Fy09
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Sony posts $887 million net profit, PlayStation has strong holiday quarter
Sony had quite a good holiday during its third quarter for fiscal year 2010, posting a ¥137.5 billion (approximately US $1.68b) operating income. Year-over-year, however, it's actually six percent lower than Q3 FY09, with some blame attributable to a five percent stronger yen. Although sales were more or less the same in most divisions (with pictures and music seeing a more noticeable drop), operating income saw dramatic changes. Consumer, Professional and Devices dropped 47 percent to ¥26.8b ($327.3m), while Networked Products and Services (which includes the PlayStation brand) jumped a whopping 134 percent to ¥45.7b ($559.78). Looking at unit sales, Bravia sets were way up (7.9m units versus 5.4m in Q3 FY09), and video cameras, compact digital cameras, and PCs all saw moderate gains. PSP hardware took a pretty big hit, going from 4.2m last holiday to 3.6m this past quarter (the now-profitable PlayStation 3 saw a slight decline, 6.5m to 6.3m). Software-wise, though, both gaming machines saw a bump -- 57.6m (from 47.6m) for PS3 and 16.4m (from 15m) for PSP. The PlayStation 2, now almost 11 years old, actually had about the same 2.1m hardware unit sales YOY, though software took a pretty hard hit (from 11.2m to 5.3m). Sony's golden years console isn't going down without a fight -- then again, it might've been a different story had the company managed to add backwards compatibility to the PS3.
Microsoft sees first annual sales decline in its history for fiscal 2009
Microsoft's fiscal year 2009 just came to a close, and the new milestones for the company aren't too boast worthy. Year-over-year, the company saw a 3.2 percent decline in sales, its first drop in the company's history -- guess that third quarter report was a pretty good indication of things to come. Net profit, too, fell 17 percent to $14.57 billion. Looking at just the fourth quarter, sales fell 17 percent to $13.1 billion, and profits saw a pretty massive 29 percent drop, to $3.05 billion. Attributing to the decline were legal charges and severance claims from laid off employees, a referral of revenue from the Windows 7 Upgrade program, and of course overall drop in PC and server sales across the industry. So far the stock market has acted as you'd expect, and shares have dropped a notable eight percent. Despite all this gloom, let's not forget that the boys in Redmond are still pulling a profit -- and hey, cheer up Steve, you've got one helluva bright light for fiscal 2010.
790K people bought Chrono Trigger DS (and other Square sales figures)
Note: numbers reflect 10k increments Square Enix has released an accounting of its software sales for fiscal year 2009 -- which ended March 31 -- and remakes ruled. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, a refresh of the 1992 Super Famicom installment in the famous role-playing series, sold 1.35 million copies globally -- placing Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a new property, in second place with combined sales of 930,000 teeny-tiny UMDs.Let there be no questioning of Chrono Trigger's lasting appeal: the DS re-release managed to make it into the hands on 790k gamers, many of which were no doubt buying the game for the second or third time since the 16-bit original's 1995 launch.European gamers gobbled up Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII with half a million units sold in the territory, although the region came in third in overall sales for Square Enix. The US actually proved to be its most lucrative market with 1.69 million games sold, versus 1.51M for Japan. Part of the success in the West: The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery, which sold better in the States than anywhere else.[Via Siliconera]
Notes from EA's investor conference call
Following today's news of EA lowering its forecast for fiscal year '09, the mega-publisher held a conference call – mainly for investors – to go into a little more detail as to the why's of the situation and the how's of the solution. Fingers were metaphorically pointed at retailers for shortening their stock of all but the best-selling games, while new properties were praised for faring well with reviewers.EA CEO, John Riccitiello, began the call by pointing out that 17 of the company's '08 titles earned aggregate Metacritic scores above 80, versus only seven the year before. New IPs – specifically Dead Space and Mirror's Edge – were praised, but Riccitiello pointed out during the Q&A portion of the call that these franchises will perform better once established. "Dead Space looks like a long-term big winner for us," he said, later confirming, "[Mirror's Edge] is going to go forward."The EA boss placed substantial emphasis on the impact of major retailers cutting their stock of all but the top five best-selling titles this holiday season. Looking forward, he said to expect the company to produce fewer titles overall next year, with core and casual games seeing equal, indeterminate cuts; sports will be untouched. Riccitiello also confirmed that studio consolidation will play a role in EA's FY10 cost-cutting plans, as will the merging of labels, specifically EA Sims and EA Casual, into one.
