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Nintendo president: Expect 'Nintendo-like' profits in 2016 [Update]
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently acknowledged the long rebuilding process the company is mired in to become increasingly profitable again in the coming years. While unable to offer specific numbers, he toned down expectations for the coming financial year (FY 2014) as well as the next one (FY 2015) in a fiscal 2013 financial results briefing with investors, stressing that "instead of seeing a great and sudden recovery in our profitability in the next fiscal year, I am rather expecting to be able to report Nintendo-like profits from around the following fiscal year," referring to 2016. Nintendo posted a $229 million loss for the year, with Wii U estimates down 60 percent. Part of the company's expected transition involves the outlook it receives as "a video game company." Iwata believes "the intrinsic nature of entertainment is much broader than how we see it today," and that Nintendo "may be able to establish some sort of new core business if we consider our role as an entertainment company in a broader sense." While that may involve Nintendo's "quality of life" initiatives, it also relates to the company's "active utilization of character IP" as well as its expanding definition of video game platforms. It also relates to Nintendo's use of smart phones, as Iwata echoed the company's plans from January to branch into the mobile space: "Moreover, I feel that we will be able to further stimulate our platform business by taking advantage of smart devices," Iwata said. One of its first major pushes into mobile comes in the form of a Mario Kart TV companion app for Mario Kart 8, screens of which were included in Iwata's presentation, as seen above. Nintendo also recently unveiled a near-field communication (NFC) reader for the 3DS as well as plans to use the Wii U Game Pad's built-in NFC functionality with new character figurines. Update: As it turns out, Iwata was referring to the fiscal year 2015 (2016) when he spoke of the company being able to report "Nintendo-like profits from around the following fiscal year," as opposed to 2015. We've updated the language in the article to reflect this. [Image: Nintendo]
World of Warcraft drops to 7.6 million subscribers
To the surprise of no one still anxiously tapping his foot for the release of Warlords of Draenor, Activision Blizzard noted during its quarterly investor call today that World of Warcraft's subscriber levels have dropped to 7.6 million. Back in February, the game reportedly jumped to 7.8 million (up 200,000 since November 2013) on the heels of BlizzCon's WoD reveals. Activision Blizzard's net revenue is down slightly year on year: $1.11 billion compared to $1.32 billion this quarter last year.
New FIFA World Cup game in development for Xbox One and PS4
During yesterday's investor call to discuss EA's second quarter of fiscal 2014 financial results, CEO Andrew Wilson noted that the publisher is working on a new FIFA World Cup expansion game. Additionally, CFO Blake Jorgensen brought up FIFA World Cup again when asked about next-gen games in development, indicating that the game will appear on Xbox One and PS4. It is unknown if the game will also be developed for current generation systems. "In the last two weeks, you've also seen several announcements about our product slate for the remainder of this year and into FY15," Wilson said. "We are refining our focus on our biggest brands and great new IP in development, including The Sims 4, EA Sports UFC, FIFA World Cup and Dragon Age: Inquisition." EA Sports traditionally launches a new World Cup-branded game in line with the global sporting event, which occurs every four years. The last game in the series was 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, which launched in April 2010. Given that the next World Cup is scheduled to begin in June 2014 in Brazil, a new entry in the sub-series is hardly surprising. The publisher's next-gen efforts will not include Tiger Woods in its future golf games, and Jorgensen also noted that Titanfall will be exclusive to Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC "for the life of the title" during the call. EA will launch the next-gen version of FIFA 14 along with the new consoles this coming month.
Tom Clancy's The Division due in late 2014
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot dropped the tiniest tidbit of information in regard to the studio's upcoming open-world, shooty title The Division during a call with investors this morning. According to Guillemot, the game should land on Xbox One and PS4 sometime near the end of 2014. No specific date was given, though Guillemot did note that players should expect the game to land "closer to the end of the year than the beginning." The Division is a persistent-world online tactical shooter that combines elements of MMOs, RPGs, and the normal Tom Clancy-type stuff we've all come to know and expect. Check out the E3 gameplay reveal after the break to see it in action.
The Daily Grind: Should World of Warcraft go free-to-play?
