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Storyboard: Only mostly dead
Dead is dead. I can't stand when comics endlessly bring back dead characters, I can't stand when shows bring back dead villains, and I can't stand when death is treated less like the final note and more like a brief inconvenience. If you want someone to come back from the dead, don't kill the character in the first place! Death needs to be permanent to have any impact. So this week's article is all about ignoring that and bringing characters back from the dead anyhow because the only reason to have rules is to know when to occasionally break them. Roleplaying deaths are already rare, of course. I can count how many characters I've actually killed on one hand, and that's stretching back to roleplaying in Final Fantasy XI (abortively). But sometimes you decide that you want someone alive after all. And when it's done carefully, you can actually make the revival interesting again because you're not doing it for shock value so much as making a point.
HTC's Q3 earnings show its first net loss for a quarter
HTC's issues appear to have worsened, as the company announced its first-ever net loss for a quarter in Q3. According to the statement, it's notched a net loss of $101.2 million (NT$2.97 billion) on revenue of $1.6 billion. As we noted last quarter, a shrinking profit put the load on the new HTC One Mini, which has faced shortages, reportedly due to problems producing casings for the device. Of course, other bad news of late has included layoffs, investigations over stolen trade secrets and rumors the company will be sold. Adding insult to injury, while the folks at Samsung haven't released a detailed report yet, they're expecting yet another massive profit for the past quarter.
BlackBerry loses a billion dollars in three months, blames it on failed Z10
BlackBerry has just reported a $935 million hit in Q2 due entirely to what it's calling a "Z10 Inventory Charge" -- in other words, a loss associated with creating a stock of flagship handsets that subsequently failed to sell. Echoing Microsoft's catastrophic write-down due to unsold Surface RT inventory, this single loss was enough to wipe out much of the company's quarterly revenue of $1.6 billion. When added to a further loss due to corporate restructuring, it resulted in a final GAAP loss for BlackBerry of $965 million. It's hard to gauge exactly how many of the newer BB 10 handsets (namely the Z10 and Q10) sold during the quarter, but BlackBerry admits that "most" of the 3.7 million units that reached end users were older BlackBerry 7 devices, so the figures can't be pretty. For his part, Thorsten Heins says he's "very disappointed" with the results, but he claims the company saw growth in enterprise server (BES 10) customers and he insists there's still a future in that side of the business -- a future that could soon belong to someone else.
Ship destroyed in EVE Online worth approximately $8,000
It's really hard to get your hands on a Revenant Supercarrier in EVE Online. Darn near impossible, in fact. The ship is worth around 300 billion ISK, coming out to about $8,000 in real currency. The ship is so potent that up until last night, there were thought to be no more than three in the entire game. As of last night, there were two. One of the Revenants was destroyed in a battle between Habitual Euthanasia and Black Legion. Habitual Euthanasia apparently responded to a call for help, fielding the carrier against Black Legion, leading to its destruction. Speculation about whether this was a trap to destroy something valuable or simply a lucky break for the opposing side is being flung around with no conclusive answers. The video recording the destruction is embedded after the cut, although it's zoomed out enough that you cannot enjoy a slow-motion replay of one of the rarest ships in EVE Online going up in flames like a cheap firecracker.
Some Assembly Required: On MMOs and loss aversion
I've been reading a book called Scorecasting lately. It's basically an academic exercise in statistics and human behavioral analysis as it relates to the decisions made in both individual and team sports. One of the chapters touches on a theory called loss aversion, which is a psychological phenomenon first attributed to Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The theory is generally understood to mean that humans fear potential losses much more than they enjoy actual gains, and thus they often act in statistically irrational fashion to avoid said losses. We can also see principles of loss aversion at work in MMOs. In fact, I'd go so far as to posit that loss aversion is a large, if indirect, reason why many people play MMOs in the first place. It's also a major reason why sandboxes, virtual worlds, and games that feature some sort of tangible risk/reward mechanic have been in such dire straits since MMOs went mainstream. Follow me past the cut and see if you agree.
