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by Published on October 31st, 2012 23:17- Categories:
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EA, during an earnings call yesterday, fully acknowledged the disappointing performance of Medal of Honor: Warfighter. While exact sales were not mentioned, the title did not hit targets and reviews of the game were simply not good. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks the bad reception could mark the end of Medal of Honor as a brand and severely hinder EA's ongoing quest to dethrone rival Activision from the top spot in the shooter market.
"The last iteration of Medal of Honor received an average Metacritic score of 75 in 2010 (after its predecessor received an average score of 73 in 2007), and EA management committed to improving quality with this year's release. Instead, with an average score of only 50, the game is likely to fall short of revenue expectations by $100 million or more. Perhaps more importantly, the poor performance of Medal of Honor makes it highly unlikely that EA can deliver significant digital revenues from DLC subscriptions next year, and sets the company up for a disappointing comparison to the $204 million in digital revenues it expects from Battlefield this year," he noted.
Pachter continued, remarking on NBA Live as well, which unlike Medal of Honor, he thinks can rebound: "The cancellation of NBA Live means that EA has had a team (likely several different teams) working on the game for the last three years without any revenue contribution to show for their efforts. We think management did an extremely poor job of explaining these missteps, and understand why many investors remain skeptical. In our view, it is imperative that EA management acknowledge that they understand the underlying causes for the execution missteps, and commit to shareholders that these causes will be addressed, and that there will be a turnaround in game quality. It may be too late for the Medal of Honor brand, as a score as low as this one received may be fatal. We are more optimistic that the NBA brand will remain intact, and are confident that a quality game will come out next year."
While Battlefield has been a top performer, Medal of Honor hasn't held up its end, and that means EA will have a long way to go before it can topple Activision and Call of Duty.
"These missteps should not be taken lightly. A few years ago, EA management set forth a strategy to displace Activision as king of the first-person shooter heap, and said it intended the duo of Medal of Honor and Battlefield to alternate releases and slowly take share from Activision," Pachter said.
"Warfighter's review scores may have destroyed chances for sequels in the all-important first-person shooter segment of the market...We think that low review scores will impair EA's (and the Medal of Honor brand's) reputation with those who pre-ordered the game or bought it as soon as it was released (likely some of EA's most dedicated customers), and believe EA alienated at least a small portion of these gamers."
"Given the impairment to the Medal of Honor brand, we think EA is unlikely to take Activision's mantle as the leading developer of first-person shooters for several years."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...d-says-pachter ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 23:11- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Nintendo will be launching Wii U in just a few weeks, and Mario and Co. no doubt would like Wii owners to make the jump to their new platform, but Microsoft sees it playing out differently this holiday. With blockbusters like Halo 4 and a $50 price cut on holiday bundles, Matt Barlow, general manager of product marketing for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, believes Xbox 360 will have the edge in the HD console battle."I think this holiday season is an amazing jump off for all those people who may have been interested in the Wii and now want to be interested in high definition gaming," he told GamesIndustry International last week. "I can't think of a better console for them to choose than one that has the most games available, the highest rated games available, than the Xbox 360 platform.""And when you look at the alternative experiences that we're going to bring with SmartGlass, the entertainment providers that we're bringing on board, with sports and music and movies and TV, and then if you think about those preeminent best selling blockbuster games that they're going to want to play - Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Forza, Nike+ Kinect Fitness - they either play first or they play best on Xbox 360 and nowhere else.""We've only scratched the surface...Kinect is going to be something that everyone's going to want to own"Matt Barlow"Like I said, jump off is great and we like the way we're positioned to pick those customers up. They really should consider an Xbox 360 if they're looking for the best high definition gaming and entertainment platform."Barlow was speaking as part of an interview about how Microsoft is positioning the Xbox 360 business going into yet another holiday season, nearing the end of its lifecycle. He noted that Kinect, which he said has now sold 20 million units, will continue to play a large role and he believes it's actually beginning to resonate with the core audience."When you look at the way core has adapted to Kinect, the things that they're valuing with it - the voice control stuff is really starting to catch on. When I look at some of the stuff we've done with Skyrim, some of the integration we have with Skyrim, some of the work with FIFA...voice integration has been unbelievable. If you look at some of the reviews we have on Mass Effect 3 and some of the people who play through using some of the voice control capabilities as well in that game. We're starting to strike the right chords in the core audience," he said.http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-this-holiday ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 23:08- Categories:
- PS3 News,
- PC News,
- Xbox 360 News
Internal company reviews at EA has predicted a far better response to Medal of Honor: Warfighter than the game eventually received.
The game, which came out in the UK last Friday (Friday October 26th) currently has a 57 per cent Metacritic average on PC, 56 per cent on PS3 and 51 per cent on Xbox 360.
