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NCsoft 2008 profits down and Guild Wars 2 TBA in 2010-2011
After hearing recent news of NCsoft's lay-offs/restructuring at their European studio, it may not come as a surprise that their latest financial report for Q4 2008 is showing a 22% net income loss compared to Q4 2007 even though sales were up 11%. This loss was attributed to higher marketing costs for the quarter. Their overall 2008 net profits plummeted 40% compared to 2007. The high quarterly marketing costs probably had a lot to do with their Korean release of Aion, which accounted for 3% of their overall sales by games in 2008.What does this mean for fans anxiously anticipating the release of Guild Wars 2? It means you'll have to wait a while longer. According to an anonymous source and ex-NCsoft employee, the company is heavily focused on both Aion and GW2 right now. After a successful launch in Korea, NCsoft plans to release Aion in Japan and Taiwan in Q3 2009 and in the US and Europe in Q4 2009. With such a strong Aion push in 2009, it seems to leave little room for GW2 in the calendar year. Their strong dedication to each title might explain why GW2 was pushed into 2010-2011 when many fans were hoping for a 2009 launch. Given the marketing costs of promoting Aion in Korea, it would be quite a financial burden to promote both titles simultaneously around the world.
Activision loses money, Blizzard to release one marquee game per year
Activision-Blizzard held a conference call for the press yesterday, and so there's all kinds of financial and release news floating around out there. The biggest news isn't necessarily Blizzard-related, but it does mean that our game's company is finally feeling the crunch a bit: Activision-Blizzard reported a loss of $72 million in the last quarter, and their outlook for the coming year fell short of analysts' expectations. Even though that sounds bad, it doesn't mean things are necessarily bad, though: Blizzard themselves added nearly a billion dollars to the total, so while A-B might not be doing so well, B is doing just fine.Blizzard CEO Paul Sams also announced during the call that the company is now aiming for "one 'frontline' title per year," though not necessarily World of Warcraft related. That likely means that we'll see the first Starcraft 2 this year -- our friends at Joystiq have a quick report on the beta appearing soon, as well as the Battle.net revamp we've been waiting for. And it also means that (unless Blizzard is really rolling on Diablo III, which I doubt, given its condition when we played it at last year's BlizzCon), that we'll be looking at mid/late 2010 for the release of the next WoW expansion.Besides the loss of the $72 million (it's always in the last place you look), things seem to be hopping at Blizzard and their parent company. Should be a pretty busy 2009 for them.
Konami game revenue up in Q3
Whipping up some numbers to report, Konami announced that its net income for the games division during the first three quarters of the fiscal year reached ¥13.3 billion ($148.3 million). The figure represents a 5% increase from the same time last year; however, for its full fiscal year, the company estimates to bring in ¥18 billion ($200M), a slight decrease from last year's ¥18.5 billion ($206.3M).The financial fortunes in the division were driven by (gasp!) Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Pro Evolution Soccer series. With all the negative news coming out of other publishers, Konami's ability to weather the current global financial crisis is about as good as it gets. [Image]
Latest Nintendo financial report sees predictable, record growth
Before enslaving the planet and putting all of us to work in the mines, toiling away for mushrooms and fire flowers until we're nothing but skin, bones and broken dreams, Nintendo has seen fit to reveal its latest fiscal report. Summary: Nintendo makes money. During the period of April to December 2008, Nintendo enjoyed global sales of 1,536 billion yen ($17 billion), an increase of almost 17% compared to the same period in 2007. Operating profits were also up to 501 billion yen ($5 billion), showing a 27% over the same period in 2007. It's not all sunshine and lollipops, however, as Nintendo reported losses of 18% in both recurring and net profits. With Nintendo's 2008 fiscal year ending March 31st, it has upped its forecast as far as the DS is concerned, with hardware sales expected to rise by 3% to 31.5 million globally and software predicted to drop 7% to 193 million. Moving on to the Wii, Nintendo revised its prediction for both hardware and software sales -- predicted Wii sales drop 3% to 26.5 million systems and software lowers to 193 million games.
Sony games division expects increased loss of $337 million
Sony Corp. is having a bad year, and it appears that the company's games division isn't helping the situation. GI.biz reports that the PlayStation group is expected to increase losses by $337 million this fiscal year, though it's unclear what number the loss is increasing from. The erosion is due to lower than expected sales of hardware and software.Sony's video game division seems to have teetered between good and bad financial news over the last couple years. The very dim silver lining here is if the reports of Sony CEO Howard Stringer wanting to focus on software are correct, the PlayStation division shouldn't suffer as mightily as others.
