Tag Archives: money

Future’s confirmed it’s planning on charging for web content, and is already dipping its toe in the water.

“We’re experimenting in small places right across the portfolio, because we don’t have the answer yet,” said CEO Stevie Spring in an interview with Brand Republic. “Our strategy online is do and learn. We’re learning as we go along.”

The exec added: “When you come to our content and the reason that we can charge an average of five pounds for a magazine is that we do very nice, very must-have, very special content, and if anybody is going to pay for anything they are more likely to pay for that. That’s why we use the word prosumer, it’s much closer to business-to-business.”

So. We’re going to start charging a quid a day for VG247 starting next week. You’re all up for that; right?

More on GI.

ESA spent 25 percent more on lobbying in 2008 than it did in 2007, up to a record $4,233,864.50 for the year.

In the fourth quarter, the US industry body spent a total of $1,137,500, which breaks down to $980,000 on direct efforts and $157,000 for the services of four firms.

Spending in the latter half-year saw a 36.1 percent increase over the previous 12 months.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

Korea’s government is backing the nation’s games industry with a 350 billion won ($200 million) investment until 2012, aiming to expand the country’s game exports to 5 trillion won ($3.39 billion) per year.

According to a report in Korean news publication Digital Chosunilbo, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minster Yu In-chon revealed the plans in a recent meeting, citing the potential for the games industry to drive future growth.

More on Gamasutra.

A Verdict Research report has predicted that videogaming will be the largest form of entertainment in the UK this year, with the market expected to grow to be worth £4.64 billion in 2008.

That’s a £1.7 billion increase on 2007 sales.

By comparison, the music and video market is expected to come in at £4.46 billion this year.

“The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online,” said the report’s author Malcolm Pinkerton.

“So in actual fact, the sales via high street shops are being hit a lot harder than the overall growth figures would suggest.”

The reasons for the shift are well worn.

“Games represent a relatively cheap, but also exciting and innovative pastime,” said Matthew Piner, author of the Video Games and Consoles Retailing report.

“As more people save money by staying in, a video game, although it may cost three of four times as much as a DVD or CD, offers much more longevity and hence better value for money.”

More on Reuters.

According to this Trading Markets piece, Nikkei and Nintendo are to bring out a piece of DS software designed to make learning about the Japanese financial system “fun”.

“The software will be designed so that users can learn the basics of the economy — how it works and keywords for understanding it — by tapping on the devices’ touch-screen panels and answering a series of quizzes,” says the story.

“By making the learning process fun, Nintendo hopes the software will attract young people who are interested in the economy.”

Question number one: The world economy gets the arse torn out of it in front of your eyes, global capitalism is shown up to be a tragic charade and you lose approximately 57 times your lifetime-possible earnings on stupid credit bets in less than eight seconds. How do you top yourself?

No date as yet.

According to this Wall Street Journal piece, XBLA platformer Braid cost developer Jonathan Blow $180,000 of his own money.

The game’s already sold around 30,000 units – probably a lot more by now – at 1,200 MS Points per throw, so that wasn’t the silliest investment he ever made.

More through the link.

NCSoft’s MMORPG Tabula Rasa was conspicuous by its absence in the company’s Q1 financials, writes Massively.

The game has had a rough time of it since its release. As earlier as February this year the game was labelled a financial disaster: the rumours of haven’t gone away.

Full piece of doom and gloom through the link.

By Mike Bowden

And what mighty colourful graphs they are, too. They can all be found over at Gamerinvestments, who’s report points out that although Sony sold more, Nintendo made more, the company now being the only platform holder now having made a profit for the last nine years consecutively.

Fill your boots though the link.

By Mike Bowden

Blizzard just confirmed the formation of a new type of tournament in World of Warcraft’s Arena System to “take place on special realms” and which will “allow competitors to instantly create level-70 characters with epic equipment, placing the focus on tactics and execution rather than normal adventuring.”

The tournaments will start in April with two rounds of online qualifiers in Europe, South Korea, North America, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. You have to pay to play: 15€/£12 in Europe; 20,000 won in South Korea; $20 in North America; and NT$450 in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

The tournaments will “run for six weeks. During this time, teams will play 3-vs.-3 matches on the tournament realm in their region, with the top four teams from each round advancing to the regional finals to compete for more than $27,000 in cash prizes. Winners from each region will then be invited to a global championship event to compete for $120,000 in cash prizes, including a $75,000 grand prize.”

Keep an eye on this for more details.