CVG reports that EA’s Frank Gibeau stated on an investor call last night that the game "fell below expectations", adding: "We take product quality very seriously. We are not happy with how Warfighter has been received."
None of which dampened the game’s UK debut, however.Warfighter debuted at the top of the charts this week, although it failed to beat the week one sales of its predecessor.
That’s not stopped some of the wider criticism, though, with the publisher of Serious Sam 3 urging fans to tweet disparaging comments about EA’s game in return for free game downloads.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-ex...ighter/0105525 ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 23:03- Categories:
- Retro Consoles/Translation News
The retro NeoGeo X console will be released in Europe on December 6th, distributor Blaze has confirmed.
Eurogamer reports that the officially licensed console includes a 4.3 inch LCD screen, stereo speakers, a charging station, NeoGeo X Arcade Stick and 20 pre-loaded games.
It will retail for £175.
Meanwhile, Blaze has at last spoken out about the somewhat disastrous launch of its last console, the GameGadget. That machine was announced by the company a year ago and even then raised eyebrows.
Blaze promised a device that would “change the way games are played, developed and sold” thanks to its grand plan to licence retro titles from publishers for release through a dedicated GameGadget download portal.
MCV’s piece at the time began “if market success were achieved through ambition and self-belief, then Blaze’s new machine is a guaranteed winner”. And so it transpired that our scepticism was fully justified.
Some six months on and the GameGadget had its sale price slashed by £40 to just £59.99 following a launch that saw the machine unplayable out of the box and a pitiful selection of titles available.
It was also criticised for its poor screen and lack of physical volume controls, forcing users to quit out of any game they are playing to increase or decrease the volume.
Eurogamer also got wind of some questionable feedback on the handheld’s official forum including claims such as "we are going to prove you all wrong eventually” and "we may be not moving as quickly as you would like, but we are doing our best, I'm sorry if that's not good enough for you”.
Company representatives have also subsequently apologised for fake product reviews of the GameGadget posted on Amazon.
However, an anonymous spokesperson for whoever remains in charge of the product after its many changes in ownership has finally moved to address some of its customer’s long-standing gripes.
"Hands up! We are sorry! We got the launch wrong in a number of ways,” the source told Eurogamer. “Firstly the price was too high, although we refunded all early adopters down to the revised £60 retail price (due to increased production runs).
"We also over-promised on the titles we believed we could bring to the table quickly. We had a lot of contracts on the table at the time we made the announcement for the GameGadget and we thought we would complete them. Although a number of them are still either in negotiation or with various legal departments, we have not got them over the line, so you can fairly say we didn't deliver on the number of games we said could be available within a reasonable time from the launch of the product. Though there was never any intention to mislead anyone.
"We are simply not going to promise anything other than the GameGadget being an incredibly able piece of kit. It comes with 10 free great Mega Drive titles. Users can find dozens of freeware titles on the Gamegadget website and there are hundreds more on the internet for them to discover. When we get more licensed games we will announce them, otherwise we won't be making announcements.”
Furthermore the company is to release an amended version of the hardware next month. The GameGadget 1.1 will offer a new screen and a cut-price RRp of £39.99, available only through the official website.
The company has even promised both a GameGadget Pocket (a smaller version of the current hardware) and the GameGadget 2.0 (a more powerful version).
Blaze pegs total lifetime GameGadget sales at 20,000 units.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/blaze...gadget/0105538 ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 23:01- Categories:
- PS3 News
Take-Two Interactive has revealed its second quarter financials, with standouts Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown driving the publisher past its predicated outlook for the period.
Gearbox's Borderlands 2 has shipped 5m copies to date, while XCOM is, according to the firm, 'proving to be a critical and commercial success.'
The report adds both titles have seen 'strong' digital sales as well.
"Take-Two's second quarter revenue and earnings exceeded our outlook, driven by the breakout success of 2K's Borderlands 2 and robust demand for our catalog and digitally delivered offerings," stated Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.
"Moreover, with Grand Theft Auto 5 slated for spring 2013, we are poised to generate substantial revenue and earnings growth in fiscal year 2014."
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/new...newthread&f=37 ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 22:57- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
The figure was revealed in the run-up to release of the latest game in the series, Halo 4, which launches next week. 343 Industries, the Washington studio which was handed development of Halo 4 after Activision acquired Bungie, has its work cut out if its first Halo game is to be the most successful in the series. Halo 3 brought in $170 million in day-one sales; Halo Reach, released in 2010, brought in more than $200 million....
http://www.edge-online.com/news/halo...for-microsoft/
by Published on October 31st, 2012 21:39- Categories:
- PC News
We don’t remember hearing about the One Laptop Per Child initiative distributing tablet computers but apparently a couple of shipments were distributed to rural communities in Ethiopia. The problem one might think of in this scenario is that the literacy rate in the two test villages was basically zero. But that’s exactly the population targeted with thr technology. The tablets were loaded with a software package called Nell. It was designed to guide a child in self learning by telling them engaging stories that include teachable moments. If you check out the white paper (PDF) you’ll find it’s pretty much the exact same teaching technique that [Neal Stephenson] wrote about in his book The Diamond Age. But keep reading that paper and you’ll see that this is because the researchers took their inspiration from that very novel.
