Monthly Archives: May 2009

What? You weren’t listening to THQ’s full-year earnings call at 11.00pm last night? What the hell is wrong with you, you idiot? Take a long, hard look in the mirror. Now go and wash your tongue.

Here’s what you missed:

• THQ posts $431 million loss for fiscal year
• THQ full-years earnings call – the full transcript
• PS3 price cut expected “later in the year,” says THQ boss
• Multiplayer demo confirmed for Red Faction: Guerrilla
• THQ plans to return to profitability in 2010
• Saints Row and Dawn of War sequels to ship for “many years to come”
• Company of Heroes Online to launch before March 2010
• Saints Row 2 ships more than 2.8 million units
• THQ – 800k units break-even on core games “days are over”
• “Softness” emerging in Wii market, says Farrell

According to FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase, his game isn’t a JRPG. It “straddles genres,” apparently.

“There’s a trend these days to strictly categorize games as western RPGs or Japanese RPGs, but Final Fantasy is something that we don’t try to categorize as either/or,” the developer told Edge.

“For us, the game straddles genre.”

Wish it could straddle continents a little quicker.

Thanks, CVG.

Nintendo just announced a record fiscal year, but pointed to a slowing of profit in the current 12 months. This sort of stuff gets us up in the morning, straight out of bed and fully erect.

How about you?

• Nintendo sales up 10%, profit up 14% for FY09
• Mario Kart Wii sales beat 15 million, Will million-sellers reach 54
• Nintendo predicts 11.8 percent drop in profit for FY10
• Nintendo – 26 million Wii, 30 million DS to be sold in FY10
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is for a “wider age group of people”

Nintendo has predicted that 26 million Wii consoles will be sold in the current fiscal year, the period ending March 2010.

The Kyoto firm said 220 million software units would shift for the machine in the period.

DS is to perform even better on the console side, said the company, moving a predicted 30 million units in the year.

Software sales for the handheld will likely total 180 million pieces, said Nintendo.

If correct, this would mean Wii will continue to sell as enthusiastically as it has in the passed year. Almost 26 million Wii systems were sold in the 12 months ending March, bringing lifetime totals past 50 million.

More than 31 million DS sales in the year brought the machine over the 100 million unit mark.

Nintendo announced full-year results today.

Nintendo said today it expects a profit drop of 11.8 percent in the coming fiscal year.

The fall will put profit at ¥490 billion for the period.

A poll of 25 analysts by Thomson Reuters reckoned the fall would be less severe, however, predicting a drop to ¥517.4 billion yen profit in the 12 months ending March 2010.

The company today announced operating profit of over ¥555 billion for fiscal ’09, up 14 percent on the previous year.

Mario Kart Wii has now sold 15.4 million units, Nintendo said today as part of its full-year financial report, while the Wii Fit juggernaut powered to an astonishing 18.22 million units in fiscal ’09.

Games beating 1 million units on Wii now total 54, said the company.

Big sellers for the year:

DS

• Brain Age Series – 31.1 million
• Pokemon Platinum – 3.8 million
• Kirby super Star Ultra – 2.4 million

DS million-sellers = 91

Wii

• Mario Kart Wii – 15.4 million
• Animal Crossing: City Folk – 3.4 million
• Wii Music – 2.7 million
• Wii Fit – 18.2 million

Wii Million Sellers = 54

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Nintendo’s reported rises in both sales and profit for the fiscal year, the 12 months ending March.

Sales rose to ¥1,838,622 million, a 9.0 percent increase over the previous year, while operating profit hit ¥555,263 million, 14 percent better than fiscal 2008.

Almost 26 million Wii systems were sold in the period, bringing lifetime totals past 50 million. More than 31 million DS sales in the year brought the machine over the 100 million unit mark.

Fiscal year software sales rose for each platform from the previous year, reaching 197 million units DS, and over 204 million for Wii.

The full report’s here.

3DRealms has closed, according to numerous reports, thanks to a lack of funding.

“It’s not a marketing thing,” said company webmaster webmaster Joe Siegler.

“It’s true. I have nothing further to say at this time.”

Take-Two issued a statement overnight, saying it’s retained the rights to Duke Nukem Forever.

“We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title,” said comms VP Alan Lewis.

“In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever.”

Apogee Software and Deep Silver have confirmed that the closure has not affected Frontline Games’ upcoming handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy.

“Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms,” said a rep.

“Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned.”

No senior 3DRealms staffers have yet to make a statement.

