q1-2014
Latest
GameStop sees increased Xbox One interest following price drop reveal
GameStop President Tony Bartel noted an increased interest for Microsoft's Xbox One following the hardware manufacturer's recent decision to change course and package the console without the Kinect camera peripheral. "I definitely think we're already seeing in our stores with our reservation program as well as the dialog to Power-Up Rewards that there's a stronger demand as a result of the price drop," Bartel said during the company's earnings call this week. Microsoft announced that it will begin selling the Xbox One without the Kinect last week. The dis-Kinected console will hit retail on June 9 for $399 in North America and £349 in the UK. Following the news, GameStop began offering special trade-in prices for Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles in exchange for in-store credit towards the cheaper Xbox One. Microsoft also revealed that it will no longer keep media streaming app like Netflix and Hulu Plus behind its Xbox Live paywall, though it confirmed to Joystiq that free-to-play and subscription-based games such as The Elder Scrolls Online would still require the paid Xbox Live subscription to play. "The good news for us is it sells more units. We'll sell a lot more units, because like we shared earlier, we're driving a lot of the growth, and that means there will be more [Xbox One] units out there to put software on," Bartel added. GameStop reported total global sales of $2 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 (ending May 3, 2014), which amounted to a seven percent increase year-over-year. [Image: GameStop]
Activision's Q1 2014 is so good it's raising 2014's outlook
Activision's net revenue in Q1 2014 was $1.11 billion, higher than its expected $885 million, but lower than Q1 2013's $1.32 billion. Activision is raising its net revenue outlook for calendar year 2014 from $4 billion to $4.22 billion. "The increase in Activision Blizzard's GAAP outlook for 2014 is a result of the company's actual Q1 GAAP performance (which was higher than its prior Q1 GAAP outlook for the reasons cited on the first page of this press release), as well as the company's current expectations for the remainder of the year," the report says. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick attributed the better-than-expected performance to Blizzard franchises World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Activision's Skylanders and Call of Duty franchises. Blizzard brought in 60 percent of the company's net revenue, while Activision accounted for 31 percent and distribution brought in 9 percent. Activision's net income in Q1 2014 was down from last year, falling from $456 million to $293 million. Next-gen sales (PS4, Xbox One and Wii U) brought in $108 million net revenue in Q1, while current-gen sales (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii) brought in $546 million, for a console total of $654 million. That's 59 percent of Activision's total net revenue for the quarter. PC accounted for $100 million (9 percent), online did $201 million (18 percent), and mobile made $83 million (7 percent). Activision is spending $500 million on its console MMO Destiny, and Kotick reiterated his high hopes for the game in today's report: "We have a strong product pipeline for the balance of the year, beginning with the September 9 planned launch of Destiny, which we believe could become our next billion dollar franchise and the largest new videogame IP launch in history." [Image: Activision]
.jpeg.cf.jpg)
Disney Infinity drives Interactive group to $403 million in revenue
Disney reported $403 million in revenue for its Interactive group in its fiscal first quarter 2014 financial results, a three-month period that ended on December 28, 2013. It is a 38 percent increase over the revenue earned by the Interactive group in Q1 of 2013, $291 million. The leap in earnings for Disney Interactive is thanks to strong sales for Disney Infinity, Avalanche Software's sandbox adventure game that features popular Disney characters and Skylanders-like physical toys to go with them. Of course, Disney Interactive is just one slice of the Mickey Mouse house's pie; The Walt Disney Company reported $12.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. While everything sounds splendid for Disney, the Wall Street Journal reported layoffs for Disney Interactive that measure in the hundreds just a few days ago. [Image: Disney Interactive]
Join us for a liveblog of Apple's fiscal year 2014 first-quarter earnings call
Today's the day that all of the Wall Street analysts have been waiting for -- Apple's first earnings call of the year will happen at 5 PM ET, and TUAW will be liveblogging the event. To join us, come back at that time and we'll provide you with commentary on what's being announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and anyone else who is on tap for the call. Click here to link to the liveblog page, and you can listen in on the conversation by joining this Apple webcast. As soon as Apple announces the earnings -- usually about a half-hour before the start of the call -- we'll have that information posted on TUAW.
