Q4
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Gartner predicts Apple growth, but spurns iPad
Gartner has added its take on Apple's Q4 earnings to a growing list of other predictions. Gartner predicts that Mac sales grew by nearly 24 percent, helping Apple to take a 9.7 percent share in Q4. However, it claims that any reason for a lagging growth for PC makers was simply to be blamed on the iPad, which it did not count as part of PC sales and lumped it in among "media tablets." "Overall, holiday PC sales were weak in many key regions due to the intensifying competition in consumer spending. Media tablets, such as the iPad, as well as other consumer electronic (CE) devices, such as game consoles, all competed against PCs," said Mikako Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner. Gartner did include netbooks in PC sales for other companies. It did not explain why they excluded the iPad from PC sales, but did count netbooks. Doing so would significantly boost Apple's revenue for Q4. But, Gartner did say that Apple and Toshiba were the only top-5 vendors to increase shipments, with Apple's 23.7 percent being far higher than Toshiba's 14.4 percent growth. Apple most likely will announce its Q4 earnings next week. [via AppleInsider]
Take-Two records $1.16 billion in revenue over last fiscal year, regains profitability
Take-Two Interactive, publisher of this year's Red Dead Redemption and Civilization V, among others, today announced net revenue earnings of $1.16 billion for the 12 months ending October 31, 2010, a 65-percent growth over the previous fiscal year's revenues. In all, after operating expenses and taxes, Take-Two earned $42.6 million in profit for the year -- quite a turnaround from the $140.5 million hole (read: net loss) it dug itself last fiscal year. Software sales slump, what now? In its fourth quarter alone (August–October), Take-Two brought in $373.7 million in revenue, roughly 32 percent more than in the same period in 2009, working out to $53.8 million in income for the close-out quarter. "We have achieved our goal of profitability in a year without a new release of Grand Theft Auto," boasted soon to be ex-CEO Ben Feder, citing Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K11, "as well as strong sales of catalog titles and digitally-delivered content," as key to the publisher's success. Take-Two is currently in the midst of a five-month "transition period," having changed its fiscal calendar to now begin April 1 (instead of Nov. 1). Chairman Strauss Zelnick said the company will be focused on "newer areas of the interactive entertainment business, such as digitally-delivered content and the expanding Asian and Latin American markets" through the end of 2010.
Disney Interactive likely to invest less in console games following $234M loss
Losing $234 million over the course of 12 months is pretty unimaginable to most individuals. For Disney, it's not such a big deal, especially when that loss is recorded by just one of its six company divisions -- the other five all profited over the last fiscal year (ending October 2, 2010), including its Media Networks, which pulled in more than $5 billion in operating income (profit excluding interest payments and income taxes). Unfortunately for gamers, that one bad division was Interactive Media. Uh-oh. "On one side we've got a collection of games businesses," Disney CEO Bob Iger explained of the Interactive Media division to investors during a call this week, "and the other side we have a collection of largely dot-com businesses." For both the fourth quarter and entire fiscal year, Interactive's revenues actually increased marginally over the previous year's earnings, and "operating results" were "improved" (meaning: the division lost less money -- perhaps unimaginably -- in fiscal 2010 than in the previous fiscal year). Still, when you end up $234 million in the hole, something's gotta change. A new Toy Story game (the division's big breadwinner for the year) can't be released every year, after all. Reflecting on a "pretty big shift" in the games industry, in which "everything from mobile apps to social networking games" has become a player, Iger said of Interactive, "It's our goal not only to be profitable, but obviously to get there by shifting our investment and reducing our investment, too." You know what that means: "We probably will end up investing less on the console side than we have because of the shift we're seeing in consumption [...] Consumers are obviously spending time playing games -- from casual games online to mobile apps to social networking to console -- and we felt all along that we need to be where the consumer are [...] we want to be there." No doubt. Quick -- everybody go buy Split/Second before it's too late! Like, for real this time.
Apple retail presence continues to grow and produce
Years ago, when Apple announced they were opening retail stores I don't know that anyone expected them to be such a resounding success. But yesterday's call confirmed this fact, as nearly every metric was up: sales, traffic and number of new stores. The Apple retail engine is firing on all cylinders. Some highlights: Revenues are up 75% since last year. Last year revenues were $2.04 billion, and this year they were $3.57 billion. Mac sales went up from 670,000 to 874,000, a 30% increase. Almost half of Mac sales were to new customers, something we've been hearing for years. Foot traffic in stores were also up significantly, reaching 74.5 million, up 62% from last year. Expansion has been a big deal as well, with Apple opening 24 new stores, and 16 of those were outside the US. The Beijing and Shanghai stores were noted in the call, with the Shanghai store opening on the last day of the quarter yet blowing away sales records from all store openings in years past. Further increasing its reach, Apple plans to open 40-50 new stores in 2011, with half of those overseas, and it plans to renovate many existing stores to reflect its new product lines and achieve "service goals." No matter how you look at it, Apple's retail efforts have been a huge success in Q4.