Square Enix president Wada to step down, $106M 'restructuring' loss [update]
Yoichi Wada is leaving his post as Square Enix president and representative director, Square Enix announced this morning. Wada, who became the company's president and CEO in December 2000, is to be replaced by former company director and CFO Yosuke Matsuda. According to Square Enix's announcement, the change is "subject to a resolution" at the company's annual shareholders meeting in June, and a board of directors meeting held afterwards.The news coincides with Square Enix announcing further major revisions to its fiscal year forecasts, which the company attributes to its decision to implement major restructuring in the wake of "the rapidly changing environment of the game businesses." Square Enix expects the changes, which it noted as affecting development policy, organizational structure, and business models, to incur a total "extraordinary" loss of ¥10 billion, or around $106 million.However, Square Enix says the primary reason for the company's lower-than-expected results is the "sluggish" sales performance of its major games in western territories. When Square Enix announced its nine-month fiscal year net loss of just over ¥5 billion, the company said then it hadn't recovered the losses from earlier in the year because of "the increasingly difficult condition of the worldwide console game market."Today's forecast revisions show a dramatic turnaround for the company's yearly financials. For the fiscal year ending March 31, Square Enix is projecting now a net loss of ¥13 billion, or around $138 million, compared to initial forecasts of a net profit of ¥3.5 billion, around $37 million. The previous fiscal year, Square Enix posted a net profit of just over ¥6 billion.Update: GamesBeat is reporting Square Enix sold a number of its free-to-play games to privately funded start-up Sleepy Giant, with sources "familiar with the matter" saying four unannounced games were included in the deal. Neither party has announced the deal, with a Square Enix representative telling GamesBeat it doesn't "comment on any details for external development deals."
NCsoft offices undergoing 'realignment'
The hits just keep on coming for NCsoft. In the wake of City of Heroes' closure, the publisher's Seattle offices are apparently undergoing "realignment." The company has denied that the Seattle office is closing but has noted that several positions in the office have been terminated as a result of recent events. No details were released regarding how many people have been let go or how this will affect titles under NCsoft's aegis. NCsoft made a similar round of layoffs last year in October, with several offices hit with large staff reductions. This round comes in the wake of continued losses for the company, including a 12% reduction in revenue in 2011, major losses already posted from earlier in 2012, and a stock price that is currently half of what it was earlier in the year. Our best wishes go out to all those affected by these layoffs.
Nintendo Wii U to be sold at a loss, 3DS starts to turn a profit
Mario's alma mater may be looking at its next big console to bolster its stumbling net income, but it won't be raising its bottom line on hardware alone: Nintendo says the Wii U is going to be sold at a loss. While this is par for the course for most game consoles, loss leader products are somewhat of a new trend for Nintendo, which only started selling hardware at a loss recently. On the upside, company CEO Satoru Iwata says the 3DS is back in the black, finally selling for a tidy (though unspecified) profit after dropping its price late last year. Nintendo expects business to pick up down the road, but says circumstances will keep it from attaining "Nintendo-like" profits in this fiscal year.
Sprint sells 1.5 million iPhones, 1 million other smartphones, but makes a net loss of $767 million
Sprint's latest financials show that while the network is slowly stemming the flow of cash from its veins, it's not quite there in terms of turning a profit. The country's third biggest carrier suffered a $767 million net loss and an operating loss of $231 million -- much less than the $629 million operating loss it had in Q2, but on-par with the $208 million lost in the same period last year. The business did manage to bring in total revenues of $8.8 billion, but had to take a hit on a $397 million write-down on costs related to Network Vision and the continued pain of the Nextel shutdown. On the customer size, it added a further 900,000 users, sold 1.5 million iPhones and a further 1 million "LTE smartphones" in the quarter. Those with long memories will know that the company sold the same number of Apple handsets in the last two quarters, with around 40 percent going to new customers then as now. However, churn, the deadly enemy of all carriers, increased to 1.88 percent, up from 1.69 percent in Q2. The network did manage to coax 59 percent of former Nextel customers to stay tied up with Big Yellow, which may account for it selling nearly 1.2 million Direct Connect devices. While it's hardly a rosy estimation of Sprint's financial health, this report doesn't take into account Softbank's $20.1 billion buy-out or the regained controlling stake in Clearwire -- so we're expecting the next financial announcement to contain some more exciting news. Update: During the conference call, Dan Hesse was asked about adopting a shared data plan to rival Verizon and AT&T, but unlike the last call, he was dismissive of the idea.
Wii U will sell at a loss from launch
The Wii U will sell at a loss when it launches, Nintendo revealed today. In an investor briefing, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata disclosed the console's price is "below cost," citing it as one of the reasons for the company's reduced annual net profit outlook announced yesterday. The 3DS, however, is now no longer selling at a loss, a turnaround Nintendo predicted earlier this year.Iwata's statement reads: "In addition to the yen's continuous appreciation, the Wii U hardware will have a negative impact on Nintendo's profits early after the launch because rather than determining a price based on its manufacturing cost, we selected one that consumers would consider to be reasonable. In this first half of the term before the launch of the Wii U, we were not able to make a profit on software for the system while we had to book a loss on the hardware, which is currently in production and will be sold below cost. Our loss has therefore widened during the second quarter in spite of bringing the Nintendo 3DS hardware back to profitability. Although we expect our financial performance to be revitalized, under these circumstances, unfortunately we cannot say that we will achieve "Nintendo-like" profits within this fiscal year."Nintendo revealed yesterday a loss of approximately $351 million for the first half of its fiscal year, along with predicted annual net profits of $75.2 million, down from $251 million. However, Nintendo expects to sell 24 million units of Wii U software worldwide by the end of March 2013, on the back of the 5.5 million consoles the company predicts it'll shift in that time. Iwata also noted GameStop has taken 250,000 Wii U pre-orders in North America, as of last week.