Liveblog: Apple's Q1-2009 conference call
Welcome one and all for TUAW's coverage of Apple's First Quarter 2009 Results Conference Call. If you haven't already, you can go start the audio stream available on Apple's website. You'll need QuickTime 6 or 7 installed (Mac users should already have it, and Windows users get it with the iTunes install). Update: The call has ended. AAPL is up over seven points in after-hours trading. Click on through to view the transcript!
Apple reports Q1 results: 10.17B revenue, $1.78 profit per share
Above the fold headline: Apple blew by the analyst estimates again. Conference call coming up! --- Apple Reports First Quarter Results Best Quarterly Revenue and Earnings in Apple History iPod Sales Set New Record CUPERTINO, California-January 21, 2009-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue. In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.8 billion of "Adjusted Sales" and $2.3 billion of "Adjusted Net Income." Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. "Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history-surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Our outstanding results generated over $3.6 billion in cash during the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.6 billion to $8 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.90 to $1.00." Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2009 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple's standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 21, 2009 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq109/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
Apple's Q1 2009 conference call scheduled for January 21
Mark your calendars: Apple plans to conduct its first-quarter conference call on Wednesday, January 21 at 5 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. Pacific). Apple executives will discuss the company's financial performance over the last quarter, and give their guidance as to how the next quarter is shaping up. Audio from the conference call will be broadcast via QuickTime. When the time comes, you can visit this page and listen in. (Bonus: Check out the old QuickTime Player screenshot in the "Q1-2009" graphic.) In Apple's last conference call, CEO Steve Jobs joined in the fun -- a rarity -- to discuss sales, margins, cash reserves, and Apple's competition. Prepare for plenty of hyperbole and chipper "forward-looking statements" -- as well as dialtone to dialtone coverage from us here at TUAW. Be sure to check back on the 21st. [Via MacDailyNews.]
Apple releases 2009 proxy statement
Yesterday, Apple released a proxy statement detailing the financial compensation that executives enjoy as part of their participation on the board of directors. Steve Jobs retained his $1 salary for 2008, but has over 5.5 million shares of Apple stock, which is worth over $500 million on paper. Jobs is worth about $5.7 billion, thanks largely to the fact that he's Disney's largest individual shareholder. Fidelity Investments continues to be Apple's largest investor with over 46 million shares of stock. There are five shareholder proposals up for voting this time around: Proposal 1 asks to re-elect the board of directors, consisting of Steve Jobs, William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Al Gore, Andrea Jung, Arthur Levinson, Eric Schmidt, and Jerry York. Proposal 2 asks for more transparency surrounding Apple's political contributions. Proposal 3 asks the company to adopt a statement supporting universal health care for everyone, and not just employees. Proposal 4 asks the company to release a report on corporate strategies surrounding climate change and greenhouse gas emissions before July. Proposal 5 asks to adopt a policy that gives shareholders more input on executive compensation. (Thanks, Scott!) The board of directors, perhaps not surprisingly, recommends approving the first proposal, and rejecting the other four. The proxy statement is available from Apple's Investor Relations website, and will not be mailed to shareholders unless requested. [Via MacDailyNews.]
Financial site Mint.com releases iPhone app
I've been using Mint.com (not to be confused with Shawn Inman's great Mint web stats tracker) to track my financial information for a while now. It's very nice -- completely free, and hooks right into your bank accounts, investments, or other financial accounts online (securely, of course -- they've got over 7,500 institutions in the system) to let you know what you're spending, when, and where. I'm lazy when it comes to budgets, but Mint will automatically make budgets for you based on what you spent the month before, so I can see if my groceries, bus fare, or, ahem, iPhone app budgets go over one month.And now they're released an iPhone app, so you can have access to all of that information on the go. It's pretty much a portable Mint -- you've got all of your usual account information, alerts are pushed off onto their own screen, so you can see at a glance where you're overspending, and you can flip through and see your expenses for the month, where your cash is going, and any budgets you've programmed into Mint. The app is quick and easy to use -- like Mint.com, but in the palm of your hand. It's free and on the App Store right now (though of course you have to set yourself up on their website first).One security issue: the app wisely recommends that if you don't have a passcode on your phone already, you put one on it, since your financial information will be available to anyone using your phone. The Mint.com folks also tell us that you can disable iPhone app access from their website, so even if you do lose your phone, you can keep unwanted users from reaching your information. But as with everything, there's a tradeoff of convenience and security -- while it's helpful to have this information anywhere you are, the flip side is that it's that much more likely to fall into the wrong hands.
