News Tagged: Industry
News: Electronic Arts Less Than Happy With Wii Sales
Veteran publisher laments "weak" third party sales performance on Nintendo's console
In case you hadn't noticed, EA is pruning its workforce with gay abandon at present, hacking away 1500 jobs in order to reduce its running costs. The fact that many of its Wii titles have underperformed (Dead Space Extraction has reportedly sold a pitiful 9,000 copies in North America) has surely contributed to..
News: Square Enix Prez Stares Into Crystal Ball; Sees New Wii in 2011
Thoughts also passed on motion control
Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has opened his mouth and allowed various predictions to spew forth, some of which were collected and bottled during an interview with The Financial Times. Wada has foretold that Nintendo's successor to the Wii will be available in 2011, and is likely to be closer to the PS3/360 in terms of specifications. Another insightful..
News: Nintendo Sales Drop as Global Economy Goes Down the Crapper
Even The Big N is susceptible to to the downturn
Nintendo has just released its financial statement for the previous quarter and the results make for interesting reading.Despite the fact that the manufacturer is beating away all competition from rivals such as Sony and Microsoft, net sales were down down by 40% compared to the previous year. Net income was also down at ¥42.3 billion, which..
News: Sega Not Giving Up On Mature Wii Titles Just Yet
Recent retail disappointments haven't dented Sega's confidence
As much as we loved Madworld and House of the Dead: Overkill, neither title sold particularly well, which has led many 'industry experts' to suggest that mature, hardcore games just can't find an audience on Nintendo's console.In the light of two high-profile commercial bombs you'd expect Sega to step back from mature gaming and..
News: Factor 5 Being Sued By Ex-Employees
Lawsuit reveals a Rogue Squadron Wii game was in the works.
A few months back San-Rafael-based Factor 5 (the studio behind the popular Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series) was declared bankrupt with between $1 million to $10 million in unpaid debts. In addition to this, the company was also faced with 69 claims for unpaid wages totaling more than $900,000. As you can imagine, much wailing and gnashing..
News: Molyneux: Nintendo Made Rare Too Secretive
Lionhead boss intends to give the UK developer an "identity"
Lionhead boss and newly appointed creative director of Microsoft Europe Peter Molyneux has been speaking exclusively to Gamesindustry.biz about his role in assisting Microsoft's internal development teams - with Rare being one of them.Molyneux - who founded legendary UK software house Bullfrog (Populous, Magic Carpet) before starting up..
News: Sony And Microsoft Suffering From Wii-nis Envy?
Copycat motion control systems don't impress industry analyst
Where would we be with expert analysts telling us what to think, eh? Take Wedbush Morgan chappie Michael Pachter, for example. Following Microsoft and Sony's recently unveiling of motion control systems at this year's E3, Pachter has waded in with his own viewpoint on all this technological advancement: This year’s E3 again focused on..
News: Sony Expects Wii Owners To Upgrade To PS3
Another overconfident prediction from the creator of Betamax
For those of you that have any interest in this kind of thing, Sony Europe boss David Reeves stepped down recently and was succeeded by a fellow called Andrew House.This year's E3 was House's first as president of Sony Europe, so it's unsurprising that he wasted no time in chiming in with a typically brash Sony-style sound-bite when Edge..
News: EA is Rewarded For Embracing The Wii
Sales nearly doubled on last year's total
When the Wii was released super-publisher EA caught a bit of flak for not giving the format the respect it deserved. Thankfully the company has changed its attitude and has been duly rewarded with a massive jump in sales.According to EA's financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2009, 14% of its overall revenue was generated by titles on the..
News: Peter Moore at MI6 Conference: Capturing the Wii Audience with Original Content
Encouraging words from EA...do they finally get it?
During the conference keynote address EA Sports head Peter Moore spoke about EA Sports' current philosophy towards the Wii stating that "You can't simply take what you're doing on the PS3 or Xbox 360 and port – that's a dirty word – down to the Wii." New titles like Grand Slam Tennis (EA's first tennis game) and the new Tiger Woods..