Microsoft Q1 2014 financials show 16 percent increase in revenue
Microsoft revealed its first quarter 2014 financial results (the period of July 2013 through September 2013), primarily showing growth in revenue and net income. The company brought in $18.53 billion in revenue in the quarter, a 16 percent increase from its reported revenue from Q1 2013 report one year ago, $16.01 billion. This is also a 6.88 percent decline from its $19.9 billion revenue reported in the last quarter. Microsoft also reported $6.33 billion in net income, a 19 percent increase from last year. The earnings report noted a deferral of $113 million of revenue from Windows 8.1 pre-sales as well as a four percent growth in devices and consumer revenue to $7.46 billion.
Microsoft makes $5.2 billion net profit, says Surface sales on the rise
Microsoft has just posted first quarter earnings that suggest it's faring well despite a tough PC market. Although the company's revenue was down from the previous quarter to $18.5 billion, its net profit climbed to $5.2 billion; both figures were double-digit improvements over the same quarter a year ago. The Redmond firm chalked up most of the success to growth in its corporate-focused Commercial group. Not that its Devices and Consumer division was in dire straits -- while Windows revenue from PC makers was down 7 percent, search ad revenue was up 47 percent. The Surface tablet line also saw a quarter-to-quarter increase in revenue to $400 million that was likely helped by price cuts to outgoing models. The company hasn't provided an outlook for its second quarter as of this writing, but it's easy to anticipate strong performance. Microsoft has just launched Windows 8.1, which will net $113 million in pre-order revenue (currently deferred); it could also trigger a surge in PC sales as customers upgrade. The tech giant is also launching a new round of first-party hardware during the period, including the Surface 2, Surface Pro 2 and Xbox One. It may be difficult to repeat this perfect storm of profit in 2014, but we doubt that Ballmer and crew are about to complain in the next few months.
Profits decline in Capcom's Q1 financial results
Capcom has posted its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014 calendar, and despite continued strong sales of its Resident Evil 5 pachislo machine, overall profits are down. When compared to the same period last year, profits were down by 37 percent: ¥828 million ($8.4 million) in Q1 2014 vs. ¥1.32 billion ($13.4 million) in Q1 2013. The report says that these results are "generally in line with the fiscal year targets," which predict profits of ¥6.8 billion ($69.1 million) for the year in total. Capcom's major releases for the three month period ending June 30 were the console/PC ports of Resident Evil: Revelations, and pseudo-expansion/rerelease Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. Revelations performed best at retail out of the two, selling 900,000 units worldwide since the game's release on May 21 in North America. Meanwhile, Dark Arisen has sold 550,000 units since its release on April 23. The document made only brief mention of recent layoffs at the company, saying that "reorganization (development, overseas subsidiaries) is now under way in association with the prior year's business structural improvements." This was listed under "Growth Strategy Initiatives," which is business-speak for "How We're Going to Get Dat Paper." This subsection also contained the document's sole mention of Monster Hunter 4's impending September 14 release in Japan. In related news, Capcom appears to have invented a time-travel device, as it also plans on releasing a Devil May Cry 4-themed pachislo machine this September.
EA reports flat first quarter of fiscal 2014
EA has released its financial report for the first quarter of fiscal 2014, which spans the three month period ending on June 30. When compared with the publishing goliath's performance during that same window in fiscal 2013, there wasn't a tremendous amount of change in terms of either revenue or profit. Total revenue (read: income) for the period tallied up at $949 million; not even one percent less than the $955 million earned by the end of Q1 2013. Meanwhile, post-tax, post-operating expense profit for Q1 of fiscal 2014 was $222 million, which was a 10-percent increase over the $201 million in profit gained during the same time last year. Looking forward, EA expects about $625 million in revenue for the second quarter, but does expect a loss for the soft summer months.
