Posted by: Kenji Hall on May 14
What of the prospects for Sony’s video game business? It’s one of the two core business divisions for the tech company that continues to be a drag on earnings. (The other is TVs, which I wrote about on the Eye on Asia blog.) Although Sony reported yesterday that its gaming division lost money in the fiscal year through March 31--the second consecutive year of losses--revenues jumped 26% to $12.3 billion.
Here’s why: Sony sold 9.2 million PlayStation 3 consoles, a 1.5-fold increase from 3.6 million in the previous year. Sales of gaming software also shot up to 57.9 million units, more than three times the 13.3 million of the previous year. This year, the company expects to sell another 10 million consoles--and that’s conservative, perhaps because of the possibility of a recession in the U.S. (Compared to Sony’s 12.8 million hardware units sold, Nintendo has sold nearly double the number of Wiis, at 24.5 million machines, and it expects to sell another 25 million this year.)
You could argue that Sony’s gaming business is finally hitting its stride. Goldman Sachs analyst Yuji Fujimori predicts the division will break even this year. So how does Sony plan to reverse the losses? By doing to three things: Adding blockbuster game titles, tinkering with the console’s design to lower costs, and introducing new online features. Sony’s games boss, Kaz Hirai, has talked a lot about beefing up the PS3’s games lineup, but it's not that simple. “They need to make sure they have phenomenal games available,” Daniel Ernst of Hudson Square Research told me.
And they will this year, with as many as four highly anticipated titles on the way--Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto IV, Polyphony Digital’s Grand Tourismo 5, Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4 and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII. That’s crucial in this business, which is a lot like selling razors for shaving. Profits roll in once people start buying replacement razors (royalties from game software sales are big for Sony).
Ernst thinks Sony may have put too much emphasis on extra features like the video downloads expected later this year and the 3-D online world, Home, which will be delayed by nearly a year when an open beta version goes live this fall. That would explain why Sony Computer Entertainment’s media relations kept trying to steer me away from the topic of Home when I had lunch with them last week.
Spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka says:
I understand your interest but am afraid it’s too early to discuss our Home strategy when we haven’t even started our closed beta testing [which is slated for summer]. Although Home’s core architecture is already in place, we have decided to further refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience.
Perhaps it’s also because Sony officials know that while diehards eagerly await Home’s release, it’s probably not going to be something that sends millions of ordinary consumers and casual gamers flocking to stores to buy a PS3. (I’m tactfully avoiding the issue of whether games are recession-proof or not, and how that might affect Sony’s chances of catching up to Nintendo.)
Continue reading "A Breakdown of Sony's Gaming Numbers"
Posted by: Matt Vella on May 13
Leigh Alexander, who is now tasked with writing Kotaku's more in-depth think pieces, has a nicely detailed analysis of Electronic Arts' financial performance in fiscal 2008. She writes:
Despite having 27 titles that sold over one million units during the year and a total $3.7 billion in sales, that loss on the quarter was only a portion of the company's overall $454 million loss on the year, a hefty blow after last fiscal year's $76 million profit.
Another interesting tid-bit wedged into the context for the hit is this bit of jockeying with Activision over top-dog status in the US:
While Activision recently said it's the number one publisher in North America in dollars, EA says that its 19 percent market share in the region makes it the leader; EA's market share in Europe is 20 percent.
As usual, the analysis is spot on and, yet again, helps dress the stage for EA's play for Take-Two Interactive, makers of a little game called Grand Theft Auto. Read it.
Posted by: Matt Vella on May 09
As Nintendo gears up its next big thing – the May 19 release of Wii Fit – games blogs and websites are abuzz over what might be described as the accessory’s lack of tact. In fact, if you’re overweight, Wii Fit may just call you fat.
Ok, not exactly. But, the Wii Fit – a $90 kit that includes a motion- and pressure-sensitive board and software to help players lose weight and improve their fitness – doesn’t pull any punches. Interestingly, when Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president and CEO, visited BusinessWeek’s offices last month, he said the Fit’s designers had toyed with sugar coating results, worrying about alienating players by potentially calling them overweight or even obese. But, to make the product “useful and honest,” they ultimately decided not to.
Still, gamers are wondering if Wii Fit may come off as harsh. It analyzes a player’s fitness in part via their body mass index. (See the picture to the right below.) But, according to this discussion thread that might turn some players off. User “Mrs Hobbes” relates the story of her ten year old grand-daughter who 4ft, 9in tall, weighs 92lbs and was deemed over-weight by Wii Fit. (This BMI calculator says she would be “normal weight.”) Mrs Hobbes wrote:
She is solidly built but not fat. She was devasted to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her that she isn't. I know it is just a game but seriously we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like the magazine models and now we have a game that tells them their fat. This to me is very worrying and I hope that is doesn't cause emotional problems for any youngsters out there :(
For more, games site Gamespy has an in-depth look at the experience of being deemed overweight by the new Nintendo accessory.