Guitar Hero franchise tops the charts for '08 (so far)
As part of today's quarterly financial wrap-up, Activision Blizzard struck a high note with the announcement that the Guitar Hero franchise has topped the NPD Group's software sales chart for the first nine months of 2008. This includes, of course, every permutation of the rhythm game series combined across all console platforms and Nintendo DS, with the exception of the newly released Guitar Hero World Tour.In its report to shareholders, Blizzivision pointed out that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: On Tour, in particular, contributed most to its bottom line for Q2. With World Tour out in Q3 followed by the holiday release of GH: Decades for the DS, we could see a similar chart-topping performance for the franchise come the end of December.
Activision Blizzard loses $108m in Q209, plans to repurchase $1 billion in stock
Publishing powerhouse Activision Blizzard (or "A.B. Atta' Boy" to its friends) has released its fiscal quarter results for the three-month period ending September 30. Overall, the company incurred a $108 million net loss, with a bulk of that (at least $188 million) from costs related to the merger with Vivendi Games. Top games for the quarter were Call of Duty 4, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, GH: On Tour and money gusher World of Warcraft. As part of its September quarter fiscal results, Activision Blizzard has announced that it has "authorized a stock repurchase program under which the company can repurchase up to $1 billion of the company's common stock." The company's stock price has been in decline since September (and has taken a noticeable hit today, too). While the motivations aren't known, it is likely in part to increase the earnings per share. Don't feel too bad for A.B., though. After all, Wrath of the Lich King is just around the corner.
Ubisoft Q2 sales up 37%, thanks to DS
Ubisoft released its Q2 results yesterday for the 2008-09 fiscal year. Sales totaled €175 million (US $220.24 million), beating the previous forecast of €160 (US $201.36 million) and ending up 37% higher than the same quarter last year. The financial report cited the successful launches of Soul Calibur IV in Europe and Hell's Highway, as well as sales of Imagine Teacher, My Secret World and -- Joystiq's favorite -- PlayZone Sports Party.It's worth noting that 39% of Ubisoft's Q2 sales came from the Nintendo DS, up from 23% same time last year. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 each represent 20% of the slice, followed by the Wii at 11% and PSP/PS2 at 2% and 1%, respectively. For Q3 holiday season, Ubisoft is expecting €500 million (US $629.25 million), up 11% from same time last year. It's also raised its forecast for the full fiscal year from €1.02 billion to €1.05billion (US $1.32b).Source [PDF]
THQ: Q109 buoyed by Wall-E, but still sees $27.2m in losses
License-rich publisher THQ reported $27.2 million in net losses for its first Fiscal 2009 quarter, ended June 30. That figure is nearly triple the net losses of Q1 2008, even though sales were $137.6 million this quarter, up from last year's $104.5 million. The little beacon of light for THQ's first quarter was Wall-E, which boasted over a million unit sales. Other notable titles include Big Beach Sports, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and MX vs. ATV Untamed.THQ CEO Brian Farrell pointed to September's de Blob and this holiday's Saint's Row 2 and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, along with a new Red Faction, Darksiders and WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, as sales boosters for the rest of the fiscal year.
Highlights from Activision's FY08 earnings call
Mega-publisher Activision held its Fiscal Year 2008 earnings call yesterday. While you can listen to it yourself, most of the gaming news came from an 8-minute section in over an hour-long conference call. Here are the highlights from the call: Activision enjoyed $2.9 billion in sales last fiscal year No Tony Hawk in 2008 Guitar Hero hits 15 million song downloads Nintendo DS, Guitar Hero on Tour bundles coming this June A 'significant leap' for Guitar Hero due this holiday for consoles and DS Call of Duty 5 in 'new military theater', returns series to PS2 and Wii Bizarre Creations's new racing IP due FY09 New Bond game Quantum of Solace runs on COD4 engine, launching with movie Check out Activision's Family Album to learn more about the company's internal studios.