It really was “forever,” then. Shacknews has the fullest report on this.

Virtua Tennis 2009 has been pushed into June to give it a bit more polish.

This is according to Sega site administrator RubyEclipse who stated on the forums:

As you may have already noticed, VT2009 has now been pushed back to a June ship date. It’s kind of a bummer as I know everyone is looking forward to the game, but believe me when I say it’s almost always worth it to add an extra level of polish and make sure the game is top-notch, as opposed to shipping early with problems.

A new release date is expected to be announced soon. We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Playlogic will release Obscure: The Aftermath for PSP in September.

It’s already available for PC, PS2, and Wii.

“We received a tremendous amount of feedback from fans wanting us to bring the gruesome gore of Obscure 2 to a handheld console,” said Playlogic’s VP Rogier Smit.

“Our talented teams have since crafted the game to fit the unique co-op capabilities and controls of the PSP while also keeping the exciting gameplay and detailed graphics featured in the console versions intact.”

Press release posted below.

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Namco has filed a US trademark for a PC, console and mobile title called God Eater.

God Eater was also trademarked in Japan in October 2008.

Not much is really known other than that, and the trademark lists it for the above referenced ports. This is not an indication that it was announced for any specific platform and no word on content was included.

So it’s a mystery. But you like those.

Thanks, D’toid.

The US Eagles DLC pack for HAWX will be available on May 7 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

The pack includes the F-4 Phantom II, Blackbird, F-111 Aardvark, A-12 Avenger stealth bomber prototype, and a reconnaissance variant based flyer called the Peak Eagleon which is based on the F-15.

It’ll set you back 400 MS Points ($5).

IGN has posted a few shots. Go take a look.

THQ’s Brian Farrell has just described PS3 as a “challenging” format, saying he doesn’t expect the machine’s retail cost to drop at E3 in june.

“We’re not expecting a [PS3] price cut at E3, but we do expect one later in the year,” said the CEO.

“That’s just our guess… [and] not based on any knowledge from Sony.”

Farrell was speaking in THQ’s Q4 and year-end earnings call, which is ongoing.

THQ announced losses of over $430 million for the year ending March today.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is to get a multiplayer demo later this month, THQ CEO Brian Farrell has confirmed.

A single-player demo for the title has already released.

The full game is to release for PC, 360 and PS3 in early June.

Farrell was speaking in THQ’s Q4 and year-end earnings call, which is ongoing.

THQ announced losses of over $430 million for the year ending March today.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell plans to return the company to profitability by 2010, he said today.

Building on family game franchises, along with casual games with both premium and budget price points will save the day, said the exec.

Farrell also expects the online gaming market to help solidify sales, and development costs will be further dropped.

Proven console franchises and licensing deals with Marvel and Disney will help significantly, too.

Farrell was speaking in THQ’s Q4 and year-end earnings call, which is ongoing.

THQ announced losses of over $430 million for the year ending March today.

THQ boss Brian Farrell just said that Saints Row and Dawn of War sequels are to be launched for “many years to come”.

The exec said more than 5 million units of Saints Row have now been sold, as have more than 4 million units of in the Dawn of War series.

Farrell was speaking in THQ’s Q4 and year-end earnings call, which is ongoing.

THQ announced losses of over $430 million for the year ending March today.

Activision has finally released the full, and final tracklist for Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.

It’s compiled of 48 songs from previous Guitar Hero games just in case you didn’t know, and each now has the full band treatment.

The list is very long, but it’s posted after the break.

It’s out June 16.

Thanks, Kotaku.
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Company of Heroes Online is to launch in the 12 months ending March 31, 2010, THQ confirmed today.

The news came as part of the firm’s full-year financials.

The title is a free-to-play, micro-transaction-based affair in which players have persistent characters they carry from battle to battle.

It’ll release first in China, and later hit other Asian countries. There’s no news on it coming west.

Details here.

THQ has announced that Saints Row 2 has shipped over 2.8 million units since release.

This was announced via the company’s Q4 financial year results.

The earnings call should be starting anytime, and we will keep you up to date as things progress.

THQ has posted a $431 million loss for the 12 months ending March this year, down from $35.3 million in fiscal 2008.

Sales were down to $830.0 million from $1,030.5 million in the year previous.

Q4 sales held relatively steady, at $170.3 million, compared with $187.0 million in the corresponding previous period.

Losses for the quarter, however, extended significantly, down to $96.9 million, or $1.44 per share from the $34.5 million in FY ’08.

Press release after the drop.

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