PlayStation 4 sells 320k in Japan

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Charming Prince

Two-day sales figures beat Wii U and PS3, global total now at least 5.6 million

Sony’s PlayStation 4 sold just over 320,000 units in its first two days in Japan.

According to the popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, 322,083 consoles were sold in two days in Sony’s native market – narrowly beating the Wii U, which sold 308,570 units in the same time period.

However, the PlayStation 4 showed a marked improvement over its predecessor, the PlayStation 3, which reached just 88,443 units. Based on Famitsu’s data, the PlayStation 2 remains Sony’s fastest selling console in Japan, hitting 630,552 units in its first two days on sale.

The PlayStation 4 was released in Japan on February 22, around three months later than its launches in North America and Europe. All previous PlayStation consoles hit the Japanese market at least a few days before every other territory, so Sony’s reversal for the PlayStation 4 seems to represent a fundamental shift in the company’s priorities.

And Sony certainly hasn’t suffered as a result. Last week, Sony confirmed that it had sold 5.3 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide. Now that the console is out in Japan, that takes the total to at least 5.6 million.Via Industry Gamers

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EA beats guidance as sales shrink, losses deepen

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charming Prince

Publisher notes difficulty of generational transition, weak sales on legacy platforms

EA FIFA 2013Electronic Arts today released its financial results for the holiday quarter, beating its forecasts but falling short of the previous year’s holiday numbers.

For the three months ended December 31, EA posted revenues of $808 million, down 12 percent year-over-year, but still better than the $775 million it expected in its guidance for the quarter. The publisher also posted a net loss of $308 million. Again, that’s better than the $439 million loss it projected, but worse than the $45 million net loss it posted over the 2012 holiday quarter.

“In a transitional quarter, EA delivered EPS results above our guidance driven by strong sales of our next-generation console titles, continued growth in our digital games and services, and financial discipline across the business,” CFO Blake Jorgensen said.

As far as highlights went, EA boasted that it was the number one publisher in the West during December on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, citing a lineup led by Battlefield 4, Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14, and Need for Speed Rivals. EA also released NBA Live 14 on those platforms and Peggle 2 on Xbox One during the quarter. The publisher said its lineup combined to account for 35 percent of PS4 and Xbox One software sales in the West during the quarter.

EA also touted its digital revenues, saying they jumped 27 percent year-over-year to $517 million on a non-GAAP basis. The company’s mobile and handheld digital sales were up 26 percent during the quarter to $125 million, while the year-to-date totals of its microtransaction-driven Ultimate Team modes in its FIFA, NFL, and NHL games has grown 60 percent year-over-year.

Despite that growth in digital, EA is actually expecting its packaged goods business to show more growth for the full-year. EA is expecting packaged goods sales of $2.21 billion, up nearly 4 percent, while digital sales slow their growth to end the year at $1.70 billion, up just over 2 percent. Overall revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31 are expected to come in at $3.91 billion, which would be up 3 percent from the year prior. However, that’s still a downgrade from previous guidance, a move Jorgensen said was prompted by “weakness in current generation software.”

For the fiscal fourth quarter on its own, EA is expecting to post a net income of $230 million on revenues of $1.07 billion. Over the comparable stretch last year, the company posted a net income of $323 million on revenues of $1.21 billion

Via Games Industry

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Nintendo profits tumble as Wii U drags on the bottom line

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charming Prince

But software sales lighten the mood in fiscal nine-month report

Nintendo’s nine-month financial results showed an ongoing slide in revenue and profit, though it was a more positive story in terms of software sales.

For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2013, Nintendo earned ¥499.1 billion ($4.8 billion) in revenue, down 8.1 per cent on the prior year, which was down 2.4 per cent on the year before that. The company’s profit showed an even steeper decline, sinking 30 per cent to ¥10.2 billion ($96.7m). Indeed, were it not for the ¥48 billion the company recouped in exchange gains at the end of the nine-month period its balance sheet may well have registered a loss.

As expected, the Wii U remained the thorn in Nintendo’s side, selling just 2.41 million consoles in a nine-month period that included the holiday sales season. Crucially, that’s lower than the 3 million units the console sold in the equivalent period in the prior fiscal year, and Nintendo expects fewer than 400,000 more units to be sold by the end of March, 2014.

In addition, the cost of manufacturing the Wii U hardware and the price-point at which it is sold in the U.S. and Europe means that its sale, “still has a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits.”

The Wii U has sold 5.86 million units in its lifetime, and that’s at least enough to make Nintendo’s key releases million-sellers. Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Wii Party U all sold 1 million copies or more by the close of December, with Wii U software selling 16 million units in total.

Somewhat predictably, the happiest news came from the 3DS, which sold 11.65 million units – down on the prior period’s 12.7 million total, but enough to make the 3DS one of the most popular platforms in the market.

3DS software sold a combined total of 57.25 million units. Pokemon X & Y was by far the most successful with 11.6 million units sold worldwide, but it was joined in the multi-million club by Animal Crossing: New Leaf with 3.5 million, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team with 2 million, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past with 2.18 million (despite only being released on Nov. 21, 2013) and Tomodachi Collection with 1.8 million.

The 3DS has now sold 42.75 million units worldwide.

Via Games Industry

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Qualcomm faces $1 billion Chinese antitrust fine

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charming Prince

Chip-maker feels the weight of Chinese market regulators

The mobile chip-maker Qualcomm might face a record $1 billion fine in a Chinese antitrust investigation.

