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Survey determines average U.S. game developer income
[Flickr user AMagill] The results of Game Developer Research's ninth annual Game Developer Salary Survey recently surfaced, giving us our yearly reminder that we're totally on the wrong side of this industry. According to the survey, the average "American mainstream videogame industry salary" is $75,573. Over here at Joystiq Inc., we're only pulling in $75,571.42. We're thinking about going on strike until parity is achieved. The survey also breaks down average salaries for the different disciplines which compose our beloved industry. The highest-paid gaming professionals are PR and marketing executives, earning $129,167 a year on average. The lowest head on the totem pole is that of the QA tester, whose average annual income is $37,905. We're betting the recent winner of The Tester wishes he had chosen to participate in The Public Relations Professional instead.
iAds could make a billion dollars, help Google make their deal
There's not a lot of details out about Apple's upcoming mobile advertising program, iAds, quite yet, but Broadpoint Amtech is already convinced it's a moneymaker. Analysts there say that the program could generate a whopping US$4.67 billion in revenue in just one year's time. Of course, that's a high-end guess, but even the medium figures are pretty amazing -- analyst Brian Marshall suggests that even conservatively, Apple could earn $2.48 billion. Realize what we're talking about here: this is more or less a from-scratch profit stream for Apple, and with developers receiving 60% of the revenue from iAds, Apple won't be the only company making money. In fact, Apple's good news may benefit Google, too -- CEO Eric Schmidt said that Apple's iAds announcement should convince those concerned that Google's deal with AdMob is good to go, and that the two companies will just be one big player in "a highly competitive market." Of course, Google has a bit more advertising experience than Apple -- it made most of its $23.7 billion revenue last year from its online advertising model. While iAds sounds big, it's not quite that big. Still, iAds will be big, and there's room to grow -- Apple is starting off with the mobile market, but don't forget that they've got a whole library of iTunes podcasts, and content space on AppleTV to sell as well. At this time next year, we might be reporting that Apple really has created a $2.5 billion-per-year income stream for themselves.
Obvious: Apple fans who own Apple products can't wait to buy the iPad
This is probably one for the obvious department, but we'll share it with you anyway. An NPD study released last week says that device awareness for the iPad is already very high (no duh), and that it's highest among 18-34 year old current Apple owners (double duh) with $100,000 or greater income. So basically, Apple fans with money to spend can't wait to buy the iPad. That, we believe, is the legendary triple duh. But wait, there's more. The reason all of those current Apple owners want to buy the iPad? "Liking the Apple brand." They want to buy an Apple product because they like Apple products. The multitouch screen tied for biggest reason to buy, and NPD also says that 18-34 users are interesting in actually playing music and accessing the Internet from the device. To be fair, those numbers are all cited as "awareness" -- only 9% of those surveyed said they were "extremely or very likely" to actually buy one. Price was cited as a major concern, and many of them, as we reported the other day, said they'd be just as happy with a netbook anyway. [via MacRumors]
Turbine makes more money by giving its MMO away for free
Here's a story that you're probably going to see a lot over the next few years: A company started giving away its game for free, and now reports that it's making more money than before. That's what happened to Turbine, maker of the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO. Last year, it decided to move from a subscription model to free-to-play, instead earning its revenue off of in-game transactions, and now it's announced that income has increased by 500% and the game is making more money than ever. DDO is sort of a special case here -- the game was already developed for a subscription model, so the content might be a little more in-depth (not to mention officially licensed) than you'd find on most free-to-play properties. And since the game still does offer subscription plans, the number of subscribers has actually doubled since the changeover (there's no information about whether more money is being made from selling in-game items or from new players who have decided to subscribe). But you can be sure other game developers are closely watching this model, and it's not a stretch to think that, in the next few years, we'll see many more publishers -- of MMOs and otherwise -- try to pull off the paradox of making more money by giving their games away for free.
Activision reports $113m in profits for 2009; 2010 game plan is predictable
Today Activision Blizzard reported the financial results of its December quarter and the entire 2009 calendar year. For the year, Activision recorded a net income of $113 million, a modest turnaround from the $107 million in net losses for the company in 2008. Led by sales of Modern Warfare 2, all signs -- at least, this one -- pointed to an outstanding Q4 for the publisher. However, figures released today indicate that Activision actually posted a $286 million net loss during the period. "Despite these challenging times, in 2010 we remain focused on expanding operating margins by growing our high-margin digital/online revenues, directing our resources to the largest and most profitable opportunities and realizing operational efficiencies globally," CEO Bobby Kotick said. "In calendar year 2010, we expect our net earnings and operating margin growth will be driven by our product slate that includes Blizzard Entertainment's Starcraft II and the World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm, as well as a diversified lineup based on Activision Publishing's best-selling franchises including Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, together with other well-known titles such as True Crime, Spider-Man and Bakugan." While few details were give about Activision's pending slate of sequels, spinoffs and possible reboots, Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, did share a few words about the next True Crime game. "We'll be releasing a game in the $4 billion action genre, based on our True Crime franchise," Griffith said. "The game blends intense Hollywood-style driving with martial arts combat and shootouts to deliver an Asian cinema-inspired action thriller. This is a big open-world action game that looks especially strong." Griffith also confirmed that a new 007 game is still in the works for 2010. Additionally, Activision noted that two new IPs are in development for its 2010 lineup and assured that additional DLC will continue to be released for Guitar Hero 5 (and presumably Band Hero), as well as for DJ Hero. The next installments in both music game franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, are due in "the back half of the year," according Griffith. Activision also announced that it has ceased developing new Guitar Hero games for the PlayStation 2 platform. Aw, shucks.