Steve Jobs drops knowledge on earnings call: calls out Google and RIM, says 7-inch tablets are 'DOA' (Update: complete Jobs audio!)
Steve Jobs hit today's earnings call with the power of words. In a tone that could be described as "righteous anger" or perhaps just "reppin," Steve launched into a five minute rant that hit hard against RIM's entire business model, Android sales numbers and software fragmentation, and the impending wave of Android tablets. With the iPhone surpassing RIM, Steve says that he "[doesn't] see them catching up in the foreseeable future." As for Android sales, Steve takes issues with the market share figures that are currently floating around, saying that 275k iOS devices were activated on average per day last month, compared to Android's most recent estimate of 250k per day -- though he does admit that Android outshipped iPhone in the June quarter, during the "transition" to iPhone 4. That wasn't Steve's only problem with Android, he takes major issue with the fragmentation and the onus he believes it puts on the user: "we believe integrated will trump fragmented every time." Oh, and 7-inch tablets? You're in for a bag of hurt. Steve pretty much outright killed any potential for 7-inch iPad rumors, saying that the software just isn't right for that size ("This size is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size."), and that users have no need for a pocket sized tablet when they already have a smartphone. He called the iPad's upcoming competition in the space "DOA." After he calmed down a bit, the call entered a Q&A period, where Steve was happy to point out that the iPad has already surpassed Macintosh in sales, and that it's going to affect laptop computers: "it's not if, it's when." We'll get a copy of the audio and put it up as soon as possible... like most CEO outbursts, this is not one to be missed. Hit up our liveblog of the call for a bit more context, and you can try the source link for Apple's stream of the entire earnings shindig. Update: We just ripped the first part of the call, which featured Steve's prepared remarks -- we'll have an edited version of the Q&A session in just a bit. Update 2: And here's an edited version of the Q&A with just Jobs's answers -- hit the source link for Apple's archive of the whole thing with Peter and Tim's answers as well. Update 3: And just for the completists out there, here's an MP3 of both segments combined.
Puzzle Quest 2 embarks on a journey to PSP later this year
Aww, poor PSP -- it's like you've been sitting out in the rain, looking through the window at all of the other consoles, laughing and having a good time together with Puzzle Quest 2. Well, come on in, buddy! You've finally been invited to the party. IGN reports that Sony's handheld will indeed receive a port of Puzzle Quest 2, launching "towards the end of 2010." Oddly enough, the IGN piece mentions the game will be available for download via PSN and makes no mention of a UMD release. We've gone ahead and contacted the game's publisher, D3, for clarification. Along with extreme tardiness, the PSP port brings with it a new game mode called Elite. Here, the difficulty of enemies has been ramped up, naturally yielding better rewards for players and more chances to throw your PSP to the ground in frustration.
Toshiba reportedly prepping glasses-free 3DTV for Q4 launch
Hot news out of Japan if you're an eager 3D beaver: a report from Toshiba's home nation indicates that the company has three models of glasses-free 3D displays in the pipeline, which are being prepared for launch "before Christmas" at prices of "several thousand dollars" each. As you might recall, we got our first inkling about Toshiba Mobile Display's multi-parallax technique back in April, which is when the above 21-inch panel was being touted along with promises of eliminating eye strain and widening 3D viewing angles. We suspect that by now Toshiba has put a slinky bezel on the thing and started thinking up alphanumeric product names for it, though do bear in mind that queries to its press office were deflected with the boilerplate "no comment" response.
