Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 29
How can Japanese video game companies stay competitive in a crowded global market? “You need a certain amount of scale,†says Square Enix’s President Yoichi Wada. The recent blitz of merger activity in the gaming industry proves that Wada isn’t the only one thinking this. Last month, U.S.-based Activision merged with Blizzard, the gaming unit of French media group Vivendi. And sports-franchise specialist Electronic Arts and “Grand Theft Auto†creator Take-Two Interactive Software are in talks about a potential tie-up.
No surprise, then, that Square Enix is exploring acquisitions of its own. On Aug. 29, the Tokyo company offered to buy Japanese rival Tecmo, a deal that’s worth more than $100 million. At a press conference, Square Enix’s Wada said his company’s role-playing fantasy games such as “Final Fantasy†and "Dragon Quest" and Tecmo’s expertise in fighting games (“Ninja Gaidenâ€) would make a good match.
Wada repeatedly stressed that the offer was for a “friendly†takeover. He hopes to buy all of the company’s shares but, if that’s not possible, said he would settle for a majority. “I’m awaiting a response [from Tecmo’s management],†he said. “I believe it will happen. I’m praying.â€
Square Enix has offered to pay 920 yen ($8.44) for each Tecmo share, which amounts to about a 30% premium. It has enough cash on hand to pull off the transaction without relying on outside financing, Wada said. Square Enix shares ended the day up 2.6%, while Tecmo’s finished 14% higher.
Continue reading "Japan's Square Enix Courts Tecmo"
Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 29
In April, analysts were down on Nintendo because the company appeared to be losing steam. For one, Nintendo's financial forecasts suggested that, this year, the company would not match the stellar growth of the past couple of years. Was it the credit crunch and the spectre of an economic downturn? Was the portable Nintendo DS console in need of a makeover? Was the novelty of the Wii's motion-sensing controller that had won over so many non-gamers and game programmers tapering off?
At ease, worrywarts. Nintendo just revised upward its financial forecasts for the fiscal first-half through September and year through March 2009, and the gains aren't trivial.
The company now expects operating profit to jump 34% to 650 billion yen ($5.96 billion) on a 20% gain in sales to 2 trillion yen ($18.3 billion), vs. last year, and it estimated that the annual dividend payout would be 1,680 yen ($15.40), up 22% from an earlier forecast. Its previous predictions were for a 8.8% rise in operating profit and a 7.6% uptick in sales.
Powering the gains were better-than-expected sales of both the Wii and DS, and favorable foreign currency swings, the company said. That prompted Nintendo to revise upward its forecasts for gaming hardware and software unit shipments to:
April Forecast August Forecast
DS hardware: 28 million 30.5 million
DS software: 187 million 197 million
Wii hardware: 25 million 26.5 million
Wii software: 177 million 186 million
Continue reading "Nintendo Forecasts: What downturn?"
Posted by: Kenji Hall on August 25
![080821ees[1].jpg](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessweek.com%2Finnovate%2Fgamesinc%2Farchives%2F080821ees%255B1%255D.jpg)
Last week, at the Leipzig games convention, Sony unveiled a redesigned PlayStation Portable, the PSP 3000. Yawn. Sure, the new PSP, which goes on sale in October, has a better screen and a built-in mic that makes the gizmo a Skype-ready Net-connected phone when there’s a Wi-Fi wireless network nearby. (Personally, I’d love to see motion-sensing added to the PSP, which would add another dimension to gaming and location-based services.)
But cramming more features into the PSP isn’t as important as beefing up the online offering of videos, games and other features. The PSP Online Store already lets you download both low-cost PSOne games and new PSP titles via a PC so you don’t have to connect to (or own) a PlayStation 3. In Japan the only videos I can get are game teasers and other promos. But in the U.S., the PlayStation Network's video service now has close to 300 movies and 1,200 TV episodes. And the offerings aren't only from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony also signed up 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., and The Walt Disney Studios.
I had previously asked why Sony wasn't lining up TV shows and movies for the PSP like Apple does for its lineup of video iPods. But I was wrong; Al de Leon, of Sony Computer Entertainment America, pointed out my error (check out the last paragraph of the release).
Still, I wonder: Why not let PSP owners customize what goes onto their PSPs, like Apple has done with the iPhone App Store? Sony officials bristle whenever someone compares them to Apple. But instead of getting defensive they should just recognize when Apple has a good idea and borrow it.
Some fanboy sites have blasted Sony for omitting the new features from the previous version of the PSP. Others suspect Sony is trying to stay one step ahead of modders who tweak their PSPs to do things the company’s engineers never intended for it to do. My guess is that Sony’s decision boils down to simple economics. It’s trying to squeeze more mileage out of the PSP by offering consumers a souped-up version and without jacking up the price. (In terms of affordability it doesn't get any better than this: The $199 price of the PSP 3000's starter pack in the U.S. is actually lower than the PSP’s $249 launch price in 2005.) That explains how it expects to sell 15 million PSPs this fiscal year on top of the 37 million it had sold from December 2004 to March 2008.
Posted by: Matt Vella on July 22
One of the most exciting announcements out of this year's E3 was the deal to bring near-instant streaming movies from Netflix to subscribers with an Xbox 360. The arrival of the long-rumored deal later this fall will add another plank to the Microsoft console's media platform. The company has released a short preview of how exactly the service will work. Netflix subscribers will be able to access movies from their web accounts and -- from this tech demo, at least -- it seems to work almost as quickly as the PC client currently available. Check it out:
Posted by: Matt Vella on July 18
In many ways, Apple’s iPhone was the sleeper hit of E3, the gaming industry’s big summer convention. More importantly, the iPhone may be the most disruptive innovation in gaming in years. Yes, even more so than the Nintendo Wii. After the failure of the GameCube, everybody expected Nintendo to sink or swim this cycle but, aside from fanboys pleading for Apple to get into gaming, no one was seriously predicting the company would. It’s apparent now, that it has stepped into the ring a major, industry-shifting way.
Apple released the second generation iPhone along with upgraded iPod touch and iPhone 2G firmware as well as the iTunes-based AppStore just in time for the opening of E3 this week. But despite not having a big presence at the show, iPhone buzz was rampant thanks to several announcements and unexpected revelations at the show and online throughout the week. So what happened to fan the fire?
Firstly, during the company’s Tuesday presentation, Electronic Arts executives made it clear that ‘real’ games would be coming to the platform, not just bargain-bin mobile titles. Aside from the already-announced Spore, EA is planning versions of its lucrative Tiger Woods and Need for Speed for the handheld. A transcript of the even it available here.
Then, SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery sounded off on Wednesday, asserting that the iPhone is about as powerful as the company’s defunct gaming console, the Dreamcast. That statement further underscored what a lot of users and reviewers have been wondering out loud as they wade into newly published and surprisingly polished games. Jeffery also detailed how the company plans to take advantage of what he suspects could be major new platform. Video of his talk is available here.
And finally, blog TechCrunch posted tantalizing gameplay video of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, an as-of-yet unknown title due in September that sports cutting edge graphics and – apparently from the demo – innovative gameplay. (Check video out here.) The title’s sophistication, beyond anything available so far, in effect legitimated all the high-flying rhetoric swirling around the show. Expect September to be a big month for the platform, with a number of triple-A titles due.