Nintendo cuts annual profit forecast by 70%, first-half loss of $351 million
Nintendo slashed its annual net profit outlook by 70 percent, following first-half losses of approximately $351 million, 40 percent greater than expected. Ahead of the Wii U launch, the Japanese company now expects net profits of ¥6 billion ($75.2 million) for the fiscal year ending March 31 2013, compared to initial forecasts of ¥20 billion ($251 million).In those initial forecasts Nintendo predicted losses of ¥20 billion for the six-month period ending September 30, but today revealed a significantly greater figure of almost ¥28 billion ($351 million). The company cited weaker than expected overseas sales of 3DS hardware and software, along with increased yen appreciation.Nintendo also revealed the 3DS shifted 5 million units across the six months, taking the console to over 22 million worldwide sales to date. The company now expects 17.5 million sales for the 3DS by the end of the fiscal year, down 1 million from initial projections.Nintendo of course expects the Wii U to takes figures back into the black in six months time, with the company now predicting 5.5 million units sold worldwide by March 2013.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The unseen cost of closing City of Heroes
City of Heroes is leaving a lot of victims with its closure: the employees of an excellent and underrated development team, a group of players with a lot of passion and energy, and an entire world that deserves to keep going. But there are a lot of other costs along with all of those, things what we're losing out on that you might not have even considered at the time. At least, not until some writer on the internet decided to call attention to all of those things. Guilty as charged. Those of us who are adamant fans of the game have been lamenting the loss of the game that is. But one of the reasons I tied every single anniversary post with another post looking forward is that City of Heroes has always been a game that moves in both directions. It's a game where a lot of the fun is tied into what it will be. And while there are some directions I've been critical of, there's a lot about what's coming up that's never going to be realized.
Best Buy founder wants slashed prices, Apple-style customer service in $10 billion rescue plan
Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is proposing a plan to turn around the ailing electronics store as part of a $10 billion buyout. He's proposing the retailer slashes prices to compete with online rivals like Amazon, while offering Apple Store-levels of customer service. He's concerned that the current closure and size-reduction policy will spell the end of the business, which is rumored to announce another round of closures shortly. It's yet to be seen if his plan, which would mean running Best Buy at a loss for several years, would be accepted by the company's management, who are meeting to discuss the proposals at the end of the month.
HP expects to take $8 billion hit over its purchase of EDS
Normally shake ups in management and earnings outlooks don't really grab our attention. But, buried in the PR for just such moves from HP today was a particularly intriguing tidbit of information. In Q3 the company expects to be hit for $8 billion in pre-tax assets (but not cash) as part of an "impairment of goodwill" charge related to the purchase of Electronic Data Systems. That's in addition to a $1.5 billion charge it'll be absorbing following the layoff of some 27,000 employees in May. While the company has actually raised its earnings outlook for the quarter, we'll have to wait till August 22nd to find out just how much these two charges will affect the bottom line. For some more detail, check out the PR after the break.
NCsoft weathers $6M loss in Q2
NCsoft may have more banking on Guild Wars 2 than once thought. The mega-publisher announced that its second quarter earnings were lower than expected; it posted a $6 million loss for the period. Revenues were down 12% from last year to $130 million, of which a vast majority came from NCsoft's online titles. The company stated that it dipped into the red due to rising labor costs, an increased marketing budget for Blade & Soul's Korean launch, and the acquisition of Ntreev. Aion was also blamed for the company's financial woes, as revenues in that title sharply decreased due to fewer microtransaction sales. Both Lineage titles composed a great share of the company's revenues, with the first game producing 45% of sales and the sequel 13%. NCsoft said that it is banking on Guild Wars 2 to produce a profitable third quarter, however.
Sprint's iPhone gamble isn't paying off as 2012 Q2 figures reveal $629 million operating loss
Sprint's second quarter figures have arrived, showing that the company's billion-dollar gamble on the iPhone isn't working right now. While it sold 1.5 million Apple-branded handsets in the three month period (40 percent to new and postpaid customers), it recorded an operating loss of $629 million and a colossal net loss of $1.4 billion -- compared to an operating loss of $255 million and a net loss of $863 million in the first quarter. Operating revenues of $8.8 billion improved on those in the first quarter by a single percent -- mostly due to higher service fees from its wireless offerings. It's also grown its cash reserves, up from $128 million last quarter to $267 million today, and can point to 442,000 postpaid and 141,000 new prepaid subscribers pushing the company's customer base up to 56 million nationwide -- mentioning that 60 percent of former Nextel users chose to remain with Sprint during the enforced change. The figures reveal that Sprint's eating around $782 million due to the shutdown of the Nextel platform and a further $184 million to end leases on antenna sites for the moribund network. It's also having to take a hit of $204 million due to its investment into infrastructure partner Clearwire. It's affirmed its $1 billion lending facility, contingent upon purchasing gear from Ericsson to help build its LTE network, which it aims to have installed in 12,000 sites by the end of the year. Of course, that purchase was prompted by the collapse of Philip Falcone's doomed LightSquared project, which caused the Now Network to lose $66 million in cash and its childhood innocence when it comes to trusting other people. Update: Big Yellow also mentioned that it has no plans to adopt a shared data plan to follow AT&T and Verizon.
