Q3-2013
Latest
GameStop: One third of PS Plus subscriptions sold came from PS4 launch week
One third of all PlayStation Plus subscriptions sold by GameStop in its lifetime came in the week of the PlayStation 4's launch, GameStop President Tony Bartel revealed during the retailer's third quarter earnings call. GameStop reported an 8.6 percent increase in its digital sales for the quarter, contributing to its overall 18.8 percent sales increase. Likewise, the retailer sold through its reservations and some additional allocated PS4 units during the week. Bartel said that "when you look at all of the PlayStation Plus subscriptions that we've sold in our lifetime as a company, we've been selling them for years, a full one-third of all subscriptions we've sold in our lifetime were sold in the last seven days at GameStop." The retailer began selling PSN content in its stores in November 2010, when it started offering PS Plus subscriptions and download codes for games and add-on content. GameStop pointed out during the investor call that the PlayStation Network is a big part of Sony's future, and the company plans to continue being a part of that. "We're working very closely with Sony to make sure that we partner with them and we're giving them the consumer feedback and working closely to make sure we have a great product there," Bartel said. It's unknown how much of an impact Sony's launch day deal had on subscription sales for GameStop for the week, in which players that purchased a year subscription to PlayStation Plus received $10 in PSN store credit. The deal was good through Best Buy and Newegg as well.
GameStop sells through PS4 allocation, 2.3 million people on 'first to know' list [Update]
GameStop has sold through all of its PS4 reservations and some additional allocated consoles it received from Sony, the retailer announced during its third quarter earnings call. GameStop President Tony Bartel added that the company has "over 2.3 million customers on the 'first to know' list, which indicates continued demand for months to come" for Sony's console. "Although we won't reveal the total amount of units for competitive reasons, our share was higher than on any previous console launch, and our sell-through since launch was 80 percent higher than the total amount of PS3s that we sold in our 2006 fiscal year," Bartel said. Bartel corroborated Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton's recent projection that the PS4 would sell 3 million units in North America by the end of the year, noting that GameStop expects "to sell a large portion of that." In regards to projections for Xbox One sales, which launched today, Bartel said "the value of our reservations and the additional allocation is 15 percent higher than the amount of Xbox 360s that we sold during our entire 2005 fiscal year. So we are poised for a powerful launch." Update: As a clarification, GameStop has informed Joystiq that the 2.3 million people on its 'first to know' list is for PS4 and Xbox One customers combined, not just the former.
NCsoft takes a financial hit in Q3 2013
NCsoft's latest financial earnings report shows that the publisher took a substantial hit in the third quarter of this year. Sales, operating profit, pre-tax income, and net income were all down from both the previous quarter and Q3 2012. NCsoft blamed the dip due on a shuffling of Lineage's in-game sales from third to fourth quarter. Guild Wars 2 once again dropped in sales, while Blade and Soul came out the best in the report, seeing an uptick in sales thanks to a recent content update. Higher expenses were also to blame for NCsoft's lower profit margin, including an increased WildStar marketing campaign and relocating headquarters. Quarter-over-quarter, sales were down across most of NCsoft's subsidiaries save for NCsoft Taiwan and Ntreev Soft, which both saw a bump in sales. [Thanks to Sharvis for the tip! And note, the unit on the Y axes is million South Korean won, not US dollars.]
Activision does better than expected in Q3, $691 million in net revenue
Activision earned $691 million in net revenue in Q3 2013, down from $841 million in last year's quarter but above expectations of $635 million, the company reported today. Activision attributes its net revenue to sales of Skylanders: Giants and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. World of Warcraft is still the No. 1 MMO in the world, now with 7.6 million subscribers, down 100,000 from Q2. Activision now has a debt of $4.75 billion, following the buyout of its own stock from former parent company Vivendi. That deal, worth $8.2 billion, was expected to be completed within Q3, which ends on September 30, but it was held up in court and instead closed on October 11. Activision notes that it borrowed $2.5 billion in a seven-year secured term loan on October 11 and spent $5.83 billion in cash buying itself back. Activision launched Call of Duty: Ghosts this week and today reported sales to retailers of $1 billion.
T-Mobile's UnCarrier plans help to attract a million more customers
It looks like T-Mo's efforts to stand out from the carrier crowd are continuing to have an impact. The US operator claims it attracted a million new customers in Q3, following the 1.1 million people who joined its network over the summer. The company attributes this success largely to its UnCarrier plans, including Simple Choice and Jump, which it says are starting to "resonate" with consumers. Then again, rivals AT&T and Verizon have reported similar lifts in popularity last quarter, so one could also argue that T-Mobile is just keeping pace with the rest of the pack -- with the notable exception of Sprint, whose subscriber base is shrinking.
Sprint's iPhone gamble still isn't paying off as it loses 360,000 customers in a quarter
Sprint has managed to shrink its operating losses to $398 million for Q3 23013 compared to $1.6 billion last quarter on a record $8.7 billion in revenue. However, despite now having 230 US LTE markets as of yesterday including Queens and Manhattan, the operator managed to lose 360,000 all-important postpaid subscribers. In exchange, it only picked up 84 thousand prepaid and 181 thousand wholesale customers. On a positive note, Sprint said it sold 1.4 million iPhones during the quarter, including about 550,000 to new customers as part of its all-in bet on the handsets. It added that 92 percent of its new postpaid customers purchased higher-margin smartphones. Those stats helped boost its total revenue per postpaid customer to a new high -- now it just needs to think about how to retain them.