There's only one Western subscription MMO that can stand to lose 1.3 million subs in three months and shrug it off: World of Warcraft. But shrug it off doesn't appear to what Activision-Blizzard is doing. During the investor call that revealed the heavy sub losses, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick acknowledged the changing market and his plans to adapt with speedier content. "It's important to note that the nature of online games has changed," he said, "and [that] the environment [is] becoming far more competitive, especially with free-to-play games." And Blizzard president Mike Morhaime suggested the company is "studying" the comings and goings of players and how to entice former players to return. Well, we don't have to look much further than Star Wars: The Old Republic's recent rejuvenation to figure out that free-to-play is one of the better ways to entice gamers to return (and open their wallets). Surely, Blizzard has to be wondering whether F2P might be a huge boost to the game as it's approaching its ninth birthday later this year. What do you think -- will World of Warcraft eventually go free-to-play, and more importantly, should it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Investor call reports World of Warcraft subscriptions back above 10 million
The results are in for the third quarter of 2012, and despite sluggish numbers the last time around, World of Warcraft appears to be on a rebound. During the most recent Activision Blizzard investor call, subscribers for the game were pegged at around 10 million, back up from the lower figure of 9.1 million reported during the previous investor call. While the number is a bit more vague than usual, it does break a trend of several declining months. Is it all because of Mists of Pandaria? Not quite; because of the way that the quarters are spaced out, the expansion is still a fresh release, and we won't know until the beginning of 2013 how much of a bump it gave to the game's overall numbers. The company as a whole also saw positive revenue from Diablo III and the Skylanders franchise, while Call of Duty titles have experienced a slight downturn.
THQ's new boss outlines the company's path to financial salvation
"For me, this is about the future," newly appointed THQ president Jason Rubin told investors during a conference call this morning. Rubin was outlining his plan for the future of THQ – a plan he hopes will take THQ from an ailing company on the fringe of the publishing world to previously untapped financial greatness. "The industry is about to change. If you look at what's happened in the PC business, if you look at what's happened in some of the other businesses out there, you see that print models and different ways of distributing and publishing games has opened up a significant amount of revenue for other companies," Rubin said.Rubin's message – wherein he partially blamed THQ's financial issues on "big incumbent players" who have a "huge advantage in keeping their top spots," such as EA and Activision – seems particularly strange considering THQ CEO Brian Farrell's repeated assertion that the publisher is focused on "core brands" such as Darksiders and Saints Row. As recently as last week, THQ was espousing its "core games" focus. "THQ realigns its focus from a maker of licensed games for broad audiences to a developer of AAA 'Core' games for multiple platforms," the press release announcing Rubin's appointment reads."Companies in a very short amount of time can go from very small to very large. Zynga's a perfect example of that," Rubin said. "I believe that this business has opportunities that are coming on the near horizon to do something very similar. And I think that the teams that we have are properly positioned and properly sized to take advantage of that opportunity." Rubin further explained his hopes for those business opportunities. "This is about looking at what THQ has, looking at what the business is gonna become in the near future, and making a real concerted attack to get in early on the new business model." What that business model will be remains to be seen. We'll be sure to put that question to Rubin when we speak with him later this week.
WoW loses another 100,000 subscribers
Thanks to our sister blog WoW Insider, we've got the scoop on today's Activision-Blizzard investor call. The results? Turns out World of Warcraft isn't dying, but it's certainly seen better days in its record-breaking run. Blizzard's flagship MMO now boasts "only" 10.2 million subscribers worldwide (10.3 million were reported during the call in November). The company believes the success of the 4.3 patch contributed to subscriber retention, as did the success of the annual pass; in fact, a million players took Blizzard up on a deal to purchase a year's worth of WoW in return for a free copy of Diablo III. Blizzard also confirmed plans to launch at least two titles this year, including Diablo III in Q2. Mists of Pandaria, WoW's much-maligned upcoming expansion, might be the other, though Titan, Blizzard DOTA, and a new StarCraft II campaign are also in the works. The company's expected revenue for 2012 is $4.5 billion US.