Sony returns to profitability as core electronics business struggles
Finally, after closing 18% of its manufacturing facilities and cutting 20,000 heads across its global organization, Sony just posted a profit for the quarter. We're talking an operating profit of ¥146 billion ($1.5 billion) for the quarter on ¥2.2 trillion in sales. Sony's net profitability came in at ¥79.2 billion after three straight quarters of losses, handily beating The Street's mean estimate of ¥33.73 billion sending stock up some 4% at the time of this post. Unfortunately for us gadget nerds, Sony's return to prosperity is largely due to a doubling of sales at Sony's financial unit and a 16% rise in its movie business -- sales from its consumer products and devices division were off 11% thanks to flat-panel TV price competition and component costs. VAIO PC sales were up a slight 2% worldwide while sales of its venerable PS2 (2.1 million units vs. 2.5 million a year earlier) and PSP (4.2 million vs 5.1 million a year earlier) were both off for the quarter. At least the price cuts on the PS3 helped push sales up to 6.5 million from 4.5 million. Still, profit is profit and profit must grow regardless of crummy consumer sales, you know.
Darksiders rides into 1.2 million homes, THQ recovering financially
THQ today announced to investors its financial holdings for the year ending December 31, 2009, reporting a net income of $1.4 million and sales of $701.5 million in the final nine months of the year. To put that in some perspective, the net income for the same period last year was a $334.2 loss. No doubt well-reviewed titles like UFC Undisputed 2009 and (personal favorite) Red Faction: Guerrilla helped that financial 180° turn -- a much needed one after a rocky 2008 and a mess of layoffs in 2009. The publisher also announced "first four week" sales of Darksiders have already reached 1.2 million in the US (Ahem, Mr. Greenwald? Did you hear that?). Interestingly, THQ called the game part of its "growing portfolio of owned brands," among Red Faction, de Blob, Drawn to Life, and Saint's Row. And with this afternoon's investor call, it would certainly appear we'll be seeing more from that portfolio in the coming year.
Nokia grows profits and smartphone share in Q4
Pretty good news for Nokia today as it announces its Q4 results. Net income jumped 65% to €948 million (on €12 billion in sales) or 26 eurocents per share, from €576 million euros, or 15 eurocents a share, earned in Q4 2008. That handily beat the consensus forecast of 19 eurocents per share. Importantly, Nokia grew its smartphone (or "converged devices" in Nokia parlance) marketshare to a healthy 40%, up from 35% just last quarter. Looking forward, Nokia cautioned that it expects its adjusted operating margin in Devices & Services in Q1 2010 will be at the low end of its 12% to 14% target. At the time of this posting, Nokia stock has jumped about 9% in recognition of these good times.
Average salaries of video game industry employees compared
[Flickr: Bradipo] Once again, MCV has surveyed its fellow video game professionals about their annual salaries in order to come up with an average wage for each facet of the industry in 2010. The median average for all European and U.S. respondents is £31,509 (call it $51,331 and change), while the mean is £40,467 (roughly $65,925) -- that's a fraction of a percent lower than last year's results. For a full breakdown of how much each individual profession will average this year in salary, check out the list after the jump. It wouldn't be polite to comment on how our wages compare to the reported average Media salary. Nope. We're not gonna do it. We're just going to sit here on our $6,000 Italian leather massage chair, finish writing this post on our $22,000 diamond-bejeweled supercomputer, and then continue sipping on this $14,500 bottle of Scotch. Mmmmm. So crisp.
Konami income declines as expected in first half of fiscal 2010
Konami courteously warned its investors last week that the first half of this fiscal year had been ... unfavorable to the company. It forecasted a year-over-year decline in net income of 82%, falling from ¥12 billion ($132 million) in the first half of FY 2009 to ¥2 billion ($24 million) in the first half of FY 2010. This forecast now seems incredibly pessimistic in light of the recently released financial report, which reveals a net income decrease of 81%, down to ¥2.2 billion ($24.4 million) in the first half of FY 2010. See, Konami? Shake off that melancholy. That's one whole percent less than you expected to lose! Hey, you know what they say: When life takes one less lemon away from you than you expect it to take, then you can make lemonade with that lemon. Sure, it'll be fairly weak lemonade with just the one lemon, but it'll still be crisp and refreshing.