According to a report on Reuters, China’s National Development and Reform Commission is considering the fine as the climax to an investigation it started last year. Anti-monopoly laws in China allow the NDRC to impose a fine of between 1 and 10 per cent of the recipient’s revenue from the previous year – by way of example, Qualcomm’s revenue for fiscal 2013 was $24.9 billion.

Qualcomm is the leading chip-maker for the global smartphone market, and stands to dominate the market for Android devices in China – already the largest in the world, and still growing.

While precise details of the probe remain unknown, the goal is to defend Chinese consumers against commercial practices that will push smartphone prices up. However, Qualcomm will be able to reduce the size of the fine by negotiating with the NDRC regarding the price and licensing of its products.

“We intend to continue cooperating fully with the NDRC,” a spokeswoman for Qualcomm told Reuters.

Qualcomm’s Chinese revenues – which include devices sold in China, and licenses for products assembled in the country and sold elsewhere – rose from $4.7 billion in 2011 to $12.3 billion in 2013.

Via Games Industry

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PC gaming market to exceed $25 billion this year – DFC

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charming Prince

DFC Intelligence sees core gaming sector doing even better than expected as more crossover between consoles and PC occurs

Research firm DFC Intelligence, in advance of its next brief looking at forecasts for the substantial expected growth of spending among core gamers across all major platforms, has shared some key points exclusively with GamesIndustry International. DFC has now raised its internal forecast for the global PC gaming market this year from $22 billion to $25 billion.

DFC analyst Jeremy Miller said that “core gamers seem to be willing to spend more money than ever.” While Asia remains a big contributor to the market, interestingly DFC found that core PC gameplay in the West increased in 2013 versus 2012, and the firm expects 2014 to be strong as well.

“We thought with the lack of major new releases that overall usage would be down,” said Miller. “However, the top titles of 2012 continued to do well in 2013 and new titles like Battlefield 4 and Total War: Rome II had solid performances.” League of Legends remained the number one PC title in 2013, followed by Dota 2, which actually had the most growth in 2013. DFC said that new versions of popular sports titles like FIFA 2014 also did very well.

“We actually think the launch of the new console systems will help lift the PC game business because there is large overlap between console and PC gamers”

David Cole

Free-to-play continues to be a huge factor in the PC games market’s growth, but DFC found that upfront payments are working well too.

“The big surprise is that an upfront payment business model still seems to do very well. Dota 2 charged a $30 beta fee before going free-to-play and a great deal of people took advantage of that. So really we see a hybrid business model working where you can call it F2P but still charge upfront,” explained DFC’s David Cole.

“Also the traditional model where you charge a one-time fee is also very attractive….but again there is now a greater ability to upsell consumers after the initial purchase. We think this is a major driver of growth versus the pure free-to-play games.”

The success of League of Legends and Dota 2 reinforces another trend DFC observed: the domination by MOBA titles. DFC noted that the MOBA genre is “far and away the largest because of those two games” whereas MMOGs are on the decline (see chart below) and first-person shooter games actually surpassed them

Via Games Industry

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Sony Santa Monica moving, expanding

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charming Prince

God of War studio headed to larger building in Playa Vista this summer, can house multiple indies inside

Sony Santa Monica is leaving Santa Monica. Variety reports that the studio behind the God of War series is packing up this summer to move a few miles down the California coast to Playa Vista.

Studio founder Shannon Studstull told the site that the big attraction of the new headquarters was a combination of size and layout. The new building has 85,000 square feet of space, about 30,000 of which is an open-air floor plan. That’s between four and five times the amount of open space the studio has in its current location, and Studstill hopes the layout will facilitate more collaboration and “a culture of sharing.”

The studio will also have more space in general. And while it’s not yet clear if the team will be expanding much beyond its current 240 or so employees, the extra space will be put to use by independent developers working with Sony Santa Monica. Despite its reputation as the God of War studio, Sony Santa Monica has provided funding or office space to a number of indie developers, including ThatGameCompany, Giant Sparrow, and Superbot. The old building only had room to house one indie team at a time, but the new location could accommodate two at once.

Via Games Industry

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PS Vita Slim to launch in UK

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Charming Prince

Thinner, lighter Vita will hit UK on February 7 for £180 – also, Sony’s Killzone on PS4 has now sold over 2.1m copies

Sony’s PlayStation Vita Slim will launch in the U.K. on February 7 at a price of around £180.

The PS Vita PCH-2000 – to use its official name – wasunveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in September last year, and was launched in Japan the following month. The U.K. will be only the second market in which Sony has launched the device.

The Vita Slim swaps the original model’s excellent OLED screen for a less impressive 960×544 IPS LCD display. However, it benefits from being 20 per cent thinner, 15 per cent lighter and has improved battery life. The £180 price-point is also lower than the launch price of the original Vita.

Pre-orders for the PS Vita PCH-2000 opened today.

Despite being generally well regarded as a piece of hardware, the Vita has failed to stir excitement among consumers in the same way as the PlayStation 4 – no doubt a source of great disappointment within Sony, which has positioned the Vita’s second-screen as a vital aspect of its long-term vision for the console.

Indeed, at the Vita Slim unveiling in London this morning – attended by VG247 – Fergal Gara, the managing director of Sony UK, claimed that the company is still unable to meet demand for the PlayStation 4 in a number of major territories.

“We are still not satisfied, we are still not in stock fully at retail,” Gara said. “Of course we haven’t launched in Japan and we’re still not fully meeting demand in other major territories. That [4.2 million units sold] is a suppressed number, and one that will grow considerably from here.”

And the consumer demand is reflected in software sales. Yesterday, Sony announced that Killzone: Shadow Fall – a game that divided critics on its release – had sold 2.1 million units as of January 15.

Via Games Industry

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