According to this, THQ boss Brian Farrell has exercised options on 73,556 shares then sold 52,837 at between $19.40 apiece to $19.69 apiece on Monday. The optioned the stock at $7.89 a pop.

The information came from an SEC report filed yesterday.

Following financials that showed its games business had returned to profit, Sony has been upgraded by credit firm Fitch to a long-term debt rating of A- from BBB+, the seventh of 22 ratings. Presumably ZZZZ means you’re living in a cardboard box. A stable outlook means you’re unlikely to see a reassessment of the rating any time soon.

“Fitch believes that Sony is regaining some of the strengths in the electronics business that the company was renowned for in the past,” said a Fitch spokesperson.

Konami’s issued third quarter financials in Japan, showing a 3.4 percent revenue increase to 95,987 million yen (£459 million) and a profit rise of 22.7 percent to 11,622 million yen (£56 million) for the three months ending December 31.

“Sports games played the most significant role in Konami’s third-quarter performance, with the publisher calling out World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008, Jikkyou Pawafuru Major League 2, and Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu 14 as top sellers in Europe and Japan,” said this. “Konami also said that the Dance Dance Revolution franchise continues to sell well in North America.”

Get it here. This is a recording of last night’s investor call with THQ execs, including CEO and president Brian Farrell, following the release of financials for the quarter ending December 31.

Wedbush Morgan’s man in the spotlight Michael Pachter has said that EA’s decision to defer guidance for fiscal 2009 until May in its recent financial statement is a “mistake”.

“We believe management made a mistake in deferring guidance till May, as EA stock has traded around the $45 level since August 2003,” he said, here. “In our view, the stock’s consistent ‘reversion to the mean’ has been attributable to recurring investor skepticism that EA can grow earnings significantly above the peak earnings generated in FY:04. We think that investors have tired of waiting for results, and are looking to the company’s new CEO for assurance that EA will return to peak margins and earnings in the foreseeable future.”

Pachter is maintaining a “Strong Buy” rating on EA’s stock and lowering Wedbush’s price target from $72 to $66.

Among the ton of info to come out of yesterday’s EA investor call following the release of the company’s third quarter financials, was first mention of a new Lord of the Rings title based on the company’s exclusive deal with movie outfit New Line.

No details were given on the game at all, but the news sees the first game emerge from the deal since Lord of the Rings, The White Council was put on indefinite hold. There’s no release date for the new, unnamed titles as yet.

EA CEO John Riccitiello admitted that the company’s PS3 development had “not quite” caught up with Xbox 360 progress in yesterday’s investor conference call following the release of the company’s thurd quarter financials.

“There’s no doubt that Electronic Arts, along with many other publishers, had some challenges essentially meeting the technical specifications effectively on the PlayStation 3,” he said.

“Games where we essentially led development on the PS3 platform, like Burnout [Paradise]… we had no issue at all. But, in circumstances where we either led with the Xbox 360 or we ran parallel production, for the most part, we’re still experiencing some delay on the PS3,” he added.

The company posted a $33 million loss for the quarter ending December 31, as reported here.

If you’re the type that just has to hear all those quotes for him/herself, head over here for the full recording of yesterday’s investor conference call following the announcement of EA’s financials for the quarter ending December 31. It’s available in WMV and RealPlayer format.

EA has issued financials for its third quarter – ending December 31 – showing a $33 million loss despite record revenues of $1.502 billion, up 17 percent on the same period last year. The loss related to 10 cents per share, compared to a 50 cents per share profit for the company’s third quarter in the previous year. Deferred revenue and restructuring charges were blamed for the loss.

Before charges, profits for the quarter were up 44 percent over the same period in fiscal 2007. Before exceptions, investors would have enjoyed 90 cents per share profit.

“This was a record revenue quarter for EA and the single biggest revenue quarter for any third party publisher in our industry,” said CEO John Riccitiello. “While we are disappointed that two titles slipped out of the March quarter, Burnout Paradise is off to a terrific start and we are looking forward to the upcoming launches of Army of Two and FIFA Street 3.”

Blimey. World of Warcraft has pushed Vivendi’s income into the real big league, the company announced today, showing 2007 revenues of €1.02 billion for the year, a rise of 26.6 percent.

Blizzard, publisher of the MMO, accounted for most of that figure, accruing sales of €814 million. WoW moved past the 10 million subs level recently, and has added more than 2 million to that figure in the past year.

This is likely the last set of annual financials Vivendi announces before merging with Activision throughout this year.