EA proclaims SWTOR preorder breaks records
Star Wars: The Old Republic set the new bar for EA's pre-order sales according the to the notes for the Q1 Fiscal Earnings Release. The previous bar was set by Battlefield 3, but according to President Frank Gibeau during the investor's conference call today, SWTOR far exceed BF3's pre-order sales. In fact, according to Gibeau the sales exceeded the company's expected sales curve, therefore breaking records no one at the game developing company could have expected. As for the release date that everyone seems to be waiting for, CEO John Riccitiello explained during the call that although they have set a wide margin for the release date, they are confident in the projected release of holiday 2011. It is not uncommon according to Riccitiello for an MMO to withhold an exact release date until four to six weeks prior to launch. That said, EA CFO Eric Brown did say, "In September, we will be in a position to call the ball and give you a hard ship date" following the major beta testing push. [Update: Originally, we quoted Frank Gibeau with the "hard ship date" quote, but the official transcript credits Eric Brown with the statement.]
AMD launching next generation of Radeon graphics cards next week, shipping by end of the year
The attentive newshounds over at AnandTech have picked out a golden nugget of disclosure from AMD's earnings call last night, citing CEO Dirk Meyer as saying "we will be launching our second-generation DX11 graphics offerings next week." What he's talking about, of course, is the highly anticipated refresh of the Radeon HD 5000 series, which some recent spec leaks suggested would bring a healthy bump in performance. After announcing the new product line next week, AMD promises to flood the market with "hundreds of thousands of units," which will be shipping before the end of this quarter -- meaning you'll have a Radeon HD 6xxx in time for the holiday gaming craze if you really want it. Can't ask anymore than that, now can we?
EA showing off 'marquee' title in 3D at this year's E3
[Image Credit: Frank Reese] Amidst the flurry of information in yesterday's investor call, EA COO John Schappert loosed a handful of interesting tidbits about his company's presence at this year's E3. Did you know that the publisher's sports arm will be showing off new titles across the board, as well as unveiling unannounced games "that make use of the new motion controllers from Sony and Microsoft" Neither did we! Okay, alright, we probably could've guessed that much. But we certainly didn't expect Mr. Schappert to say, "We will also show a marquee title in breathtaking 3D." Following up with him via email this afternoon, he told Joystiq, "We purposely didn't give more detail so we could keep the excitement up for E3 -- so you'll have to wait until then to find out!" We pressed on whether he meant Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (spotted running in 3D earlier this year at PAX East) or if he meant a new title, but were told that we'll just have to wait and see. What we can say with unflinching certainty, however, is that the company will be showing off the recently announced Hasbro Family Game Night 3 at its presser. Sorry, we're suckers for Clue. Did that not do it for you? [Via Videogamer]
THQ CEO calls PS3 Motion Controller 'Arc' throughout investor call
Even after all this time Sony's hand-held wand bent on bringing some of that interactive Wii game play to the PS3 still doesn't have a name. Announced at E3, Sony as recently as January 20th was still calling its PS3 Motion Controller, well, "Motion Controller" in its official communications with a footnote that the name was still tentative. Of course, we've heard whispers that it'll be called Arc -- and we're not alone. THQ boss Brian Farrell has either been reading the same sites as us or (more likely) is privy to some inside information. During an investor call, Farrell referred to the "PlayStation Arc motion controller" multiple times in both his prepared statements and in the Q&A round that followed. Remember, this is the same man who loose-lipped the Natal launch date well before Ballmer confirmed it for late 2010. Yeah, so PlayStation Arc it is.
EA: Medal of Honor, Dead Space 2, Crysis 2 before March 2011
During EA's half-hour investor callstravaganza yesterday, CEO John Riccitiello unleashed a flurry of game titles set to be released in the company's "FIscal 2011." For EA, that falls anywhere between April 1, 2010 and March 30, 2011 -- a window that now holds the release of "a great new version of Medal of Honor, a revitalized Need for Speed, Sims on console, FIFA in a World Cup year, an innovative and new take on Madden, Dead Space 2, Crysis at full margins, a new MMA game, and many others." Considering this laundry list of games is getting little more than a 12-month window for release, we're taking the logical next step and throwing darts at images of the games on our cork-board calendar. According to our impeccable aim... everything is coming out in November. Not helpful! [Via Eurogamer]
