Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes Nintendo will cut the price of the Wii later this year in order to hit its shipment targets.
“Wii supply has finally exceeded demand, so we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year decreases for the first half of 2009,” he said in a research note. “In order to hit its full-year Wii shipment forecast, we expect Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii before [the] holiday, likely to $199.99.”
SCEA president Jack Tretton has spoken of his annoyance that a number of Sony’s major E3 announcements were leaked ahead of the show.
“People don’t respect confidentiality in this industry,” he told CNBC. “It’s tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties."
Patrick Soderlund, senior vice president at EA Games Europe, has confirmed that Swedish developer DICE is working on a follow up to 2008’s Mirror’s Edge.
“You will see another Mirror’s Edge for sure,” he told VideoGamer. “It’s just a matter of when that time is and what we do with it. We have a small team on it and I’m excited about what we do”
A US district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Nintendo by Guardian Media Technologies.
Hardware sales slumped in Japan during the week ended June 7, from 144, 521 to 111, 558 units.
The decline was primarily due to a drop in DSi demand. Having raced ahead of the pack the previous week with over 65,000 sales, Nintendo’s latest handheld sold just shy of 39,000 units.
Sales of all other platforms declined marginally, excluding Xbox 360. Microsoft’s console saw a 2,500 unit jump to take it above PS2 and DS Lite in the rankings, according to research firm Media Create.
In news about the latest version of XNA Game Studio, Microsoft announced that it is to change the name of Community Games, its XNA-based amateur games creation platform, to Xbox Live Indie Games.
The launch of Xbox 360 motion control sensing peripheral Project Natal will rival that of the console’s debut, according to Microsoft's corporate vice president for the Xbox platform.
"Conceptually, the launch of Natal will be like the launch of Xbox 360," Shane Kim told Kotaku. "It's going to be that big. We're not just going to ship it when the hardware and software are ready.
A group of cross-party politicians has been brought together to raise and discuss issues related to the UK videogame industry.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group will be chaired by Labour MP Bill Olner, with vice chairman roles being filled by film maker and politician Lord David Puttnam, Conservative MP John Whittingdale, who is also chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, and Conservative MP Philip Davies.
Nintendo has announced that US Wii sales have topped 20 million units.
The system passed the milestone in 31 months, “reinforcing its position as the fastest-selling console in history,” said the platform holder.
Wii was the bestselling home console in the States during May, while DS topped overall hardware sales, shifting 633,000 units to take US sales past the 31 million mark.
THQ’s UFC 2009: Undisputed sold over one million copies in the US during May to top the monthly software chart, with the Xbox 360 version accounting for two thirds of sales.
Nintendo’s exercise title Wii Fit marginally outsold new rival EA Sports Active to take second place, while PS3 exclusive Infamous debuted in fifth.
US industry sales totalled $863,300 in May, the first time monthly figures have fallen below $1 billion since August 2007.
Hardware sales declined 30 percent, software 17 percent and accessories 25 percent.
"The videogames industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, adding that “May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general.
Last time, I ended my column about the response to my response to the E3 2007 Resident Evil 5 trailer by stating that I had (mostly) decided to refrain from further comment until I’d gotten the opportunity to play the final game and speak with its producer, Jun Takeuchi.
Sony will release a lilac purple PSP-3000 bundled with Disney’s Hannah Montana: Rock Out The Show.
Arriving this October in PAL territories, the new hardware bundle represents the platform holder’s latest attempt to target a more diverse audience.
Given Naughty Dog’s reputation for modest poise, there was never much of a doubt as to whether Uncharted 2’s multiplayer modes were going to be any good. Instead, the question the game’s beta must answer is whether they’re going to be relevant as well.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has called on Apple to adopt its classification system for iPhone games.
One of the new features of Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 software update will be parents’ ability to decide which music, videos and apps their kids can access, but ESRB president Patricia Vance would like to see the platform holder go further.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has questioned the “whizz bang” approach to the marketplace he says is favoured by Microsoft and Sony.
“What I would suggest to your audience is that even in the competitive [E3] announcements, it highlights just how different we are as a company,” the executive told GameSpot.
The GameOn! London consumer gaming show has been rescheduled from June 20-21 to November 14-15.
The event, which had attracted support from the likes of Nintendo and Capcom, will now take place at Earls Court instead of the Olympia National Hall.
EA has confirmed new instalments for two of its major franchises, Need For Speed and Battlefield.
Speaking at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference, EA chief operating officer John Pleasants revealed that Burnout developer Criterion is working on an unannounced Need For Speed title.
Assassin’s Creed 2’s creative director Patrice Désilets has revealed that the first game in the franchise has “sold some eight million copies.”
The title, which released for Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2007 and for PC in 2008, had sold six million units as of April last year, Ubisoft said previously.