XBLM sales surpassed Live subscriptions as Microsoft Xbox Div. income grew in fiscal year
Microsoft has posted financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and year, which ended June 30. The Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD), of which the Xbox 360 and PC gaming business are a part of, posted revenues of $1.6 billion for the quarter, up from $1.25 billion during the same period last year. Revenue exclusive to the Xbox and PC gaming business was up to $228 million, a 30 percent increase. EDD also posted an operating loss of $172 million, which grew for the $141 million recorded during the same quarter last year. Factors contributing to the loss included increased marketing costs, increased third-party sales on Xbox Live Marketplace and the discontinuation of the KIN phone. Microsoft's full fiscal year 2010 report paints a brighter picture, with the EDD posting an operating income of $679 million, up from $108 million in fiscal 2009, an increase of 528 percent. The increased income was due primarily to reduced operating expenses. Revenue costs also decreased $528 million, thanks largely to lower Xbox 360 production costs. Fiscal 2010 revenues were essentially flat at just over $8 billion. Additionally, Microsoft moved 1.5 million Xbox 360 consoles during the quarter, compared to 1.2 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. In all, 10.3 million consoles were sold in fiscal 2010, down from 11.2 million the previous year. Meanwhile, Xbox Live now has 25 million members, and our cohorts at Engadget report that Xbox Live Marketplace revenue has exceeded Xbox Live subscription revenue for the first time.
Microsoft reports $4.5b in profit, a record $16.04b in revenue
This time last year, almost to the day, Microsoft saw its first annual sales decline in history. Things are looking much better now, with the company reporting a record $16.04 billion in revenue, a 22 percent year-over-year increase for its Q4 revenue ending June 30th. In fact, revenue is up across all divisions, with Windows and Windows Live seeing the biggest uptick (43.5 percent to $4.55 billion) followed by Entertainment and Devices (27.3 percent to $1.6 billion). Operating income, on the other hand, paints a different picture of E&D, showing a $172 million loss for this quarter (compared to $141 loss in Q4 last year), but looking over the entire fiscal year, the home of Xbox and Zune this year did $679 million in operating income -- a sizable jump to the $108 million from 2009. The overall operating income for the company is $5.93 billion this quarter (net income $4.52 billion), a 49 percent increase over last Q4, and $20.36 billion for the year (18 percent compared with fiscal 2009). We know you're interested in comparisons, so we'll just go ahead and break it down for ya: the gang in Redmond is still beating Apple in both revenue ($16.04 billion vs. $15.7 billion) and profit ($4.52 billion vs. $3.25), but that margin feels smaller than it used to. Enough to keep the rumored pressure off Ballmer? Frankly, we don't even think biplanes could knock the man off the top of a tower, but Windows Phone 7 has a lot to prove, and fast. Microsoft is hosting a webcast of its report later today -- usually much ado about nothing, as far as we're concerned, but we'll listen in and let ya know if anything interesting pops up. Update: Some interesting Xbox 360 statistics. 1.5 million consoles were sold this last quarter. Xbox Live has 25 million members, and for the first time since its inception, the revenue from the Marketplace exceeded subscription revenue.
LG confirms Android tablet for Q4 2010 launch, Froyo for Optimus Z
Now this is jolly good news. LG, which already has a Windows 7 tablet in the works, is gearing up to service those with a hankering for some Android in their slate computers as well. Clearly unwilling to fall behind its fierce rival Samsung, LG has just announced that it'll bringing out its own Google-centric tablet before the end of 2010. Indications are that it'll be different (presumably better) than current offerings on the market, but alas there's nary a peep about what that might mean on the spec sheet. In other machine-translated news, the Korean company is also planning a new version of its SU950 handset, aka the Optimus Z, which will come preloaded with Android 2.2. Current owners of the phone need not despair either, as Froyo upgrades are planned for them by the fourth quarter as well. Hmm, all this Q4 and 2.2 action flying about, would be nice to think this tablet would benefit from the same treatment.
EA Sports MMA grapples with October 19 launch date
Peter Moore took pause during the EA E3 keynote to detail a launch date for its UFC competitor, EA Sports MMA: October 19. On top of a release date, Moore revealed that competitors Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianeko will battle for box art real estate -- both will be featured on the game's cover.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood stalks retail on November 16
Are you anxious to get back into the Animus and step in the shoes of everyone's favorite paisano assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze? Ubisoft has announced Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's release date: November 16. The news was slapped on the end of the game's E3 trailer, which emerged on YouTube earlier today. You can watch it past the break. Taking place years after the events of Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood tasks players with revitalizing Rome, circa 1503. Oh, and killing lots of dudes. It wouldn't be an Assassin's Creed game otherwise, right?
