Category Archives: Retail

The Australian arm of international games retailer GAME has followed its UK parent into voluntary administration, although stores will continue to trade as normal.

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SEGA has posted a decline in revenues and profit for full FY11 and cited a weak demand in the home console market as the main culprit for the the losses.

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Atari has released its fiscal 2012 earnings report which noted a decrease in revenue of $51.3 million compared to $77.8 million year-over-year. However, the firm also reported a decrease in losses with $4.8 million reported compared to the $8 million in losses the year prior. Atari attributed its losses to money spent beefing up its mobile games division, where its games have been downloaded over 10 million times, and reaffirmed its commitment to the mobile space. The firm has also started restructuring its operations by shuttering Test Drive Unlimited 2 developer Eden Games. The studio laid of the majority of employees at the studio last year, and all remaining assets will be sold. Atari also noted the sale of its remaining stock in the French television channel GameOne for $7.6 million.

NPD has released its report for April 2012 retail sales in the US, outlining one of the sharpest declines in industry sales in recent years.

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HMV has said it now plans to upsize store space for games rather reducing it following a decision on the latter a few weeks ago.

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Peter Moore believes traditional retailers still have a lot to offer the games industry, even as digital revenue becomes a necessary side of the business.

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Square Enix has outlined a number of pre-order bonuses for Hitman: Absolution, including exclusive weapons and suits.

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Activision-Blizzard has posted better-than-expected 2012 financial results for Q1 FY12, and noted the Call of Duty franchise had 40 million monthly active users as of the end of March – compared to Battlefield 3′s 6.2 million MAU.

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Various UK retailers are hosting place holders Hitman: Absolution, pegging it for September release – although one retailer doesn’t agree on the date. Zavi and HotUKDeals have all three versions landing on September 17, which is a Monday, while ShopTo has September 24 down as a place holder – which is also a Monday. Square has yet to announce a release window for the title, but it has been expected to land sometime in the fall for quite some time. Thanks, MCV.

Media Create has released its weekly retail chart for Japan, and Golden Week was indeed golden for Nintendo with Mario Party 9 topping software with 144,585 units moved. It didn’t end there, though: 15 out of 20 titles on the software chart were for Nintendo systems, with 3DS still tops in hardware and Wii outselling PS Vita by 5,206 units.

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Rovio announced in its latest financial report that its Angry Birds franchise has been downloaded 1 billion times.

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Disney Interactive Media Group has reported its Q2 financials and for the period ending March 31, 2102 the games sector of the Walt Disney Company reported revenues of $179 million, which is a 13% increase year-over-year. It also reported an operating loss of $70 million, which was a 39% improvement over last year’s $159 million loss in the same period. Disney has slowly sifted away from console development which has resulted in less spending, and CEO Robert Iger said the firm will continue to spend less, focus on “our core demographic, on mobile platforms,” and expects the Interactive Group to be profitable by 2013. Thanks, GI International.

Namco Bandai announced in its year-end financial report that Dark Souls sold over 1.19 million copies in Europe and the US on PS3 and Xbox 360 combined.

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Blockbuster has announced a new reward scheme which will reward gamers for “their gaming behaviour and knowledge,” and not just for “spending money.”

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Tecmo Koei has released its year end financial results, reporting an increase in both earnings and sales thanks to strong performances from Ninja Gaiden 3, Musou Orochi 2, Sengoku Musou 3 Empires and Winning Post 7 2012, as well as royalties from Namco’s One Piece Pirate Musou and Nintendo’s Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition.

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A mix of announced and unannounced Wii U titles have shown up in what is purported to be Blockbuster UK’s internal release database.

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Media Create has reported Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City moved through 80% of its debut shipment in Japan last week. The title sold 252,525 copies on PS3 and 16,285 copies on Xbox 360. Broken down by percentages, 85.48% of shipment was on PS3 and 83.41% on Xbox 360. Thanks, Siliconera.

HMV has reported a sales loss of 18.3% for the year ending April 2, 2012. The entertainment chain said final debt for FY2011 would come in at £168 million, Retail reported a loss of 19.4%, despite a small 5.4% intake of live sales. The games division was seen as a growth area following GAME’s recent troubles, citing a recent market share increase.

More on GI International.

EA will release its Q4 earnings report for the period ending March 31 on Monday, May 7, and analysts are expecting the firm to report revenue of $960 – $980 million. Stock in the company closed at $15.87 a share, valuing the company at $5.26 billion. For the coming fiscal year, analysts expect the firm to revenue of $4.55 -$4.6 billion. Thanks, VentureBeat.

Former EA and Xbox executive John Schappert has said the troubled state of the games industry isn’t wholly the economy’s fault, but the larger game companies failing to adapt to changes in the market.

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