Category Archives: Trade

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.

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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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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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.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes the extra manpower at BioWare was pulled into Star Wars: The Old Republic development has consequentially slowed development on Dragon Age 3.

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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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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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Tim Sweeney believes the industry is growing to embrace platform-agnostic development, and predicted a future where gamers can run any game in a browser.

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Analysts at PiperJaffray expect the upcoming April NPD report to continue a trend of year-on-year declines, with a 25% drop in game sales at $375 million.

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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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Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis feels there’s no room in the shooter market for anything but Battlefield and Call of Duty.

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In its efforts to build the new Toronto studio into an 800-strong team, Ubisoft is putting aside $505 million.

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Mark Kern, the former World of Warcraft designer now heading up Firefall developer Red 5, is ready to suit up and attend a funeral for consoles.

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Five executives are leaving GAME as part of the firm’s restructuring process, with the vacancies are to occur over the next five weeks.

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The Australian Government’s Convergence Review, commissioned to examine the shifting face of media, has concluded that the growing economic important of the industry means “games and other interactive genres make a significant contribution to cultural identity and innovation”. The report suggests between $2 million and $5 million should be awarded to Screen Australia to fund additional game projects. The full report in PDF form can be downloaded here.

Thanks, MCV Pacific.