Take-Two revenue up $556M in '08, talks '09 plans
Despite what he calls "clearly uncertain and challenging times," Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said during an investor teleconference today that fiscal year 2008 saw the "strongest earnings in our company's history." Specifically, the publisher's revenue for FY08 was $1.5 billion, up from $981.8 million in FY07. Quarterly revenue for Q408 was $323.4M versus $292.6M for Q407.Zelnick admitted that the company is "experiencing lower than expected holiday sales," adding that it predicts, "significantly reduced sales expectations for the next four months." CEO Ben Feder pointed out that while it is selling well now, Midnight Club: Los Angeles got off to a "slower than expected start."Feder pointed out that the publisher's Metacritic average across all its titles in FY08 was 80%, saying it was "higher than any other publisher." Looking ahead, he confirmed that "Rockstar has one triple-A title in development which will release in calendar year 2009," but reacted to a question about a possible new GTA in 2010 by saying, "it's way to early to talk about."
Notes from EA's investor conference call
Following today's news of EA lowering its forecast for fiscal year '09, the mega-publisher held a conference call – mainly for investors – to go into a little more detail as to the why's of the situation and the how's of the solution. Fingers were metaphorically pointed at retailers for shortening their stock of all but the best-selling games, while new properties were praised for faring well with reviewers.EA CEO, John Riccitiello, began the call by pointing out that 17 of the company's '08 titles earned aggregate Metacritic scores above 80, versus only seven the year before. New IPs – specifically Dead Space and Mirror's Edge – were praised, but Riccitiello pointed out during the Q&A portion of the call that these franchises will perform better once established. "Dead Space looks like a long-term big winner for us," he said, later confirming, "[Mirror's Edge] is going to go forward."The EA boss placed substantial emphasis on the impact of major retailers cutting their stock of all but the top five best-selling titles this holiday season. Looking forward, he said to expect the company to produce fewer titles overall next year, with core and casual games seeing equal, indeterminate cuts; sports will be untouched. Riccitiello also confirmed that studio consolidation will play a role in EA's FY10 cost-cutting plans, as will the merging of labels, specifically EA Sims and EA Casual, into one.
Forbes: Nintendo making $6 profit on every Wii sold
While Sony and Microsoft dream of turning a profit on their consoles, Nintendo is doing just that. According to a new article from Forbes, the Big N makes $6 in operating profit from every Wii unit sold. Nearly 19 million units have been sold worldwide so far during 2008, earning Nintendo a tidy $114M in profit, taking that $6-per-system figure into account. That's not the extent of the interesting numbers in the article, though.Forbes points out that, while Nintendo is turning a profit on hardware, the fact that its top-selling software is all first party means it is losing out on serious revenue normally brought in via licensing fees. Still, according to its figures, the magazine claims that there will be in the neighborhood of 100 million more pieces of Wii software sold in 2008 (220M) than the nearest competitor, Xbox 360, at 125M (PS3 is on track for 120M). One has to wonder, though, how many of those Wii games will be snagged from a bargain bin, given recent analyst data.
Japan loves Apple, sales up there 39%
Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog has the skinny on why Japan is so hot on Apple lately -- apparently Steve Jobs' little company has seen sales rise 39% in the land of the rising sun, even after a drop the last year.Why is this? Apple's own report says iPods, Macs, and MacBooks are the culprits -- sales of Macs specifically are jumping up the charts. At the same time, reports are saying that sales of the iPhone have slowed there after a big burst at debut (while sales here are still through the roof).Seems like there's an upsurge on American electronics in Japan in general. Any of you armchair analysts want to guess why Apple is doing better there?
THQ reveals 'Significant Business Realignment'
No, it's not a new game title. It's the real-life struggle of THQ, which made word of internal studio closings and significant layoffs official today, as it reported losses of $115.3 million in its fiscal Q2. In total, five studios will be shuttered and 250 employees released (approximately 17 percent of the publisher's workforce), and the company will reduce its forecasted development spending by $100 million in the fiscal 2010 year. "THQ plans to focus on fewer, higher quality titles, and to align its organization and cost structure accordingly," outlines the quarterly financial report. "We will dominate the fighting category!" added CEO Brian Farrell during today's conference call, plugging upcoming WWE and UFC titles. As for those "higher quality titles," THQ has pushed Volition's Red Faction: Guerrilla into the first quarter of fiscal 2010 (April-June 2009) and Darksiders: Wrath of War into the second quarter (July-September 2009). Also absent in the short term, CFO Colin Slade will be taking an unspecified medical leave of absence. "I'm looking forward to returning to THQ as soon as possible," said Slade before retiring from the call.
Capcom posts 'favorable' Q2 results (thanks, Monster Hunter!)
