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Neverwinter releasing Q4 2012, opens French and German websites
Neverwinter was the unexpected surprise of PAX East for us, which is why we're psyched that it should be in all our hot little hands by the end of the year. Perfect World announced that its upcoming Dungeons and Dragons MMO will launch globally in the fourth quarter of 2012. As part of the global efforts, Perfect World has opened up French and German websites to cater to the diverse European playerbase. Each localized website is just as informative and media-packed as its English counterpart. Cryptic Lead Producer Andy Velasquez is quite excited to be working on the project and anticipates players' delight when the game finally arrives: "As a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, it's a rewarding experience to develop Neverwinter and contribute to the lore of the franchise. We're taking calculated steps to ensure Neverwinter will captivate players with its immersive storylines and beautiful artwork while being a fast and fluid action game." [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release]
MetroPCS Q4 results are in: increased revenue, slowing growth
The nation's fifth largest wireless provider -- MetroPCS -- has checked in with its Q4 2011 financials, and on the whole, the company looks to be doing quite well. Metro reported $1.2 billion in consolidated quarterly revenues and $362 million in earnings, an increase of 16% and 15% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. A few other positive vitals: average revenue per user (ARPU) was up $0.76, net income rose to $77 million and churn dropped 80 basis points from 4.5% in Q3 to 3.7% in Q4. Two small blemishes can be found in the net customer additions and cost per user (CPU) columns. While MetroPCS added well over 197,000 new customers in Q4, the rate at which it grew slowed dramatically -- down 34% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. The company's CPU also rose $1.17 during that same period -- which can be partially attributed to LTE network services, along with general expansion and operating costs. One other mildly unfortunate note was word that voice over LTE wouldn't be launching till the second half of the year, slightly later than we had been anticipating. Taking all that into consideration, it was still a strong quarterly showing from the value-centered wireless carrier.
Google's Q4 2011 results: $2.71 billion profit, $8.13 billion in revenue, Wall Street disappointed
Google just released its fourth-quarter 2011 results, and man, Wall Street is not pleased. The company reported $2.71 billion in profit (up from $2.54 a year earlier), net revenue of $8.13 billion and earnings of $9.50 per share, excluding some one-time charges. That's less than the $10.49 per share and $8.40 billion financial analysts were expecting and, as Reuters notes, it's the first time in nine quarters that Google hasn't beaten revenue estimates. Of course, the company spun its results the best it could, emphasizing that its gross revenue jumped 25 percent to $10.58 billion, making this the first time the company's raw sales exceeded $10 billion in any given quarter. Of course, that figure doesn't reflect the myriad costs associated with boosting web traffic, and investors are more concerned with that $8.13 billion in net revenue. Needless to say, Wall Street is none too impressed -- as of this writing, the company's stock was down almost nine percent in after-hours trading.That's not to say Google is struggling. The outfit actually logged a sharp increase in clicks on its search ads, but said the fee it receives from those ads was down eight percent from both the previous quarter as well as the fourth quarter of 2010. Plus, by all metrics, Android is still on quite the tear. In a conference call with investors, the company said there are now 250 million Android devices, up 50 million from the last quarter. Some more tidbits: 7000,000 devices are being activated per day and more than 11 billion items have been downloaded from Android Market (it hit the 10-billion mark last month). Finally, Google+ now has 90 million worldwide users, more than double the figure from three months earlier. Need a deeper dive on the numbers? We've got the full financial results at the source link, with the summary earnings release below.
Apple releases Q4 results: $20.34B revenue, $4.31B profits
Top line: hell of a beat. Apple today reports earnings of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 a share, in the fiscal fourth quarter, versus $1.82 a share in the year-ago quarter. Street guess was $4.08 a share on sales of $18.90 billion, according to Thomson Reuters, so like I said: hell of a beat. 3.89 million Macs were sold during the quarter (not 4M, but close, very close). 14.1m iPhones (almost 2x the previous year's number) and 4.19m iPads also sold in Q4. Looking ahead, Peter Oppenheimer forecasts $23B in revenue and $4.80 per share earnings in the holiday quarter. Given the degree to which this quarter beat the predictions... whoa. Join us at 5pm ET for the liveblog of the analysts' results call. Disclaimer: I am a happy holder of a small amount of AAPL.