Atari reduces losses in fiscal year, increases online revenue
Atari has posted its financial results for its fiscal year 2009 (ending March 31), and, while the company still reported a loss, it's a definite improvement over last year. The company managed an operating loss of €22 million ($26.84 million) for the fiscal year, a substantial improvement over the previous year's operating loss of €68.9 million ($84.05 million). Overall, net losses for last fiscal year totaled just €19.4 million ($23.66 million), a huge improvement over the previous year's net loss of €221.9 million ($270.68 million). (It should be noted, however, that the sale of Atari's European distribution business to Namco Bandai was responsible for €90.8 million ($110.76 million) of the previous year's loss.) For fiscal 2009, Atari posted overall revenues of €115.7 million ($141.13 million), down from €136.4 million ($166.38 million) the previous year. Revenue was fueled by growth in digital distribution sales and online game subscriptions, totaling €12.5 million ($15.28 million); a jump of some €9.9 million ($12.08 million) over last year. Star Trek Online and Champions Online were specifically name-dropped as driving forces in this area. Meanwhile, Atari's new focus on fewer, more profitable titles caused retail revenues to fall to €103.2 million ($125.88 million), a decline of €30.6 million ($37.33 million) over the previous year. Atari hopes to show "considerable improvement" in operating income in fiscal 2010 (Apirl 2010 – March 2011), which will be led by new installments of Backyard Sports (one out this week and one this holiday), Test Drive Unlimited 2 (in September) and The Witcher 2 (next spring). Additionally, the company plans to release "a series of retail, XBLA, PSN and PC download releases based upon Atari's classic video game brands in the second half of the year." Atari will also release "numerous casual and social online game releases" based on its well-known brands. [Via Big Download] Source - Atari Second Half and Full Year 2009/2010 consolidated results (PDF)
Mario, Sonic, and Profits in Sega's fiscal 2010
Despite recent troubles in the North American and European branches, Sega overall had a good fiscal 2010, which ended March 31, financially speaking. The company as a whole saw its operating income rise to ¥36.7 billion ($397 million), a huge increase over fiscal 2009's operating income of 8.3 billion ($89.8 million). Operating income refers to profits minus expenses incurred in running the company -- in case you wondered why we picked up on that random statistic. The consumer games division made ¥6.3 billion ($68.2 million) in operating income, returning to profitability despite a year-over-year drop of 7.5%. The profits in this division were driven by ridiculously strong sales of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (6.53 million copies!), as well as million-plus sellers Aliens vs. Predator (1.69 million), Bayonetta (1.35 million), and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (1.07 million). Source [PDF] - Appendix of Consolidated Financial Statements Year Ended March 31, 2010 [Via Andriasang]
Call of Duty: Black Ops brings the Cold War to Wii Nov. 9
Trigger finger looking fat and out of shape, vegging out on the couch watching Golden Girls reruns? Well, it better shape up this fall, because even-year developer Treyarch's latest entry in the Call of Duty series, Call of Duty: Black Ops, is coming to the Wii on November 9, Eurogamer reports. This will be Treyarch's fourth Call of Duty Wii title, after 2006's Call of Duty 3, 2008's Call of Duty: World at War, and 2009's Modern Warfare - Reflex, a Wii-ificiation of Infinity Ward's 2007 classic. The confirmation comes from an Activision rep who stated "Black Ops will be available on all four platforms, PS3, X360, PC and Wii, on 9th November" – pretty straightforward, eh? There wasn't any other news on the Wii version, so we contacted Activision directly which confirmed the Wii release but, sadly, couldn't offer much else in the way of details.
Namco Bandai game segment records annual losses ... but Ben 10 sales soar!
Namco Bandai's "Content" segment, which combines its video game software and arcade machine products, recorded ¥6.86 billion ($74.68 million) in operating losses for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010. The division proved the most costly for the company, which also runs a successful "Toys & Hobby" segment, in addition to several other businesses. Overall, Namco Bandai suffered ¥29.08 billion ($317.28 million) in net losses for fiscal 2010, but the company forecasts a modest turnaround in net income of ¥4.5 billion ($49.1 million) for the current fiscal year. The games segment, which this fiscal year includes the previously separate "Visual and Music Content" division, is forecast to post ¥3.5 billion ($38.19 million) in operating income over the next four quarters; aided by an estimated 90 game releases, which are predicted to bring in ¥88 billion ($960 million) in sales. In fiscal 2010, Namco Bandai software sales, which encompassed 86 titles (or 225, if you're counting localized versions), totaled 22.737 million units and ¥77 billion ($840 million); with portable games accounting for a significant 9.701 million units sold. Multiplatform versions of Ben 10 Alien Force and its sequel, Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks, in the US and Europe during the fiscal year, combined to sell 1.89 million copies alone. The console version of Tekken 6 was the publisher's only title to move more units than either of those two Ben 10 games. A third Ben 10 title, Protector of the Earth, added another 610,000 units sold in the fiscal year. Across all Namco Bandai products, "Ben 10" the franchise racked up ¥17.9 billion ($195.3 million) in sales. Not quite Mobile Suit Gundman numbers (¥34.6 billion), but still. Head past the break for the complete list of Namco Bandai's top-10 bestsellers and sales distribution by platform.