News: Nintendo Looking to "Re-energize" Game Market
Could a slowing market and a boost in "core" game sales have us swimming in great releases this year?
Wii and DS sales are slowing down in Japan causing an uncomfortable disturbance in the force that is Nintendo's cash flow. This has also highlighted a boost in “hardcore” game sales there. Does this mean that to get the more “hardcore” titles here in the NA and EU regions we need to just..
News: Analyst Reckons Wii Investment is "Fools Gold"
Warning for third parties looking to make a quick buck
The Nintendo Wii recently became the fastest selling console of all time and is generally perceived to be doing pretty well right now. However, analyst Doug Creutz from Cowen & Company has commented that third parties looking to make easy money by sinking cash into Wii development may be falling into a trap.Speaking to Gamasutra, Creutz had..
News: Wii Manufacturing Cost Reduced by 45%
These are tough times for many people, but apparently not for Nintendo.
According to Credit Suisse analyst Koya Tabata, the cost of manufacturing a Wii console has gone down by 45%. If this number is accurate, that would mean each Wii sold is bringing in nearly twice the profit as in previous years.And yes, the Wii most definitely brings in profit per sale, around $6 USD each actually. If you take..
News: NoA President Talks DSiWare
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime distances the DSi from the iPhone, and lets a few tidbits drop as well.
In a recent Q&A with Wired, Reggie Fils-Aime made a point of distinguishing the DSi's downloadable titles from the iPhone's. Specifically: "We are taking a film-festival approach — high-class content done by knowledgeable developers in creating fantastic experiences for..
News: House Of The Dead: Overkill has Aussie watchdogs baying for blood
Sega's gore-filled blaster causes aggro down under
In what seems to be a daily occurence in Australia, the recent classification and release of Sega's pulp-horror lightgun bloodbath House Of The Dead: Overkill has been met with outrage from one of the country's most vocal family lobbyists. Today's Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper reports that Angela Conway, director of conservative parents' group Pro..
News: Carmack looking towards Wii
Legendary games developer John Carmack speaks of his interest in developing a title for Wii.
The co-mastermind of iD software has often been very vocal in the industry, slamming the PS3 for its difficult architecture and writing off the Wii as a graphically challenged console, something which he's not used to coming from the PC world. Reported by EuroGamer, the main man has actually changed his..
News: SEGA Under Pressure?
SEGA announce a huge impending loss and possible job cuts, what's happening at SEGA of Japan?
Across Sega Sammy Holdings as a whole - which includes Sammy's pachinko/pachislot machines, along with Sega's arcade machines and home video games - a downturn in revenue has led to the company revising its forecast for the financial year, with Sega now bracing for a USD$235,424,993 loss come March.Ouch,..
News: Games Industry to feel the pinch?
We don't like talking about real world issues, but are we going to lose big names from the games world? Yes, Free Radical and Factor 5 are the first ones down.
It would appear that video gaming isn’t quite as recession-proof as many people would have you believe – long-time Nintendo supporter Factor 5 is rumoured to have closed it doors for the last time.The company found fame via its Turrican..
News: SEGA To Publish The Conduit?
Leaked press memo suggests that SEGA will be confirmed as the publisher for High Voltage Software's Wii FPS, The Conduit.
Whilst the rumours have been flying all week we've received word that SEGA should very shortly be confirmed as the publisher for this hot looking (potentially) Wii game, developed by High Voltage Software.The game has received alot of attention since it's first unveiling, partly..
News: Nintendo remain strong over the summer
Recent figures suggest that Nintendo have remained strong throughout the summer in the United States.
Nintendo products kept people entertained in July, whether they wanted to get fit, rock out or just play around. According to the independent NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States, Nintendo DS? and Wii? again claimed the top two hardware spots for July, with more than..