Intel profits recover to $2.3 billion in Q4 2009, company describes it as 875 percent jump
Yo Intel, when your 2008 fourth quarter was one of the worst you ever recorded, it's slightly, just slightly, facetious to go trumpeting an 875 percent improvement in your 2009 fortunes. The self-appointed chipmaking rock star has clocked up $10.6 billion in revenues for the last quarter, which filters down to $2.3 billion in pure, unadulterated, mother-loving profit. That's good and indeed technically nearly nine times what the company achieved in the same period the previous year -- we'd just appreciate this to be represented as the recovery it is, rather than some major leap forward in the face of a global financial meltdown. Either way, the Santa Clara checkbook is now well and truly balanced, even if it would've looked fatter still but for the small matter of a $1.25 billion settlement reflected in last quarter's results.
Blizzard: Wrath will be out in Q4 2008
In an uncharacteristic display of candor, Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime confirmed during a conference call that the much-anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion will be released between October to December of this year. Shacknews quotes Morhaime saying, "we have said that it will be coming out this year," referring to earlier speculation stemming from a Vivendi press release. "I can tell you it's not coming in the July to September quarter," Morhaime states, and mentions that Beta testing "is going very well".The confirmation of any release date is uncommon practice for Blizzard, whose common response to such questions is "when it's ready." Apparently, Blizzard is confident that Wrath of the Lich King will be ready within the year. From the polish that can be seen in the current Beta, this doesn't seem far from the truth. In the same conference call, Morhaime also discussed competing MMOs, the status of ongoing development (that is to say, very little information), and how World of Warcraft has been refined as a game over the past four years.
Verizon reports strong Q4 '07 earnings, champagne importers now short on stock
Here's hoping you own some Verizon stock, readers. According to the company's Q4 '07 earnings call which took place this morning, the massive telco finished out the year on an up note, with a sizable boost in subscribers, and consequently, profit. The company saw a net income boost of 3.9-percent ($1.07 billion, or $.37 a share) year-over-year, and a rise in revenue at 5.5-percent to $23.84 billion, including a 13.3-percent gain (or about 2 million new customers) in wireless sales. Analysts expectations were right on mark with the company's earnings, at $.62 a share, and the company saw growth in both its aforementioned wireless division, as well as big jumps in FiOS users. That's right kids, the rich do get richer.
Analyst: The9 did very well last quarter
Chinese company The9 (which is the licensee for World of Warcraft in China) saw their stock rise after an analyst posted higher-than-expected estimates of their fourth-quarter profits. In short, more people are playing WoW in China than ever before. Which isn't surprising at all, given that right before the fourth quarter started, The9 released Burning Crusade over there. And we all know what kind of effect that had on the game on this side of the world.However, there may still be dark clouds on the horizon for The9. As you probably know, Blizzard recently merged (along with its parent company, Vivendi) with Activision. And Activision is a competitor with EA... which owns a 15 percent stake in The9. So while The9 currently licenses WoW from Blizzard to sell and service in China, that relationship may be short-lived. And you can bet that will have an effect on the stock, if and when that deal ends.But for now, The9 is going gangbusters, and Chinese players are enjoying Outland as much as we did last summer.
Nintendo continues to crush speculative dreams
Nintendo as a company is traditionally tight-lipped when it comes to critical information. Frequently, as they are now, Nintendo fans are left in months-long droughts of any meaningful news. It's painful. It hurts. So what do they do? They speculate. Each has starry-eyed visions of launch day in excrutiating detail: available games, pricing, date, location, what they're going to wear...well, we do, anyway. Nintendo, however, will have none of it! Earlier, they (partially) debunked a CNN story that predicted an earlier than expected launch window, sticking to their ever-stubborn "Fourth Quarter" guns. And now? They shoot down our other possible launch date, stating that the Sports Illustrated for Kids article was purely theoretical. When then, can we expect it? Oh. Fourth quarter. Okay, we saw it coming, but still. Why not let us have our fun? It appears that Iwata and the gang are dead-set on being the only information providers out there...and we're going to have to wait till September to hear it.
