Nintendo has reported its full year financial results with another year of record sales and profits, based on continuing relentless hardware and software sales.

The company posted net sales of JPY 1.83 trillion (USD 18.5 billion) and profit of JPY 279 billion (USD 2.83 billion), a rise year-on-year of 9.9 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.

While that doesn't compare to the huge rises of 73 per cent and 48 per cent from 2007 to 2008, the company noted that "the worldwide economy deteriorated significantly" during the past twelve months and that "the future of economies around the world is still unclear."

The results were thanks largely to ongoing consumer interest in the DS and Wii platforms, with the various DS editions selling over 31 million units in the 12 months to the end of March this year, while the Wii - despite signs of a slow-down in Japan - shifted almost 26 million units, breaking the 50 million barrier worldwide in the process.

Key software unit sales included Pokemon Platinum Version on 3.75 million and Kirby Super Star Ultra at 2.37 million for the DS - despite neither title being released in Europe - while Wii Fit sold 16.7 million units, Mario Kart Wii sold 15.4 million and Animal Crossing: City Folk shifted 3.38 million.

But despite another strong performance in the past financial year, the company has issued conservative guidance for the 12 months ending March 2010, estimating that sales will dip slightly to JPY 1.8 trillion (USD 18.2 billion) with profits up 10 per cent to JPY 300 billion (USD 3.04 billion).

The company's share price closed up 1 per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at JPY 26,820 (USD 272).

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...es-and-profits ...

Nintendo has reported its full year financial results with another year of record sales and profits, based on continuing relentless hardware and software sales.

The company posted net sales of JPY 1.83 trillion (USD 18.5 billion) and profit of JPY 279 billion (USD 2.83 billion), a rise year-on-year of 9.9 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.

While that doesn't compare to the huge rises of 73 per cent and 48 per cent from 2007 to 2008, the company noted that "the worldwide economy deteriorated significantly" during the past twelve months and that "the future of economies around the world is still unclear."

The results were thanks largely to ongoing consumer interest in the DS and Wii platforms, with the various DS editions selling over 31 million units in the 12 months to the end of March this year, while the Wii - despite signs of a slow-down in Japan - shifted almost 26 million units, breaking the 50 million barrier worldwide in the process.

Key software unit sales included Pokemon Platinum Version on 3.75 million and Kirby Super Star Ultra at 2.37 million for the DS - despite neither title being released in Europe - while Wii Fit sold 16.7 million units, Mario Kart Wii sold 15.4 million and Animal Crossing: City Folk shifted 3.38 million.

But despite another strong performance in the past financial year, the company has issued conservative guidance for the 12 months ending March 2010, estimating that sales will dip slightly to JPY 1.8 trillion (USD 18.2 billion) with profits up 10 per cent to JPY 300 billion (USD 3.04 billion).

The company's share price closed up 1 per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at JPY 26,820 (USD 272).

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...es-and-profits ...

ollowing yesterday's financial results, THQ's CEO Mike Farrell has discussed the challenges of breaking even on core games, saying that the era of making an investment back selling 700 to 800 thousand units are "unfortunately over."

"The only area where the break-evens are challenging for us, and the industry, is in the core area," said Farrell during a conference cal with investors.

"If you're going to compete in that segment, you've got to have gameplay, storyline, technology, and marketing spend that drive you home with that core consumer, and that's the one segment where the break-even points are still relatively challenging, which is why we said let's just focus on one to two per year" during last year's business restructuring.

When asked to clarify approximately how many units the publisher needs to sell in order to break even, and if a core title could show a return on investment by selling 800 thousand units, Farrell denied that possibility, saying "On the core titles, yeah, 700, 800 thousand units, those days unfortunately, we think, are over."

THQ segments its software into five categories: core gamer, fighting, mass appeal/family, kids, and online. While core titles provide a challenge for the publisher, Farrell says he is comfortable in the remaining categories.

"Fighting, we've been in for a long time, we understand how to do that, so we're very comfortable with the break-evens there," said Farrell, referring to its WWE and WWF wrestling franchise that has been a THQ staple since 1999, as well as the upcoming UFC 2009 Undisputed. "I think those have been relatively stable if not coming down a little bit over time."

"Clearly on kids and mass appeal, the reason we like those markets is the break-evens are relatively low," continued Farrell. "On a game like Big Beach Sports, our break-even was very low, and it's been extremely profitable because we put up big units on a very low investment. So on those three categories we're either [seeing a] flat or declining break-even."

Farrell estimates that THQ can break even on kids titles by selling between 100 and 400 thousand units. With mass market titles, that number varies more.

"The beauty of that [mass market] business is those are all driven by consumer trends and the type of gameplay, and not necessarily cost," he said.

"As you move up the food chain and we get more complex - things like de Blob - the break-even would go up, so I'd give you a similar range, sort of 100 to 400 thousand units in those areas. So fairly low in the kids and mass appeal, as you might suspect, but much higher on the core titles."

As far as break-even points on online and MMO titles, "it depends on the segment of that market," Farrell said.

