Nintendo has released a statement emphasising the significance of its contribution to the expanding videogame market.
“While the video game industry grew by $150 million year-on-year,” read the statement, “Nintendo's total sales grew by $300 million in January, offsetting declines on other platforms.”
Sony has announced that total worldwide sell-in units of the PSP have now reached 50 million.
That essentially means that 50 million PSPs have been bought in and displayed by retailers. Sell-through figures were not announced by Sony at the same time, though last August the firm stated that the PSP had a worldwide install base of 41 million.
Coming off of yet another record-breaking year of double-digit growth, games at U.S. retail bounded out of the gate in January 2009, with the industry recording $1.33 billion during the month, a 13 percent year-on-year increase.
Videogame consumers weren't quite done spending at the close of the 2008 holiday season.
Research firm NPD Group said Thursday that total U.S. videogame industry revenues grew 13 percent in January to $1.33 billion, an accomplishment considering the worsening state of the economy.
Just ahead of complete January U.S. videogame sales data, Microsoft said Thursday it achieved record hardware sales for the month.
Citing NPD data, the company said it sold 309K Xbox 360s, up 33 percent year-on-year in the U.S.
Sales of third-party games on Xbox 360 reached $139 million in January. The oftware to hardware tie ratio was 8.1.
Microsoft added that January 2009 was the "single biggest month ever" for Xbox Live membership growth, following strong holiday sales that saw 1.44 million hardware units sold in December.
Bandai Namco Games, subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holding, plans to acquire 100 percent of fellow Japanese game company D3 Publisher, Edge has confirmed.
A rep for D3 said Bandai Namco intends to buy all of D3, including its subsidiaries D3 Publisher of America and D3 Publisher of Europe.
D3 Publisher has released games including titles in the Ben 10 kids' franchise, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Dark Sector (pictured).
As part of its quarterly results, Japan's Namco Bandai revealed the top 10 games for the nine months ended in December, with Soul Calibur IV leading the pack by a large margin.
The weapons-based fighting game sold 2.26 million units worldwide across Xbox 360 and PS3 during the period. The game launched in summer 2008.
The next closest seller was Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, released in June 2008, with 730K sold.
The Rock Band franchise has sold millions, but according to MTV Games parent Viacom, the series fell short of expectations for the fourth quarter ended in December.
Viacom CFO Tom Dooley said in a Thursday earnings call that Rock Band 2 sold nearly 2 million units ("hardware, software and bundles") since its debut in September 2008 across all platforms.
But a challenging retail environment kept sales of the sequel below Viacom's projections, Dooley said.
Chicago-based Mortal Kombat house Midway Games said Thursday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as the company anticipates it will not be able to satisfy accelerated note repurchase obligations.
In November last year, a change in control of the company triggered a provision that gave two groups of noteholders the option to ask that their bonds be paid in full. Midway had negotiated with both parties to extend their right to demand payback until this month.
Following the runaway success of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Sega has announced it is currently developing the inevitable sequel.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is set for release in late 2009, just in time for the frosty Christmas shopping season and a couple of months before the XXI Olympic Winter Games, held in Vancouver on February 12-28.
Namco Bandai has reported slight year-on-year gains for the third fiscal quarter, though not enough to alleviate the annual losses it has suffered through the whole financial year.
Net income for the third quarter alone was slightly up from the year prior, taking ¥7.7 billion for the three-month period. That boosts its FY09 net income so far to just above ¥9 billion, yet the publisher is still trailing last year’s performance by 38 percent.
When Crytek saw that U.K.-based Free Radical Design was in trouble, the German studio, known for Crysis, saw an opportunity.
Free Radical, the studio behind the first-person TimeSplitters shooter franchise and founded by key developers of the revered Goldeneye 007 for N64, had locked its doors in mid-December, just before the holiday, laying off the majority of staff.
Consoles and PC systems should feature a “red button” that would allow parents to control the flow of game content that their children consume.
This was one offering from a report adopted by the Euro Parliament Internal Market Committee.
It’s fair to say that the founders of Metacritic never foresaw it generating the attention it has attracted. Intended as a way of seeing at a glance whether a game was worth buying, it’s now used as a measure of game quality by the largest publishers, developers and retailers.
John Riccitiello has used its scores to define EA’s business strategy to analysts; Steam prominently displays them on its product pages; developer Frontier uses them for sales forecasting.
Stardock, the PC game publisher behind Ironclad Games' acclaimed Sins of a Solar Empire, has received "close to a million dollar tax credit" from its home state of Michigan, and will be opening a second studio, a rep has told Edge.
The rep said in an e-mail that the new studio will create about 50 new jobs "very soon"--good news amidst mounting job losses across the nation and within the games industry.
We expect to have more from the developer regarding the new studio and tax credit later today.
Publisher Take-Two and subsidiary Rockstar San Diego are returning to the Wild West after five years.
The companies announced Wednesday Red Dead Redemption, the sequel to the 2004 Western-inspired shooter Red Dead Revolver. The new entry will arrive on PS3 and Xbox 360 in fall this year
Rockstar San Diego was also the studio behind the original game.
Described as a "Western epic," players experience the story of former outlaw John Marston in an open-world environment set during the turn of the 20th century.
On Wednesday, Crytek finally emerged to confirm reports earlier this week that it purchased all assets and business of Nottingham, U.K.-based TimeSplitters creator Free Radical Design.
The studio, which will become Crytek U.K., will be the Frankfurt, Germany-based game maker's fifth locale, and its first U.K. studio.
Ten more stories for Wednesday including - shotgun fetish, a terrific rant about a dumb games-based news report, and a serious game that just might save your life...
Shares in Electronic Arts rose 12 percent to $17.36 in morning trading, following management's announcement of substantial cost-cutting measures.
EA said Tuesday that it would now be cutting 1,100 jobs, 10 percent more than previously announced. Management also has plans to shut down 12 facilities and narrow its product portfolio.
School and college students across the UK are being challenged to create a computer-animated one-minute film.
Using programs such as Alice or Scratch, UK students can either form teams or go it alone in designing their own short animation piece, with the winning entries being displayed at Manchester Museum of Science and Industry’s Animation Festival later in June.
Disney reported this week that its Interactive Media Group's revenues were up during the ficsal first quarter, though the segment incurred an operating loss.
The segment, which includes Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Online and mobile operations, generated $313 million in sales for the October-December quarter, an increase of 13 percent year-on-year. Operating loss was $45 million, down from operating income of $13 million a year ago.
LittleBigPlanet has been awarded a Platinum Sales status by industry group ELSPA, meaning the title has now sold over 300,000 units in the UK.
Videogame rental house Gamefly has acquired independent gaming website Shacknews and its file downloading site, Fileshack.
GameFly co-founder Sean Spector said in a statement on Shacknews, "We purchased Shacknews because it's a great site. We believe we can help expand its reach--we're not looking to twist and turn the site into something else."
“Clear and simple, our titles did not perform to our expectations,” said John Riccitiello.
The EA CEO spoke at the publisher's 2009 earnings call just moments after the firm revealed its third quarter results, which “significantly missed its numbers” by some $150 million.
Growth in the videogame business has intensified competition in the retail marketplace.
In the UK, specialist chains and independent stores are battling to defend market share as supermarkets and non-traditional outlets (NTOs) look to games to drive footfall, and home entertainment retailers step up their interest to offset stagnation in other categories.