Nintendo's profits dropped by 18 per cent year-on-year for fiscal 2010, according to the company's financials released today.

The company's net income for the year ending March 31, 2010 was JPY 228.6 billion (£2.4 billion / £1.6 billion) - a decline of 18 per cent on last year.

Meanwhile, net sales declined by 22 per cent to JPY 1,434 billion ($15.3 billion / £10.17 billion).

Nintendo attributed the drop to the negative impact felt by a price reduction to Wii hardware, fewer strong Wii software releases over the first half of the year and appreciation of the yen.

Overseas sales accounted for 84.1 per cent of overall sales and the total number of employees increased over fiscal 2010 from 4130 to 4425.

Nintendo's forecast for fiscal 2011 was a further 2.4 per cent drop in net sales and a 12.5 per cent decline in profit.

The new Nintendo 3DS hardware - which it confirmed will be compatible with DS and DSi software - will be released during the year, as will Pokemon Black / White.

"Through the expansion of 'Nintendo Zone', a service utilising the wireless function of Nintendo DS, Nintendo will continue to provide unique content such as free downloadable Nintendo DS software and Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, which enables players to enjoy games together with their distant friends," said Nintendo.

"In addition, Nintendo's strategy is to achieve the ultimate worldwide objective of 'must-have for everyone' rather than 'must-have for every family'. Nintendo will enrich consumers' daily lives with features such as information services at cultural facilities, commercial establishments and more."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...cent-over-2010 ...

Namco Bandai has announced that this E3 will see "the worldwide premiere of the newest Pac-Man project". An event invitation sent to members of the press says attendees should "prepare to witness the next evolution" of Pac-Man and promises playable versions of "unreleased titles on console, mobile, arcade, and more".

It's currently unclear whether the invite refers to the four-player Pac-Man Battle Royale that was recently spotted at Amusement Expo 2010 or some entirely new Pac-Man game. A Namco representative refused to comment on the matter.

The event is scheduled for the evening of 15th June.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ne...ame-set-for-e3 ...

the total number of players for the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta exceeded 1 million in the game's first 24 hours of availability, according to Microsoft.

In stats provided to blog site Kotaku the number of players on Monday, May 3 were put at 1,170,112, with 157,972,986 in-games kills recorded.

Microsoft has already claimed the online multiplayer demo to be the "biggest console beta ever". The beta is due to run until May 19 and the completed game is due for release this autumn.

A copy of 2009's Halo 3: ODST is required to access the beta, but over the coming weekend a subscription-based Gold Xbox Live account will not be needed. This will allow Silver subscribers to access the beta for free.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...alo-reach-beta ...

Nintendo has announced this week's Virtual Console, WiiWare and DSiWare offerings, with highlights including Final Fantasy on the NES and a music program for the DSi called Rytmik.

Yes, Virtual Console owners are invited to endure [surely "enjoy" - Ed] another Hanabi release - this time in the shape of the first instalment in the ageing Final Fantasy series.

Legend has it that the game was so named because developer Hironobu Sakaguchi was planning to retire after its completion. In the event the game came out and did amazingly for Square, and the rest is history.

It's probably rubbish these days, but hey. It will cost you 600 Wii Points to find out.

The other Wii option this week is Pub Darts, which has less historic value but only costs 500 WP. It's "just like throwing a real dart", apparently, and there are variants like 501, Cricket, Around the Clock, Killer and Baseball to choose from.

Meanwhile, the DSi benefits from four releases, with Rytmik - at 800 DSi Points - the most expensive and potentially the most interesting.

It's an application for "creating rhythmical and melodic themes for composing whole songs", apparently, with classic drum machines, popular trackers and a "modern sound library" of 170 samples.

"It consists of musical notations for up to four instruments that you may transpose, select their location in the stereo field, and modify their volume, polyphony and echo," apparently.

"You may combine up to 128 such clips in four tracks and create complex pieces of music. A rhythm library and varied collection of 16 pre-made compositions at your disposal allows you to quickly compose your own pieces."

Hot. Other options are Flips: Silent But Deadly, an interactive book for kids; Metal Torrent, a vertical shoot-'em-up with high scores on the internet; and Bounce & Break, an "innovative break-out game taking place in a Zen Japanese universe". Those three all cost 500 DP.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fi...sole-this-week ...

Though Konami’s iPES app released in late 2009 didn’t deliver on the promise of pocket football, the announcement of a proper release for PES 2010 on iPhone should make up for the disappointment.
Timed to coincide with the World Cup in South Africa, the fully 3D title will offer an approximation of the arcade action offered in the console versions though an iPhone-specific control scheme is promised.
Also included are Champions League and Europa League game modes, though early reports make no mention of either the Master League or online gameplay.
“To bring a game as complex and as playable as PES 2010 to iPhone and iPod touch has been a daunting challenge, but one that has paid off,” the game’s producer Axel de Rougé stated.
“We have been working to ensure that all the slick moves and control – not to mention strong AI and aesthetic touches – that are associated with the series, have been recreated. We are confident we have produced the best football game available for the Apple systems, and look forward to its reception in June.”


