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Sony formally quits Sharp LCD joint venture, takes back every yen it invested
After Sony cut off its supply of capital to the ill-fated Sakai production plant that it jointly owns with Sharp, it became clear that the final goodbye may be little more than a formality. And here it is, in the form of a cold, resolute press release stating that Sony is selling its seven percent stake back to Sharp and taking back the 10 billion yen ($126 million) it originally invested. The only reason given is the "rapidly changing market for LCD panels and LCD televisions," which is a polite reference to the fact that profits from big TVs are well below what these companies predicted back in the heady days of 2008 and early 2009, when the impact of the global economic crisis loomed without yet being fully apparent. Fortunately for Sony, which is in the delicate stages of reform, the solid pre-nuptial agreement it had in place with Sharp should protect the company from having to revise its financial forecasts for the coming year -- not that those were particularly great in the first place.
Ragnarok Online cares and wants to give you free play time for being laid off
Now that's some title, isn't it? Yet, the title doesn't lie -- Gravity Interactive does care and they do want to give their subscribers who have been laid off some free play time.If you were a subscriber on Ragnarok Online International as of June 1st and you've lost your job on or after June 1st, then you're eligible for the new "Gravity Cares" program. All you need to do is simply fill out a short form to prove that you've lost your job and then send it over to Gravity via regular mail. Once they approve the form, you'll get a free three month subscription to Ragnarok Online so you can keep playing without having to worry so much about paying while you get back on your feet.The program is certainly a nice gesture to those who have been hit by the troubled economy, and a unique offering in the MMO world. If you're eligible, go take advantage of it so you can keep playing with your friends.
The Daily Grind: Do you play the MMO stock market?
Ahhh, the stock market: The yo-yo that makes people jump for joy or jump off twenty-story buildings. Playing it can be just as exhilarating, frightening, and expensive as a high-octane weekend bender in Free Realms. Well, almost... With the quote-unquote Global Economic Crisis we've been going through, almost all stocks are down from a year ago. Does that mean that now is a good time to invest? It probably depends on whether or not you believe the market has hit the bottom yet.Word on the street is that the video game industry is recession-proof (or not). When you're pinching pennies, MMOs in particular are one of the cheapest forms of entertainment and escapism money can buy. We're not here to offer advice one way or the other, but we are curious -- do you play the MMO stock market? We did a bit of digging and found a number of stocks from companies producing MMOs: Activision Blizzard (ATVI) - World of Warcraft, new secret project Atari (FR:ATA) - Champions Online, Star Trek Online, etc. Electronic Arts (ERTS) - Warhammer Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, etc. Funcom (NO:FUNCOM) - Age of Conan, The Secret World, etc. NCsoft (OTC:NCSCF) - Guild Wars, Aion, etc. Sony Corporation (SNE) - Free Realms, DC Universe Online, etc. THQ Inc. (THQI) - Dragonica Online, Warhammer 40k, etc. Based on that list, who do you think is the best investment and why?
CCP staff offered the option of being paid foreign currency during economic crisis
During our troubled economic times, one sometimes forgets that currency is in a constant state of fluctuation. When times get really harsh, the value of the currency can wildly go back and forth between numbers, creating a sense of unease as people don't know what their currency is worth.CCP Games, however, took up a new approach to paying their employees when the Icelandic Krona was volatile earlier this year -- paying their employees in foreign currency.Employees were offered the option to accept paychecks in foreign currency, if they so wished, to provide employees with a stable income from a stable currency rather than receiving checks with the Krona. The move was easy on CCP's part, as the company is located in China, Iceland, and the United States and makes most of their revenue in foreign currency anyway.
Massively interviews EVE's Lead Economist part 2
The starbase exploit has been some big news lately. How does it impact your ability to assess the state of EVE's economy, and are there assumptions you've made in the past that you need to reassess now?It's a good thing that you mentioned the starbase exploit because we are in the final stages of creating a very thorough dev blog on that, which will hopefully be published very soon. [Note: this interview was conducted just prior to the release of the investigation's findings.]There are certain things with the POS exploit that made it very difficult to detect. You basically needed to be able to go to that particular starbase and look at it, look at the setup and so on. It was difficult for us to detect it otherwise, except from the code once we knew what we were looking for.From a market perspective the EVE economy has become so big that in order for you to impact the market you will really have to have large quantities. And as will be shown in this dev blog that will be published, the scale of the exploit really didn't start until late 2008... to the large industrial scale so that it started to impact the market.
