q1-2009
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PlayStation hardware, software sales decline in Q1 2009
Here's a brief summary of the financial figures featured in Sony's Q1 sales report: Everything went down. The company sold 1.1 million PlayStation 3 units and 1.3 million PSP units during this year's first quarter -- a sheer drop from Q1 2008, where the company moved 1.6 million and 3.7 million units, respectively. Overall sales for the PlayStation sector (which includes Viao PC sales) were down 37.4 percent year over year, reaching ¥246.8 billion ($2.571 billion) in sales. Sony chalked up the decline to "lower game and Vaio PC sales."Software sales for the two systems also took a substantial hit -- Sony's PS3 software only sold 14.8 million units; a large drop from the 22.8 million first-party PS3 games sold in the same time period last year. PSP fared no better, falling from 11.8 million sold in Q1 2008 to 8.3 million sold in 2009.The only exception to the aforementioned summary was PS2 hardware sales, which increased from 1.51 million units sold in the first quarter of 2008 to 1.6 million units sold in Q1 2009. Unfortunately, the wheels fell off the PS2 software sales wagon this year, with game sales falling from 19.3 million in Q1 2008 to 8.5 million in 2009.
Take-Two profits up slightly in Q109, GTA accounts for 40% of revenue
Take-Two Interactive today announced its financial results for Q1 2009, ended January 31. The company's Q1 net revenue was $256.8 million, up a modest $16.4M over Q108's $240.4M. Its net loss for the quarter was $50.4 million, $12.4M worse than Q108's $38M.Sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchise accounted for $60 million (40%) of Take-Two's Q1 revenue, although the company declined to break this number down by title -- specifically with regards to revenue from The Lost and Damned -- during an investor call. Other titles cited as Q1 bread-winners were Wii's Carnival Games, along with Midnight Club: Los Angeles and NBA 2K9. Key titles noted for FY09 include Red Dead Redemption and the second Xbox 360 exclusive DLC episode for Grand Theft Auto IV.In an official statement issued to investors, Take-Two chairman, Strauss Zelnick, said, "Looking to the balance of the year, the economy remains challenging and uncertain, and our industry will not be immune to this environment. Consumers will continue to be highly selective in their purchases, including interactive entertainment," adding, "We need to deliver innovative, exceptionally compelling products to compete for this more limited consumer spending, and we are confident in our ability to do so."
DS Daily: Pinching pennies
Nintendo announced a ton of new releases for Q1 yesterday. As line-ups go, it's packed full of goodness -- frankly, it blows the Wii selection out of the water. There are at least ten or eleven games in this list that we would typically buy on day one. Alas, our painfully slim blogging wages are going to be stretched if we buy even half of them, so we're going to have to revise where our pennies go. Have your spending plans changed with the release of the Q1 schedule?
Nintendo unleashes full Q1 schedule
Nintendo's carrier pigeon just landed on our windowsill with a complete list of Wii releases for Q1 2009. We do actually know most of these dates already (so yeah, maybe the mushroom cloud is a bit excessive), but there's still the occasional scrap of new news buried within.Those Tenchu and Little King's Story dates are fresh to us, and there's also confirmation of the first Play on Wii "New Play Control" games, Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis. For the record, "New Play Control" is a bit of a rubbish name for the series. In our humble opinion, obviously.Make the jump for the full line-up, and remember you can click on a game's name to bring up screens (where available)!%Gallery-22964%
Pokemon Platinum, Fire Emblem, tons more Q1 releases officially dated!
Nintendo has graced us with their customary infodump of the next quarter's DS and Wii releases, and by far the biggest news in terms of guaranteed sales: Pokémon Platinum has finally been officially confirmed for North America (not that there was ever a speck of doubt), and it's indeed coming March 22. Statistically speaking, you will probably purchase it. Also in first-party news, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon hits February 16, a bit earlier than Circuit City predicted. Personal Trainer: Math will be Nintendo's first DS release of the year on January 12. In third-party news, we're thrilled to see a January 6 release date for Retro Game Challenge -- except that according to the list, it'll be competing with Big Bang Mini. Atlus's My World, My Way is on its way February 3, with Legacy of Ys following on the 10th, and Trackmania on March 17. GTA Chinatown Wars has yet to be dated in this release, but we know it's March 17. And Monster Band from DreamCatcher: could it be Music Monstars? Is that just for us? Check the post break for the full list! %Gallery-25539%
Garmin's Nuvifone delayed until early 2009
Somehow this doesn't surprise us. According to a statement released ahead of Garmin's Q2 earnings call, the company says it will be delaying the release of its Nuvifone from late 2008 until the first half of 2009. In the press release, the satnav-maker says it has "found that meeting some of the carrier specific requirements will take longer than anticipated," and claims it is "working toward making necessary design changes to meet their requirements." Here's hoping the bump stems from these minor niggles with carriers, versus trouble with the phone itself, which was running only a partially operational OS last time we saw it.[Via GPS Tracklog]