It says so right at the top of the press release -- "favorable." But just how favorable were Capcom's fiscal fortunes in its second quarter, ended September 30th? Well, provided you're not horribly offended when the words-to-numbers ratio starts changing for the worse in this paragraph: compared to the same period last year, net sales went up by 0.4% to ¥31,236 million ($315 million); operating income increased to 3,357 million ($34 million, an increase of 9.8%); and net income increased by 16.8% to ¥1,873 million ($19 million). Phew! You can blame some of that on "skyrocketing" sales of Monster Hunter Portable 2G (coming to the US soon as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite) and the rest on our inability to present financial information in a particularly interesting way. Oh well! In tandem with its results, Capcom also announced the acquisition of Pachislo manufacturer Enterrise K.K. The new subsidiary will provide "unique technological expertise" and "lead to greater synergy," which we're told very often leads to greater money. Source -- Financial ResultsSource -- Enterrise K.K. acquisition
Riccitiello blows $1 million on EA stock
John, Ricci -- can we call you Ricci? -- what are you doing, man? Look, we know being the big shot CEO of one of the world's biggest publishers affords you plenty of opportunity to, well, afford a bunch of expensive stuff ... but blowing your cash on EA stock? Worse still, blowing it on 42,500 snippets of stock, to the cumulative value of just over a million dollars? Sounds like a bad idea, honestly.Perhaps you haven't heard, but EA lost quite a bit of money in the last quarter. It seems your company's been spending dough on developing -- you won't believe this -- "new" IP. Do you really want to support a company that's dumping funds into crazy, non-sequel projects? There's just no way that's going to fly. You're better off investing in those Activision guys. Trust us, people are never ever going to get tired of Guitar Hero 27, Tony Hawk 19 and Tony Hawk Presents Guitar Hero Featuring Spider-Bond. See you in the short-term, Ricci.
Sony profits sink, game division floats by
With the celebratory horn tooting out of the way, let's turn to Sony's overall quartely results -- a tune, you'll find, that's distinctly grim. A 72 percent plunge in net profit and a 16-year-low share value sum up the voyage through the current economic storm. Still, the game division has posted a 10 percent rise in profit and narrowed its loss from ¥96.7 billion to ¥39.5 billion ($379 million), as PlayStation 3 hardware and software sales proved incredibly buoyant. Indeed, PS3 hardware sales totaled 2.43 million units worldwide over the quarter (besting Xbox 360 sales), as reported earlier. More impressive, though, PS3 software sales nearly doubled in the quarter, reaching 21.1 million units. While PlayStation 2 sales were actually greater than PS3 sales in the hardware (2.5 million units) and software (23.1 million units) categories, the platform actually saw decreases of 0.78 million and 14.9 million units, respectively. The PSP business also saw a lull in software sales (um, and releases), down 0.8 million units, but still managed to move 3.18 million hardware units into eager, sweaty palms -- hang tight, the games are coming next year! Overall, however, SCE continues to post losses, and, like the rest of the company, is crippled by the weak value of the yen against the dollar and euro.
Apple up 11 after Q4 conference call
Apple shares were higher by over 11 points in after-hours trading following a very positive Q4 conference call where the company announced a profit of $1.26 per diluted share. As we noted in our liveblog earlier, Apple posted a profit of $1.14 billion on revenues of $7.9 billion for the quarter. The company also said it had sold 2.6 million Macs, 11 million iPods, and 6.8 million iPhones in the three months ending September 27. It's safe to say we're past the 10 million mark for iPhone unit sales. Apple's margins for the quarter fell by a tenth of a percent from Q3 to 34.7 percent. During the Q3 conference call, Apple was careful to mention that margins would be lower for the quarter due to a new product announcement. That guidance was out of an abundance of caution, and executives noted that all new product announcements related to that margin guidance have been made. Apple's margins this time a year ago were 1.1 percent lower, at 33.6 percent. Steve Jobs himself was on the call, a rarity, and he crowed about how Apple sold more handsets than RIM did. He also mentioned Apple's significant cash reserves of $25 billion and lack of debt. The conference call made no mention of the exclusion of FireWire on new MacBooks, nor any confirmation that the Mac mini line could either be seeing a refresh or end-of-life.
Munster: Apple overestimated Q3 margin impacts
Gene Munster is skeptical that Apple's guidance of lower margins for the rest of the year in its Q3 conference call back in July, and expects the company to continue to outperform expectations. The Piper Jaffray analyst said that lower prices for NAND flash memory will offset any reductions in price for new iPods introduced last month. Munster speculates that even with an introduction of a sub-$1,000 MacBook before the end of the year, Apple's margins will remain healthy. Yes, it will have an impact, but not to the degree that Apple execs hinted in their phone call: Munster thinks margins would only fall to around 30 percent. In fact, Munster says "investors would see the lack of redesigned, lower-priced Macs as a more significant negative than they would a 30 percent GM guide in the December quarter." (Emphasis mine.) He reiterated his "buy" rating. Munster's price target for AAPL is still higher than many others (at least recently), at $250 per share. [Via Ars and AppleInsider.]