LG Q2 2012 earnings show a loss on cellphones, but higher profits overall thanks to home theater
LG has released its earnings statement for the Q2 2012 period, the claim of "turning a corner" in Q1 has just managed to hold up as it registered net profits of $138 million, up 46 percent from the same period last year. Revenues, while higher than Q1, were actually down from last year and blamed on declines in featurephone sales and slow sales of IT products. The mobile division also struggled after a strong Q1 and took an operating loss, however the positive takeaways are a rising percentage of smartphone shipments and plans to launch new LTE-connected models in North America (we've spotted the likely Spectrum 2 for Verizon already), Europe and Asia later this year. The good news for the home theater segment continued however, with an operating profit of more than double last year at $187.5 million despite slightly lower sales due to an increase in sales of premium products like its Cinema 3D HDTVs, which it expects to become the "top global seller" in the 3D segment. There's more details in the press release after the break or PDF linked below if you need more numbers.
RIM warns of loss for Q1, hires JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help with strategic review
RIM announced last quarter that it would no longer be providing its traditional financial guidance for upcoming quarters, but CEO Thorsten Heins has nonetheless seen fit to deliver a "business update" today that offers some indication of what's in store for the company. The headline is that it's unsurprisingly projecting an operating loss for the next quarter (Q1 of its 2013 fiscal year), although it's not saying exactly how much, noting only that the "on-going competitive environment is impacting our business in the form of lower volumes and highly competitive pricing dynamics in the marketplace." The company's also confirmed that it has hired JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to aid in its so-called strategic review, which it says includes "opportunities to leverage the BlackBerry platform through partnerships, licensing opportunities and strategic business model alternatives." On the slightly brighter side of things, RIM was able to boast that it now has a worldwide subscriber base of 78 million, and that it now counts 80,000 BlackBerry apps and 15,000 PlayBook apps -- both significant increases from a year ago. It also further notes that BlackBerry 10 remains on track for the "latter part of calendar 2012." You can find the company's complete statement after the break.
THQ sees net loss of $239.9 million, still in business
THQ saw a net loss of $239.9 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, $100 million more than the previous fiscal year's loss of $136.1 million."We have made significant changes to our business, and are on track to execute our strategy of delivering quality connected core gaming experiences, beginning with the sequel to the award-winning Darksiders in August," president and CEO Brian Farrell said in a THQ earnings statement.THQ has seen a rough year, with plummeting revenue despite the success of Saints Row: The Third and WWE '12. THQ laid off 240 employees, slashed the salaries of its head honchos and cut its "kids' licensed video games" department earlier this fiscal year, following quarter losses of nearly triple the previous period.THQ has sold through 84 percent of its shipped uDraw tablets and expects to sell its remaining inventory in fiscal 2013. The company's "future kids' license commitments" have been reduced by $30 million, THQ reports.THQ describes its emergency layoffs, salary cuts and company rehashing as follows: "The company exited the traditional kids' licensed games business, and streamlined its product line, organization and cost structure to support a smaller company positioned for sustained profitability."
Sony's final 2011 report shows a record net loss, optimism for 2012
After a slew of bad news and drastically restated projections, Sony has reported the numbers for its full 2011 financial year and as expected, they're not good. The company experienced a record net loss of 456.7 billion yen ($5.73 billion) and an operating loss of 67.3 billion yen. The good news to look forward to however, is that it currently expects an operating profit of 180 billion yen for next year. For the year, it also noted sales of 13.9 million units for the PlayStation 3, 6.8 million PSPs/PS Vitas, 19.6 million LCD TVs and 21 million cameras. Next year, Sony is looking to move 16 million PS3s and 33 million smartphones. New CEO Kaz Hirai has detailed the "One Sony" strategy he hopes will bring the company back to financial health but with its current worth standing at just a fraction of competitors like Samsung and Apple (Reuters pegs it at 10 percent and 3 percent, respectively), the electronics giant has a long, long way to go. Hit the source link below for more dirty financial details, slideshows and spreadsheets.