Matt Mihaly talks microtransactions and Earth Eternal
It looks like we're not the only ones on the block to talk to Matt Mihaly, as Gamasutra has recently sat down with the Sparkplay Media CEO. The topic of the conversation: microtransactions.Matt's no stranger to microtransactions, having utilized them back with Iron Realms Entertainment and their many MUD games. His talk with Gamasutra starts out focusing on how microtransactions can generate a very modest income, but mainly center on a small segment of the game's population paying the most to play the game.Beyond microtransactions, Matt gives a few very interesting details about the development of Earth Eternal and how it reached the form it's in today. Did you know that originally Earth Eternal was going to be a hyper-violent and hyper-sexualized fantasy MMO before it evolved into the playful multi-race animal/fable theme? No? Then you might want to check out the full article, as there's more where that came from regarding the game's evolution.
Microsoft profits sink for the first time in 23 years
In a not totally surprising -- yet still kind of striking -- turn of events, Microsoft is reporting that its sales have fallen for the first time in 23 years. You read that right, 23 years. According to numbers that the company has just released, sales fell 6 percent year-over-year, while overall net income dropped a staggering 32 percent. Those numbers are significant, but what's more telling is where those losses are coming from. Namely? Netbooks. Apparently, in the midst of a global downturn consumers really are buying cheaper, especially when it comes to tech, which puts a fairly significant crunch on Redmond's bottom line. A CNN reports suggests that the presence of Linux on those devices has contributed to the hurt here, but it's more likely that the combo of a market still unwelcoming to Vista and the wide popularity of XP on the low-power systems has more to do with these dipping profit margins. Oh, and that general, awful market depression. Still, it should serve as some kind of wake up call to Microsoft that just being the biggest doesn't guarantee that the money will keep rolling in the way it has in years past -- clearly the big picture isn't as sharp as it's always been. Hey Windows 7 -- no pressure, right? Update: We've tweaked some language in the post that made the situation sound more dire than intended. Don't worry everyone, we know Microsoft isn't going anywhere. [Via CNN]
Dell admits to 4 years of financial malfeasance -- up to $150 million to be scrubbed
It's already been a rough year for Dell's dwindling market share much to the delight of HP and Apple. Now, as followup to the evidence of accounting errors and misconduct announced back in March, Dell has admitted that their senior / executive management regularly falsified quarterly financial returns from 2003 to 2006. In a filing with the SEC, Dell admits that "account balances were reviewed, sometimes at the request of senior executives, with the goal of seeking adjustments so that quarterly objectives could be met." In only one case did Dell actually invent sales numbers, usually, the shifty accounting involved the recognition of revenue earlier than appropriate. Dell must now reduce its reported net income for the period by as much as $150 million with the biggest downward restatements hitting Q1 2003 and Q2 2004 by 10 to 13 percent -- other quarters are expected to be 5 percent or less. It's unclear whether any of the management responsible for, or engaged in this malfeasance are still employed by Dell. Dell's CFO only said that "disciplinary action had been taken" and that current management and the board are "comfortable we have taken steps necessary to make sure this never happens at Dell again." Dell's stock is actually up a few points in pre-market trading which could be a sign that investors aren't too concerned by the piddley restatement (Dell posted $12 billion in net income during the period in question) and are stoked to see Dell finally move forward, undistracted. That is, if the SEC agrees. We'll see how the stock does once investors wake to the latest fetor to seep outta Austin this side of SXSW.
From gaming teen to virtual entrepreneur: how to cover college tuition [update 1]
Despite devoting much of the past three years to hunting and mining, Ogulak Da Basher, or Mike, a 17 year-old from Durango, Colorado, rarely breaks a sweat. Ogulak is Mike's Project Entropia avatar who has earned more than $35,000 through hard work in the Entropia Universe, becoming captain of the "ck Coat Killers" hunting society, and creating a potentially lucrative new business model based on Ogulak's mastery of crafting weapon and mining attachments.The next step in this young virtual entrepreneur's budding career is to donate $12,000 to pay for parts of his siblings' college tuitions. Lovely story, right? But wait, before you go and sign up your future collegiate kin for Entropia accounts, know that MindArk's inspiring tales have a history of being manufactured. Think of Entropia like Poker, you might have fun playing, but chances are, you're spending dough, not making it.Update: added "Ogulak Da Basher" image.[Via Terpin Communications press release]