Microsoft denies 'major layoffs' report [Update]
Update: Fudzilla has now backtracked on its original story now claiming cuts could come from agency staff, as in contractors. Microsoft has denied massive layoffs are in its future.Original: These are tough economic times not just for the little guys like us but for major corporations. Corporations like Microsoft. Fudzilla is reporting that long-standing rumors of Microsoft job cuts have been confirmed. Microsoft, who employs 90,000 workers worldwide, will make substantial cuts to its workforce. Microsoft plans are to cut 15,000 jobs, which equals about 17% of all employees come January 15, 2009. Microsoft's Q2 earnings report is due on January 22, 2009, adding more weight to the expected layoffs date. According to the article, rumblings point to most cuts aimed at the MSN division with potentially larger cuts to Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Not expected to see cuts are departments and regions that are doing well. Considering console sales are on the upswing, Fudzilla theorizes Xbox employees are safe. But for how long?
Economic crisis may force CCP Games to leave Iceland
The global financial crisis is hitting many companies and individuals very hard. This is especially prevalent in Iceland, home of CCP Games -- the developers of the sci-fi massively multiplayer online game EVE Online. The collapse of Iceland's banking system and currency has been devastating to the nation. "Icelanders are reeling from the shock of having everything they knew virtually disappear overnight," Valur Gunnarsson reports from Reykjavik for The Guardian.Despite these economic woes, Hilmar V. Pétursson, the CEO of CCP Games, gave assurances all is well with the company back in October. He's stated that CCP is "well isolated" from the banking crisis, that their holdings and assets were diversified enough (due to partner relationships in different parts of the world) to stave off the ruin that many other Icelandic companies are facing. But there's a potential downside to that diversification: restrictions on access to foreign currencies have gone into effect in Iceland. Specifically -- as it relates to CCP Games -- on foreign investment coming into the country. Are these restrictions enough of a hassle that CCP Games would ever need to leave Iceland?
Reeves: no personnel or development cutbacks due to recession
In an interview with Dutch economics program RTL Z, Sony Europe president David Reeves speaks about the economic crisis and how it relates to the video game industry in Europe. Reeves is quick to state that the industry is not recession proof, but that there is no visible slowdown. He postulates that consumers are putting the recession to the back of their minds over Christmas, or that they are choosing to stay at home more and, as a result, are spending money on home-based entertainments, such as video games.Reeves also states that within Sony Computer Entertainment Europe there will be no personnel or development cutbacks. "We don't have many personnel to cut back. Half our personnel are in the development of the games. That's an investment. We're not scaling down at all." Good news for first party developers; it looks like their jobs (and the games they are developing) are relatively safe.Reeves goes on to say that while the Christmas period is showing no visible evidence of the recession, he expects sales to dip once the new year begins. At which point promotions will be introduced on software, either via Sony or via retailers themselves. Will this spread to a hardware price cut sometime next year? Let's hope so. As far as future development goes, Reeves sees more in software than hardware. Not necessarily games, but also user interfaces, PlayStation Network enhancements, Home, etc. Check out the full interview for plenty more interesting views from the SCEE chairman.[Thanks NewDust]
Sony cuts 8000 jobs, SCE division under review
We won't insult your intelligence by telling you that the current global economic climate is a bit cloudy and that companies are closing and making cutbacks left, right and center. Actually, we just did, but we did it in a way that suggests that you already know it. We have faith in our readers. Sony's the latest big company to announce cutbacks, with 8000 people losing their jobs in their electronics division. At the moment, this has no effect on the Sony Computer Entertainment division, which is separate from Sony's electronics division. Though SCE has told GameIndustry.biz that the division is, along with the rest of the company, under review. With analysts saying that these 8000 jobs won't be enough, there's a chance that more cutbacks could be made as part of this corporate review, which has the potential to affect SCE and the PlayStation brand. We'll be keeping our eyes open for any developments.
Miyamoto talks to Channel 4 about gaming and the current financial crisis
If you were to tell us that Shigeru Miyamoto could see into the future and fire rainbows from his fingertips, we'd totally believe you. We just love the guy so much that we believe he's not even human and some kind of freakish evolutionary leap for our species, as his mind churns out these amazing things on a regular basis. So, it's no wonder that Channel 4 in the UK interviewed him out of all of the prominent figures in gaming about the current financial woes and if they'll have an impact on gaming. He plugs Wii Music a bit, but, for the most part, tells us how Nintendo has and always will make gaming affordable.%Gallery-27713%[Via CVG]
Blizzard: World of Warcraft will do fine, global economic collapse be damned
Alright, so the sky is falling. Pretty soon, the world will be dominated by mohawks, black leather and hand-built muscle cars in a never-ending deathmatch over who gets to eat the roadkill. Okay, maybe it won't be that bad -- but unless you've been stranded on a desert island for the past year, you know that there's a global economic crisis going on. But worry not: MMOs -- World of Warcraft in particular -- will be just fine, according to Blizzard Executive VP Rob Pardo.He said that WoW is immune to economic downturn because it offers an excellent bargain: "People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you're staying at home more." A comparable situation from history: during the Great Depression, movies in the United States were only a nickel -- far cheaper than competing, live forms of entertainment, so the movie industry thrived. In fact, some folks credit the Great Depression as a contributor to the rise of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Think the same'll happen to MMOs if this gets bad?