Well the results are in and apparently [Neal] knows exactly what he is talking about. Not only did the children learn from the software, but within five months they were hacking the device (which runs Android) to get the disabled camera working.
http://hackaday.com/2012/10/31/olpc-...e-diamond-age/ ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 21:31- Categories:
- DCEmu
Popular crowdfunding platform now available for UK-based projects
Kickstarter, the most popular vehicle for crowdfunding games development projects, is now available in the UK.
Whereas previously UK-based developers could only pledge, but not create projects, now they can seek funding on the platform. The move has be widely welcomed by UK studios of every size, who have until now had to sit and watch as their US counterparts secure funding from the platform, or navigate complicated loopholes in an attempt to position their projects as US creations.
“Kickstarter coming to the UK presents a great opportunity for developers to generate funds and produce games that are better and more expansive than originally intended,” said Richard Wilson, CEO of trade body Tiga. “We have seen some amazing projects already with Kickstarter and it is now UK developers' turn to realise its benefits.”
A number of UK studios and individuals have already prepared projects for Kickstarter, and at the time of writing, numerous others are considering the crowdfunding vehicle for their games.
“Publisher finance and other sources of development funds are becoming scarce,” stated Simon Prytherch, CEO of Chromativity, which is considering submitting projects to Kickstarter now it welcomes UK studios. “We still have to finance game development in order to bring quality game experiences to the consumer. I think virtually every studio has either a great title in their back catalog, or one or more of their team were the driving forces behind a classic game. I think if you have these elements and you have the right dev team then it is great start for a Kickstarter project.”
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...-UK-developers
...by Published on October 31st, 2012 21:27- Categories:
- Android News
Smartphone manufacturer Samsung has announced the latest edition to its Galaxy range of Android handsets.
With a 4.65-inch screen, the Galaxy Premier seems to be somewhere in between the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S3 Mini – size wise anyway.
The screen has a full 720 x 1280 Super AMOLE panel, there’s a dual-core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 processor, and the Premier comes with Android 4.1 jelly Bean.
The smartphone will be available in 8GB and 16GB models, it will come with an 8MP rear facing camera and a 1.9MP front-facing one.
3G, Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth are all supported, but surprisingly there is no sign of 4G LTE.
The Galaxy Premier will initially be released in Russia in November, followed by the Ukraine in December. The only price quoted so far is 5,555 Ukrainian Hryvna, which works out at just over £400.
China, South Korea and South East Asia will all get Samsung’s latest offering, but there is no news yet as to whether it will make its way to the UK.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...rtphone/029495 ...by Published on October 31st, 2012 21:24- Categories:
- PC News
On Tuesday, Acer held a press event at London’s Science Museum which focused heavily on touchscreen interaction.
The Taiwanese manufacturer’s entire Windows 8 lineup was on display at the event, alongside a number of touch-inspired art installations including a digital ‘wheat field’ and an interactive material canvas.
Acer president Jim Wong explained: “All the products in the range have touch capabilities in order to introduce a new way of interaction.” He said that this new concept is called ‘duality’, designed to encourage users to move back and forth between touching the screen and typing on the keyboard. “It is a more natural and beneficial way to experience the devices,” added Wong.
The flagship model of Acer’s Windows 8 lineup is the S7 ultrabook, with an Intel Core processor, Gorilla Glass and a super-slim form factor. Acer premiered its new advertising campaign for this device, which featured actress Megan Fox talking to dolphins.
Other devices on display included the Iconia W510 10.1-inch tablet, which features a screen that can be rotated 180 degrees and a detachable keyboard.
Also in the tablet range is the W700. An inch bigger than the W510, the tablet comes with a cradle to position it in a number of angles.
Acer’s Aspire range of notebooks were also on show, with the ten-point touch Aspire V5 hooked up to sound and media artist Roberto Pugliese’s interactive fabric ‘PuShy’, offering a dual sensory experience of touch and sound.
There were three Aspire all-in-ones on display. The 7600U, 5600U and the ZS600 all feature ten-point touch capabilities and Intel Core processors.
Acer displayed its new touch monitor as well. Coming in 27 and 23-inch models, the monitor features projective capacitive technology, Full HD and can tilt from 30 to 80 degrees.
Commenting on the Windows 8 range, Acer’s associate vice president of consumer business unit Jerry Kao said: “We want the user to enjoy the technology, no matter that kind of product it is. We don’t care much about how Acer is ranking in the PC sales charts, we just want to make a better product.”
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...th-tech/029497 ...
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