"We like the way we structured a couple of our initial online investments. We have really no net investment in the Shanda deal, yet we've extracted a lot of learning from that," he continued, referring to a partnership between THQ and Shanda to distribute Company of Heroes in Asian territories.

"Getting into the casual MMO space, we did a joint venture as you know, so I think it was a very smart deal. That being said, the MMO is a pretty significant investment, but we love the prospects for that brand."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...st-challenging ...

By now, this point should be drilled into game makers' skulls. The games industry has morphed into a service-based business. Downloadable content matters. Not only does it increase the longevity of titles both on and off the retail shelf--driving new game sales and preventing trade-ins--it is also an easy way to squeeze out some extra cash from that big-budget boxed product. Hell. A lot of cash.
Activision has announced that the first chunk of downloadable content for Call of Duty World At War, Map Pack 1, has now sold 2 million units. That $9.99 pack of four maps has generated nearly $20 million.
It's another sign that downloadable content is turning into a big business. John Riccitiello, chief executive of Electronic Arts, stated during the company's earnings call that all Electronic Arts titles would be open to digital expansions. Game downloads and microtransactions generated $80 million in revenues for the company last year, and Riccitiello expects EA's online business to exceed $500 million this fiscal year.

Some game players may grimace at the thought of spending extra cash for new maps, but it's a good thing for the industry as it's another revenue model it can turn to "boxed product" business begins to dwindle.

http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/285...ontent-matters ...

By now, this point should be drilled into game makers' skulls. The games industry has morphed into a service-based business. Downloadable content matters. Not only does it increase the longevity of titles both on and off the retail shelf--driving new game sales and preventing trade-ins--it is also an easy way to squeeze out some extra cash from that big-budget boxed product. Hell. A lot of cash.
Activision has announced that the first chunk of downloadable content for Call of Duty World At War, Map Pack 1, has now sold 2 million units. That $9.99 pack of four maps has generated nearly $20 million.
It's another sign that downloadable content is turning into a big business. John Riccitiello, chief executive of Electronic Arts, stated during the company's earnings call that all Electronic Arts titles would be open to digital expansions. Game downloads and microtransactions generated $80 million in revenues for the company last year, and Riccitiello expects EA's online business to exceed $500 million this fiscal year.

Some game players may grimace at the thought of spending extra cash for new maps, but it's a good thing for the industry as it's another revenue model it can turn to "boxed product" business begins to dwindle.

http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/285...ontent-matters ...

Today on the Capcom Unity Blog the company announced which games will be showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 2 through the 4. The list includes a bunch of useful information including the fact that Lost Planet 2 is "currently coming to PC and 360, implying that it will eventually land on PS3. It also includes two "mystery games" that will be announced at the show, one of them during a press conference and the other will be playable at Capcom's booth.

To save you the trouble of an extra mouse click, we've included the full list right here:


Bionic Commando (PC)

Dark Void (PC, PS3, X360)

Dead Rising 2 (PC, PS3, X360)

Fate/ Unlimited Codes (PSP)

Lost Planet 2 (PC, X360)

Marvel vs Capcom 2 (PSN, XBL)

Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace (DS)

Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker (DS)

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)

Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil (Wii)

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (Wii)

Spyborgs (Wii)

Street Fighter IV (PC)

Untitled Mystery Game #1

Untitled Mystery Game #2
Let us know your best guess for the unannounced games in the article comments below. Here's to hoping it has something to do with the return of the Breath of Fire series!

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/980/980420p1.html ...

The Colin McRae: Dirt 2 'target' screenshots look incredible. But do the in-game visuals live up to them? Judge for yourself with this studio tour video, which gives you a first glimpse of the game in action.


"Introduced by Gavin Raeburn, Senior Executive Producer, the video reveals the tech that will drive Colin McRae: DiRT 2 and how it is enabling the studio to create an off-road racing experience that's set to be peerless in both scope and delivery," says Codemasters.

"Illustrated by the game's first ever publicly-released gameplay footage, Gavin and the team begin by demonstrating the new particle physics system and the water technology."

Game's out in September on PS3, 360, Wii, DS, PSP and PC.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=214503 ...

CEO Brian Farrell adds that 800,000 sales are no longer enough for triple-A titles
On the back of THQ’s recent financial results, CEO Brian Farrell has stated that he believes Sony will cut the price of PS3 this year, whilst also admitting that the Wii market is slowing.
“We are not expecting a price cut at E3 but we do expect one later in the year,” Farrell stated in an investor call transcribed on Seeking Alpha. “But again, that's just our guess – that's not based on any knowledge from Sony.
“We are pleased with Microsoft's momentum at their price point. We are seeing a little softness in the Wii which we kind of think of the glass as half full here, in that the Wii has been going for an unprecedented amount of time without a price reduction.”
Elsewhere in the call Farrell added that the expensive nature of modern games development means that even an impressive 800,000 sales is rarely enough for a triple-A title to break even.
“On the core titles, 700,000, 800,000 units – these days unfortunately we think are over,” Farrell said.
“But within the kids segment, the break evens are very low – depending on the title, how many SKUs you do, per SKU your break-evens are, depending on the platform, somewhere between even 100,000 and 400,000 units.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34213/THQ-...-a-little-soft ...