Still, the minor flap hasn’t done anything to dampen excitement for Wii Fit, which is already selling briskly. In fact, some retailers have stopped taking pre-orders thanks to strong demand. Amazon blew through its entire stock in about a month, according to blog WiiFanBoy. Another blog, GoNintendo, is also reporting that Toys R Us may be doing the same thing.
Nintendo is preparing one of the biggest roll-outs in its history, targeting an even broader range of non-traditional gamers than it did when it launched the Wii. Think advertising in The View and Women's Health. “Consumer-level advocacy is marketing nirvana,” Fils-Aime told me last month, underscoring how important the company anticipates word-of-mouth being.
He added that he’s expecting two big waves of Wii Fit sales, an initial surge made up largely of people who already own Wii consoles and a later wave of players that would be new to the system.
Posted by: Matt Vella on May 08
Expectations for sales of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto IV were high – but maybe not high enough. Official figures released yesterday by publisher Take-Two Interactive show the game blew past already-high industry analyst expectations, bringing in some $500 million dollars in first-week sales.
The no-holds-bared gangster epic was snatched up by some 6 million players worldwide, with about 3.6 million of those copies sold on April 29, its opening day. First-day sales were worth about $310 million globally, setting a record and putting GTA sales ahead of the games industry’s last mega-blockbuster Halo 3 as well as popular film franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean and Spiderman.
"Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment," said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick in a prepared statement. "We believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date."
Figures released by Microsoft revealed that sales of its Xbox 360 console went up 54% week-over-week as a consequence of GTA’s released. The company said retailers were reporting that roughly 40% of new consoles being sold in stores were walking out the door with a copy of GTA in tow. About 60% of GTA sales in the first week were for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, while the rest were for Sony’s competing Playstation 3 console.
Two days ago, Zelnick appeared on CNBC to crow about the strength of sales and rebut claims from some players that a bug in the PS3 version of the game was causing it to freeze up under certain circumstances. Zelnick said the company had found no “glitch,” but nevertheless released a software patch for PS3 owners yesterday.
That leaves a relatively smooth technical launch basking in the glow of record sales. It also leaves rival Electronic Art’s hostile bid for Take-Two in question. Take-Two sought to delay a shareholder decision on the take-over until after sales had been announced.
Posted by: Matt Vella on May 07
Editor's Rating:
The Good: Engrossing realistic physics. Precise motion controls. Cheeky graphics.
The Bad: None. Really.
The Bottom Line: The best casual gaming has to offer and possibly the best Wii title yet.
The concept is as simple as it gets: Stack things up. Knock them down. Repeat.
Boom Blox, the collaboration between Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg and game-maker Electronic Arts, is a puzzle game that invites players to “throw” various projectiles at stacks of blocks, which react with startlingly realistic motions. Uncomplicated, tactile, and fun, Boom Blox represents the best of what casual games have to offer – and it could very well be the best title for Nintendo’s Wii console yet.
Rather than attempt to recreate the operatic action of most summer movies, this “block-buster” is a puzzle game that was created to be accessible to families and groups of friends. The game is built around the Wii’s motion sensing controls and programming that gives in-game objects realistic physical properties. To solve the hundreds of puzzles included in the game, players must toss balls to knock over blocks, carefully slide individual pieces out from a stack (think: Jenga), or set off Rube Goldberg-like chain reaction machines.
Impeccable motion controls and realistic physics lie at the center of the experience. The speed of a player’s throw, for example, is precisely rendered on screen thanks to the Wii Remote's built-in accelerometer. The angle of each throw, meanwhile, is dictated by where a gamer places the cursor on the screen. This precision causes the controls to simply dissolve, disappearing into the gameplay experience rather that becoming an obstacle that must be mastered before the game can be enjoyed. The other half of the equation is the game’s blocks, which react in lifelike ways, as if they had properties such as weight and momentum.
A variety of modes are available for players to dive into Boom Blox. “Explore” is composed of increasingly difficult puzzles designed to teach players the basic mechanics of the game. Medals are awarded depending on how well players solve the puzzles. “Adventure” is slightly more fast-paced, adding some character-driven storylines and shooting-galleries. The multiplayer mode is varied, mixing and matching from the single player modes.
Like a geometry problem, there isn’t always a “right” answer. In fact, most stages can be solved in a variety of ways. This element makes the game inherently re-playable and lends multiplayer sessions a palpable sense of strategy and experimentation. There are literally hundreds of pre-created puzzles on the disc and the game includes a level editor that allows players to roll their own. Downloads of the Boom Blox community’s best home-grown puzzles are on the way, as well.
It all adds up. Boom Blox may be the best casual game I’ve ever played. Though so-called casual titles that emphasize light, easy-to-learn gameplay may be easy to pick up, many are also just as easy to put down for lack of truly engaging gameplay. Boom Blox raises the bar, making of its simplicity a supreme – and just plain fun – virtue. I’m at a loss to think of any person I know, gamer and especially non-gamer, that couldn’t pick this title up and enjoy.
