Gamer Investments - Video Game Industry and Stock Market News

“The most important thing for us as a company in the very short term is for us to start making money. This is a pledge that was made last March and is something that we are still very much on target to achieve. Once we have achieved this, I think it will be a very exciting time for PlayStation. Once we have alleviated that specific pressure, we can move forward at a rate of knots.” - David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president

It’s been a long fall from the top for Sony.  The PlayStation 3 is a very impressive video game console from a technical standpoint.  However, it’s also a financial albatross around Sony’s neck and they will be lucky if they ever recover from it. 

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-Justin

-Justin

Highly Anticipated Hasbro-Branded Video Games to Be Showcased at Consumer Electronics Show Booth # 72201

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan 06, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Fans of casual, family-friendly games are about to see their circle of fun widen with a slate of new Hasbro-branded digital play experiences on a variety of platforms from Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:ERTS) in 2009. Leading the charge is SCRABBLE, which rocketed to the No. 1 position on Pogo.com(TM) with more than 2.5 million players laying down virtual tiles since its June 2008 launch. The best-selling crossword puzzle board game is on deck to land on handheld platforms including the Nintendo DS(TM) and Sony PlayStation(R)Portable system (PSP(R)) in March 2009 in the US and Canada. EA is also gearing up to inject nostalgic fun into the Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade by bringing perennial board game favorites to the popular platform. Under a Hasbro Family Game Night banner, games such as SCRABBLE (US and Canada only), BOGGLE, BATTLESHIP, YAHTZEE, CONNECT FOUR, SORRY! and SORRY!Sliders will begin to roll out in Spring 2009. EA will showcase the highly anticipated lineup at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 8-11, 2009 in Las Vegas.

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…Ian Jackson, vice president of sales for Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in a statement. “Early internal data points to an increase of more than 130 percent of PS3 hardware sales for the holiday season–since Black Friday–and we’re also seeing a growth of nearly 40 percent in total PS3 hardware sales for the calendar year. We remain confident this momentum will continue into the new year.”

Oh Sony, you can spin it any way you want but the sales chart below does not show much momentum.  At least not the kind you want to carry over into 2009.

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-Justin

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-Justin

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter Life-to-date sales of Nintendo’s Wii are very close to the PlayStation 2 sales numbers at the end of it’s second year of sales.  Pachter also expects that December NPD hardware sales, which are due out on January 15th, will show that the pace of the Wii has surpassed that of the PS2.

You have to hand it to Nintendo.  Very few companies are able to create a product where sales seem to be limited only by the amount that can be manufactured.

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-Justin

Sony certainly has had trouble with their platforms this generation.  When the PSP was released it looked like Sony was set to take the handheld market by storm.  On a technical level the PSP towers over Nintendo’s DS in every way possible.  Unfortunately for Sony that technical domination did not translate into market domination.  I don’t know if Sony is ready to give up on the PSP or not but things definitely have not gone as planned.

Read the Yahoo Games article here.

-Justin

Resident Evil® 5, Street Fighter® IV, Bionic Commando®, Dead RisingTM: Chop Till You Drop, FLOCK! and MotoGPTM for WiiTM Ready to Dominate the Console World

Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, has today confirmed that six of its upcoming titles will be released within the first half of 2009. The line-up demonstrates Capcom’s commitment to pursuing a multi-platform strategy while growing its portfolio of titles and includes the latest installments of some of gaming’s most cherished franchises.

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Cambridge, Mass. - January 2, 2009- Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the addition of one of the most influential pioneers of rock and roll, Roy Orbison, to the Rock Band® Music Store catalog of downloadable content. Grammy Award-winning Roy Orbison was a singer, songwriter and performer whose distinctive sound scored him an astounding nine Top 10 hits in four years in the early 1960s. Orbison’s historic career began in the 1950s and saw a huge resurgence in the late 1980s, when he became a prominent influence on artists like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Bono, k. d. lang and Traveling Wilburys.

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The expected restructuring - considered by many analysts to be occurring far too late - is likely to be announced early next month, with the lion’s share of the changes imposed on Sony’s domestic Japanese operations in the form of factory closures and the abolition of several major divisions.

The restructuring is expected to be unveiled after this month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and comes as analysts are warning that Sony faces long years of multibillion-dollar losses unless its president, Sir Howard Stringer, is given free rein to take on the company’s old guard and erase many of its legacies.

A Sony spokesperson has denied that any restructuring is planned, aside from the 8,000 jobs cuts announced last month.  There are no specifics on what divisions will received the rumored cuts, or if the Game Division will even be affected.  However, considering the losses that Sony has suffered due to the PlayStation 3 I don’t see how the division will be able to continue to operate without major changes.

Read the full article here.

-Justin