassed by the Australian government’s stance on game classifications.
NCsoft has reported large sales and profit increases for the second quarter.
Sales were up 70 per cent year-on-year to 137.8 billion Korean won ($110.5m/£67.2m). Meanwhile, operating profit rose 353 per cent year-on-year to 47.5 billion won ($38.1m/£23.1m) and net income by 451 per cent to 33.8 billion won ($27.1m/$16.4m).
South Korea accounted for 57 per cent of sales, Japan 15 per cent, North America eight per cent, Europe and Taiwan three per cent. The remainder was generated from royalties.
Sony will make an official announcement about the European PS3 video download store at next week’s Gamescom event in Germany.
Vincent Diamante loves arcade games. Growing up after the golden era of early-‘80s arcades, Diamante hunted them down in 7-Elevens and pizza parlors, and he still remembers the pleasure of finding a game he’d never played before, that could show him something new when he threw in his quarter.
Say you’re a videogame designer of some minor renown who’s had the good fortune to write for your favourite gaming magazine, in which you rhapsodise about games as a unique art form and how the industry should be bolder and less degenerate.
ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain has left his role as president of product development at NCsoft West.
In an unrelated move, president of publishing David Reid has also departed the company.
“NCsoft West announces the departure of Jeff Strain, president of product development, who has chosen to leave NCsoft under amicable terms and NCsoft wishes him the best in his new endeavor,” the publisher said in a statement issued to MMORPG.com.
Electronic Arts is interested in smaller-scale acquisitions, according to chief financial officer Eric Brown.
Speaking at the Pacific Crest Technology Leadership Forum in Colorado, Brown said that the firm is keen to increase its presence in the consumer-to-consumer marketplace via the acquisition of franchises or online publishing technologies.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission and US distributor Griffin International have issued a recall on 220,000 Wii Remote charging stations.
The pair said that the Psyclone Essentials and React Wii 4-Dock Battery Recharge Stations, which are manufactured in China, have the potential to overheat, with six reported cases to date.
The charging stations were sold at Target, Toys R Us and on Amazon.com across the US from January 2008 through July 2009, the CPSC said.
Wi-Fi network firm Bandspeed filed a lawsuit against Sony, Nintendo and Apple last week, alleging that the PS3, Wii and iPhone 3G infringe upon two of its patents.
The patents in question are US Patent No. 7,027,418 (Approach for Selecting Communications Channels Based On Performance) and 7,570,614 (Approach for Managing Communications Channels Based On Performance).
Medieval RPG Risen has been refused classification by the Australian ratings body.
Developed by Piranha Bytes, the Xbox 360 and PC title is due to be published in October by Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media.
What better way to celebrate the beautiful and dangerous desolation of the Capital Wasteland than by sitting back, headphones in ears, and listening to Kate Nash? Or, indeed, by watching an episode of My Name is Earl?
And what better way to enjoy these fruits of noughties western culture than on your very own Fallout 3-engraved iPod Nano?
The prize, with bonsai tree for scale
Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley will deliver a keynote speech at September’s Game Developers Conference Austin event.
Smedley’s keynote, titled From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts ... It's a Whole New MMO World, will discuss how SOE’s free-to-play MMO Free Realms has worked to grow the base of players engaging together in online worlds.
Numark and Genius Products have revealed that Commotion Interactive, the music and party game division of Bedlam Games, will complete development of its music rhythm game Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.
Format: Commodore 64
Release: 1983
Publisher: Llamasoft Software
Developer: Jeff Minter
Any knowledgeable fan of the Star Wars films will tell you that the mighty science fiction saga has inspired its fair share of bizarre cultural artefacts. Some are close homages, some are parodies and others are more laterally stimulated by some aspect of George Lucas’ mythos. Surely one of the most surreal examples falls into this latter category and appeared almost 30 years ago: the classic videogame that was Attack Of The Mutant Camels.
Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft has partially re-launched in China with a series of government-enforced content changes.
The game had seen an extended period of downtime following the transition to new local operator NetEase, but has reopened in beta form with a number of content changes following a review by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), a governmental agency that deals with censorship.
Wii Sports Resort sold over 600,000 copies in Europe during its first two weeks of availability.
Nintendo confirmed the figure with us shortly after it was announced that the game had sold over 500,000 copies in the US in nine days, and earlier become the third fastest-selling Wii game in Japan after moving 353,827 copies in just four days.