Nokia sells 8.8 million Lumias in Q3 as US demand skyrockets
Nokia has just released its interim report for Q3 2013 and, although its overall financial situation is still a bit muddy, it's clear the company is starting to see real success in the US. Thanks to a burgeoning range of Lumia devices and a big marketing push to go with them, the Finnish manufacturer saw smartphone sales in North America increase by almost 400 percent to 1.4 million units, up from just 0.3 million in the same quarter last year. This growth, alongside worldwide popularity of the budget Lumia 520, helped to push global Lumia sales up by almost a fifth, reaching 8.8 million units in the space of three months. Nokia didn't fare so well in other regions, however, where overall device and service sales continued to fall, reflecting droopy demand for its older product lines. This caused a steep 22 percent drop in total revenue compared to last year, although the company still managed to scrape an operating profit of 118 million euros. Overall, it's clear that Lumia sales aren't yet sufficient to balance out problems in other areas, but they certainly seem to be enough to keep the company relevant until it can step under Microsoft's umbrella next year.
Intel posts Q3 earnings, sees modest growth in a tough PC market
Intel has faced a tough quarter or two as of late, but it's seeing a bit of sunshine today. The chip maker just posted third quarter earnings that largely match happier results from a year ago, generating $3 billion in net profit based on revenue of $13.5 billion. The performance is also a noticeable improvement over the second quarter, with revenue and profit respectively growing by five and 48 percent. There are problems when you break down the earnings by division, however. While Intel's Data Center Group is thriving with a 12.2 percent year-to-year revenue increase, its core PC Client and Other Intel architecture groups both saw annual drops of 3.5 percent and 9.3 percent. Haswell processors have provided only limited help to a computer market that's still struggling, Intel says. The short-term future isn't going to be much brighter, for that matter -- the crew in Santa Clara predicts just a slight increase in revenue for the next quarter, to $13.7 billion. It's a good thing that Intel is exploring new technology, then.
Disney Interactive loses $58 million in Q3
Disney Interactive reported an operating income loss of $58 million in Q3 2013, 38 percent greater than the loss in 2012's third quarter (operating income measures money brought in after costs, but before taxes). Disney's video game arm brought in revenue of $183 million this quarter, down 7 percent from last year. At least Disney Interactive is consistent. Disney attributed the losses to the lack of new consoles on the market and a decrease in its social games sector following an acquisition in Q3 2012. The decreases were offset by growth at Disney's Japan mobile business, the company said. The financial report doesn't mention April's closure of LucasArts or its imminent Disney Infinity series, which takes a page out of Activision's Skylanders playbook.
Nook leads decline as Barnes & Noble Q3 2013 revenue down 8.8 percent to $2.2 billion
Currently the subject of many a rumor, Barnes & Noble just announced its quarterly results for Q3 2013 (its current fiscal quarter), showing what many expected: revenue is down almost 9 percent over last year to $2.2 billion, with gross earnings showing a precipitous 63 percent decline to $55.5 million. Despite well regarded (and priced) tablets, Nook business took one of the biggest hits, taking in only $316 million compared to $427 million over last year, a decline of nearly 26 percent. The company recently denied innuendo that it might be stepping away from Nook hardware altogether, but said in today's statement that it'll be "calibrating its business model" to look at reducing costs in the segment. However, with other expenses considered, the company has dropped $47 million so far this year, compared to a loss of only $11 million at the same time last year -- a trend which the Amazon competitor will need to put the brakes on, one way or the other.
EA posts $45 million net loss in Q3, reduces revenue forecast
Electronic Arts announced a net loss of $45 million for its third fiscal quarter, ending December 31, 2012. The figure represents a significant year-on-year improvement from the company's previous Q3 net loss of $205 million. However, net revenue for the quarter endured year-on-year decline, down from $1.061 million to $921 million.In light of the economy's weakness, EA adjusted fiscal year net revenue forecasts to between $3.7 billion and $3.8 billion, down from the figures of $3.85 billion to $4 billion as per the company's Q2 financials. Speaking to Reuters, EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen noted the company's uncertainty over the market in the next few months."The economy hasn't gotten any stronger," Jorgensen said. "It's a little early for me to know how strong the market's going to be, so based on that we widened our range for revenue for the fourth quarter and brought our guidance down slightly just to make sure we're prudent."Yesterday's financial call revealed continuing successes for many of EA's headline franchises, such as FIFA, Battlefield, Dead Space and Crysis. However, following the poor reception to Warfighter, the company said it's taking Medal of Honor "out of rotation."
FIFA 13 sold 12 million in 2012, revenue up from FIFA 12
FIFA 13 sold through 12 million units through the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2012, an increase of 23 percent over FIFA 12's sales the previous year. In adjusted, non-GAAP sales, FIFA 13's digital net revenue hit $100 million in Q3, a 98 percent increase over FIFA 12 in Q3 2012.Throughout the first three quarters of 2013, FIFA generated more than $230 million in digital net revenue, including more than $60 million from FIFA Online 2 and FIFA World Class Soccer.
Logitech to phase out production of console gaming accessories
The third quarter of fiscal 2013 wasn't especially awesome for Logitech, despite the fact that I personally spent 30 of my own dollars on a wireless keyboard within that time frame. Whereas the same period last year saw a net profit of $55 million, Logitech posted a net loss of $194.9 million in its most recent earnings report.As a result, some of Logitech's divisions will be scaled back, while others will be discontinued altogether. "We have initiated the process to divest our remote controls and digital video security categories, and we plan to discontinue other non-strategic products, such as speaker docks and console gaming peripherals," said Logitech president/CEO Bracken P. Darrell.While Logitech's console peripheral business will disappear, the company's PC gaming offerings will remain unchanged. We've also been able to confirm that Logitech console accessories that have already been purchased will continue to exist, and will not crumble into piles of dust. These cost reduction measures are expected to take place "by the end of Calendar Year 2013."