Capcom calls earnings 'sluggish' over last fiscal year
Usually, a company's financial results press release is just called "Financial results for [insert time period]" or something equally neutral, but Capcom went ahead and put "sluggish" in its own headline to describe its fiscal year ending March 31. The publisher's net sales for the year were ¥66.84 billion ($751.35 million), down 27.3 percent from the previous fiscal year, and net income plummeted 73.1 percent year-over-year to just ¥2.17 billion ($24.36 million). Capcom blamed the financial decline on the delays of Lost Planet 2, Super Street Fighter IV and Monster Hunter Tri to the current fiscal year, though the company previously took these delays into account in a revised earnings forecast last December. (On the bright side, actual nets sales did surpass the predicted figures by about ¥1.84 billion.) In addition to the delays, earnings suffered from sluggish sales of Dark Void, Bionic Commando and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, which all failed to meet Capcom's expectations.
Nintendo profits down in last fiscal year, but not out
As expected, Nintendo recorded an annual decline in profits in its last fiscal year (ending March 31), depositing a paltry ¥230 billion (about $2.45 billion) into its bank account. This is the company's first year-over-year profit lapse in six years, and Nintendo expects further decline in the current fiscal year, forecasting a measly ¥200 billion ($2.13 billion) in profits over the next four quarters. If only Nintendo could summon consumers to drive another year in profits like the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, when the company made ¥279.1 billion ($2.95 billion). It's all so tragic. To combat making only slightly less obscene amounts of money this fiscal year (April 2010 – March 2011), Nintendo will release its 3DS handheld, Pokémon Black and White, Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2. The company's new strategy: "to achieve the ultimate worldwide objective of 'must-have for everyone' rather than 'must-have for every family.'" Conveniently, this strategy suggests that the Wii Vitality Sensor, which is also scheduled for release in the coming months, need only be supported by a single, heartfelt purchase to be successful. (Oh, who are we kidding -- how many units has Wii Fit sold?) Summing up Nintendo's fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, the DS sold 27.1 million units, bringing its global sales total to 128.9 million units. (The company has high hopes for continued sales of DS models, including the 3DS, as it forecasts general platform sales of around 30 million units this fiscal year.) Additionally, the Wii moved 20.53 million units, bringing its lifetime sales total to 70.93 million units through the last fiscal year. (Nintendo expects to sell around 18 million Wii units this fiscal year.) Finally, software sales were highlighted by New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which sold 14.7 million units worldwide last fiscal year, following its launch in November. Source [PDF] -- Earnings Release: Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2010 [Nintendo]
THQ records turnaround fiscal year, still loses $9m
THQ lost $9.6 million in its 2010 fiscal year (ending March 31), but that's nothing compared to the $431.1 million it lost the previous fiscal year. Yeah, we'd say this qualifies as a decent start in the company's proposed turnaround. THQ's software sales rose 8 percent this past fiscal year, which begin in April 2009, to $899.1 million, having established, as CEO Brian Farrell puts it, "three major core game franchises" in UFC, Darksiders and Red Faction. In a conference call this afternoon, Farrell described fiscal 2010 as the company's turnaround year. Fiscal 2011 will be its "rebuilding" year, according to the CEO, and then 2012 should see the establishment of the fully operational and financially profitable "New THQ."
Sega expects profits in fiscal Q4 2010 forecast
Sega recently posted quite the surprise for its investors: a revised earnings forecast. In an interesting turn of events, Sega has foregone the doom and gloom of having to admit it will likely earn less money during its Q4 2010 forecast -- the period between December 2009 and March 2010 -- for something a bit more on the cheery side: profits! First, Sega estimates net sales of ¥380 billion ($4.08 billion), a 9.5 percent decline from its previous estimate of ¥420 billion ($4.51 billion) -- wait, we thought we had good news in here? Aha! Here it is: net income. Sega previously forecast net income of ¥15 billion ($161 million), but has now adjusted that to ¥18 billion ($193 million). This spontaneous spike in cash money is attributed to "improved profit margins in the pachislot and pachinko machine business and amusement machine business." We imagine sales of Bayonetta and Aliens vs Predator also helped. And in case you're wondering what the difference between net sales and net income is: Net sales accounts for the total profits a company makes based on the products it sells, while net income takes into account net sales and other operating costs, such as licensing fees and taxes. [Via GameSpot]