EA bringing FIFA Online 3 to China, TenCent publishing
EA will bring FIFA Online 3 to China with TenCent as its publisher, EA announced in its Q1 2014 financial results report. The online soccer game was published in Korea by Nexon, where it found some success; EA reported that digital net revenue from the game grew 88 percent in the first quarter (April 2013 through June 2013) compared to the likes of FIFA Online 2 on a non-GAAP basis. The earnings report notes that details of the publishing partnership between TenCent and EA will be announced in the future. TenCent also published NBA 2K Online in China in September 2012.
FIFA 13 netted $70 million in digital revenue last quarter
FIFA 13 saw $70 million in revenue from digital sales in Q1 of fiscal year 2014, which stretches from April 1, 2013 through June 30, 2013. The figure from EA's earnings report today is derived on a non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) basis. EA reports that the digital sales for the footy game, which may include both FIFA Ultimate Team and digital games sales, amounted to a 92 percent increase over FIFA 12's digital sales performance in Q1 2013.
The Crew aims for Q1 2014 release
Buckle up, racing fans: You might be sitting in the driver's seat of The Crew early next year. In an investor's call, Ubisoft said that it's aiming for a Q1 2014 release for the persistent online racing world. Production Director Pete Young said in a recent blog post that the studio is striving to connect players through this racing title: "We're making it extremely easy to see the players that are around you, quickly group up with those guys, make new friends and take on missions cooperatively." The Crew will be available for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If it's got you itching for more info, check out Ubisoft's guided gameplay video from last month after the break.
BlackBerry ships 6.8 million smartphones but loses $84 million in fiscal Q1 2014
Every quarter is pivotal for BlackBerry right now, but the one covered by today's earnings report (Q1 2014 in fiscal terms, or March through May 2013 on our calendar) is especially important. It's the first full period of Z10 availability and also the first quarter to cover significant Q10 shipments to markets like Canada and the UK (although not the US). So far, the news looks mixed, but mostly glum: revenues are up to $3.1 billion, compared to $2.8 billion generated in the same quarter last year, which was when RIM (as it was called back then) announced significant job cuts and an equally major delay to its next-gen BB10 operating system and hardware range. However, none of that cash was retained as profit, despite all the cost-cutting measures. In fact, BlackBerry managed to lose $84 million, reversing the positive shift seen last quarter when the company kept a hold of $94 million as profit. Worryingly, the press release provides no breakdown of the crucial BB10 device shipments, versus older devices. There's just a quote from Thorsten Heins saying "we are still in the early stages of this launch," which doesn't bode well -- although an imminent earnings call should provide further information. Update: Execs on the earnings call refused to break down Z10 and Q10 shipments specifically, but did say that 40 percent of the 6.8 million reported shipments were BB 10 devices -- which adds up to a disappointing 2.7 million next-gen units.
NVIDIA Q1 earnings: $77.9 million profit on $954 million in revenue
NVIDIA's balance sheet may not look as appealing as it did just a quarter ago, but the company nonetheless managed to beat the consensus expectations and its stock is now climbing in after-hours trading. Profit for NVIDIA's fiscal Q1 2014 rang in at $77.9 million, which is a 55 percent decrease from the previous quarter, but still 29 percent higher than what it netted in Q1 of last year. It's a similar story for revenue: the company reported sales of $954.7 million, down 13 percent from the previous quarter, but up slightly from Q1 2013. Even beyond beating Wall Street's expectations, NVIDIA is giving investors two other reasons to smile: the success of Kepler has led to record margins of 54.3 percent, and the company will return over $1 billion during the year by way of stock repurchases and dividend payments. As for where it's headed? NVIDIA is looking to return to growth as the year progresses, thanks to a little something called the Tegra 4.