The price of the game has yet to be confirmed (expect anything between £2.99 and £5.99), though it's due to hit the App Store in June where it will face competition from similar titles like FIFA 10, Real Football 2010 and X2 Football 2010.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/38866/PES-...iPhone-release ...

44% of US consumers planning to buy an iPad are buying it instead of a netbook or notebook laptop, according to a Morgan Stanley/Alphawise survey conducted in March.
The results were published in a report by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, which Fortune has some extracts from.
The survey also found that 41% of planned iPad buyers would choose the device instead of an iPod touch, although we're guessing that's not a huge headache for Apple at the moment.
The cannibalisation ratio for e-readers like Amazon's Kindle was 28%, while for handheld games devices like Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS it was 17%.
It would be interesting to see how these results change - if at all - in any new survey, now that the iPad is available in the US.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37026...Morgan-Stanley ...

An analysis of the UK video games market by Nick Parker claims that UK hardware unit sales of Nintendo’s Wii are down 45.1 per cent for the year-to-date ending March 31st 2010.
In fact, every piece of games hardware on the market is down, with PSP (-44.7 percent), DS (-35.9 per cent) and Xbox 360 (-22.2 per cent) suffering the hardest.
“The market for boxed games software has been in decline for fifteen months now in Europe so we have to examine the whole market trend, not just what is happening in 2010 so far,” Parker told MCV.
“All hardware formats were in decline last year on a unit basis except the single figures growth from the PS3. Q1 this year is no different in the UK except every console and handheld device has sold less this year in volume terms than the same period last year and the trend has worsened since the end of last year.
“We may have to accept that a significant market (over 20 per cent) for traditional boxed core games came from these casual gamers who may have invested in a £40 box five years ago but only played it for a few hours. That was their expectation from gaming – an experience they can now find on portable multimedia devices for less.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/38857/UK-W...1-year-on-year ...

Issues with topping up PSN account funds leave many unable to buy Modern warfare 2 DLC

A technical problem on the European arm of Sony’s PlayStation Network has prevented thousands of gamers from getting their hands on the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map Pack.
Many users are having problems topping up their wallet funding on PSN meaning that if they currently have less than £10.99 on their account they are having trouble adding the money needed to buy the DLC.
As a response, Sony has been forced to limit the number of transactions it allows to pass through its servers. It claims that the result is a 30 per cent increase in successful transactions, but many are still unable to complete PSN purchases.
Sony has been working on a fix for the last 20 hours but at the time of writing has yet to find a solution. An update on the PlayStation Blog reads: “Some customers were unable to add funds to their account yesterday. If customers tried to top up their wallets multiple times yesterday they should wait a few hours from their last attempt before trying again.
“As we expect traffic on PlayStation Network to be extremely high over the coming days customers should try to make any purchases outside of peak hours if at all possible.”

With regard to the Stimulus Pack specifically, Sony added: “Some customers are experiencing problems downloading or installing the Call of Duty add-on and have experienced error code 80029564.
“As customers have the option to download all 7 versions of the add-on they should identify which disc they have (disc ID can be found on the spine of the game’s case) and only download the appropriate version for their disc. Where the download or install failed customers should attempt to re-download and install during off-peak hours if possible.”
It’s the second problem to trouble Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 DLC. When it arrived on Xbox Live in March early purchasers were unable to play the content due to a missing title update.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/38855/PSN-...timulus-launch ...

DS sales have surpassed Game Boy's, according to Nintendo's latest financial report.

The company sold 27.11 million DS units in the year ended March 31, 2010, taking life-to-date sales to 128.89 million.

"In spite of lower unit sales versus last year, Nintendo DS life-to-date sales have surpassed the Game Boy series, which was released in 1989 and became the biggest selling handheld gaming device worldwide," the firm said.

Notable performers over the 12 month period were Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver, Tomodachi Collection and The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, which shifted 8.4 million, 3.2 million and 2.61 million copies respectively.

Nintendo also sold 20.53 million Wiis during the year, pushing lifetime sales to 70.93 million.

"This is the largest cumulative unit sales performance for console hardware in our company's history," the company said.

During the financial year, Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus moved 16.14 million, 14.7 million and 12.65 million copies respectively.

Nevertheless, Nintendo reported a drop in annual sales and profit. Sales fell 22 per cent to £10.1 billion, while profit declined 18 per cent to £1.6 billion.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...