Category: Console Wars

Nintendo Posts Loss For the First Time in Seven Years

After years of printing money with its Nintendo DS and Wii consoles, Nintendo has reported a loss for the first time in seven years. The company reported its financial results for the period covering April 2010 to September 2010 and the numbers were not pretty. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The Japanese videogame company recorded a net loss of 2.01 billion yen ($25 million) in the fiscal first half, compared with a profit of 69.49 billion yen a year earlier.

Operating profit for the period fell 48% to 54.23 billion yen from 104.36 billion yen a year earlier.

Revenue fell 34% to 363.16 billion yen from 548.06 billion yen.

Ouchie.

After selling millions and millions of Wii systems, Nintendo’s home-console sales were bound to take a dive. The numbers reflect that the saturation point has been hit. The crazy high value of the yen was also a major factor; it’s hard to export products when your currency makes others look like Monopoly money.

Will the upcoming 3DS — which comes out at the end of Nintendo’s current six-month financial-period — and a healthy holiday season be enough to turn things around? Put on your videogame analyst hat and predict (please)!

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The PSP Phone is Real…and Necessary

The PSP/Android phone is very real (like Sardo Numspa). Engadget delivered a sizzling scoop on the rumored PSP/Android phone. According to the site, the phone will run Android 3.0 (Gingerbread), sport a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (similar to, but faster than, the T-Mobile G2’s CPU), have 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and have a screen larger than 3.7-inches. The site believes that the phone will land some time in 2011, though late 2010 is a remote possibility.

A Google Android phone that played PSP games would be awesome…and necessary on several levels. Here are some reasons it absolutely makes sense.

  1. Sony needs an edge to compete with Nintendo. While I seriously doubt that the next two generations of PSP products can closely compete with Nintendo’s next two handhelds, Sony can do better than it did against the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo 3DS will dazzle consumers with 3D visuals, but mobile phone capabilities would be more practical for numerous users — particularly older gamers with disposable income. Combining the PSP and Android platforms offers gamers an awfully tempting combination.
  2. Sony can push back against Microsoft and Windows Phone 7. One of the big draws — albeit to a limited audience — of Windows Phone 7 is its connectivity with Xbox Live. The PSP/Android phone offers real games instead of limited ones. If Sony can up social networking features of PlayStation Network on this phone then it will trump what Microsoft has accomplished with WP7.
  3. Google needs help in gaming. The iOS platform is the undisputed king of mobile phone games. Although Android games have improved, they’re still way behind their iOS counterparts. The PSP/Android phone offers a large library of games for enthusiast and casual gamers. This would be tremendous for Google.

What do you think of the PSP/Android phone? Engadget is confident that this is a real product. Do you agree? Would you want one? Would you prefer PSP games on a phone over iOS games? Let’s talk! Let’s speculate! Let’s party!!!

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Steve Jobs Was Pissed Off When Microsoft Bought Bungie

Former Microsoft vice president Ed Fries told Develop a fantastic story about how Apple CEO Steve Jobs was pissed off when Microsoft acquired Bungie. Apparently His Royal Worshipfulness High Master Steve phoned up Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and unleashed the wrath of Jobs. Here are the details from Fries:

As soon as we announced we bought Bungie, Steve Jobs called. He was mad at Ballmer and phoned him up and was angry because we’d just bought the premier Mac game developer and made them an Xbox developer.

So, during the day, I got an email from Steve Ballmer asking me to phone Steve Jobs and calm him down about the whole thing. Anyway, we did this deal with Apple where we’d port some PC games to the Macintosh and help Peter Tamte create this company to do it, and I had to go to a Mac developer conference and get on stage and talk about this whole new partnership. It was a pretty strange time.

Man, that conversation must have been awesome. Both Jobs and Ballmer have tempestuous personalities, so it must have taken a lot for Ballmer to back down and ask Fries to assuage Jobs. Let’s play a game and imagine what Jobs said to Ballmer. I’ll go first. In my head Steve said something like this:

Listen you bald-headed f*ck. I don’t care if you’re in charge of Microsoft now. You’ll always be Bill Gates’ b*tch to me and you better do something to make me happy. You just took away the Mac’s best game developer. Seriously. Have you ever played Marathon?!? That’s the best thing Bungie ever did and ever will do. How the f*ck do you take that away from my glorious platform and put it on your stupid-ass game-box, which — by the way — will never go anywhere. I’m going to have fun watching Nintendo and Sony rape your skull on this one.

Your turn!

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Nintendo President Cites Apple and Zynga as Competition

According to Nintendo of American president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo’s immediate threats are Apple, Zynga, the Internet, and newspapers. He recently told Forbes:

I compete with Zynga, I compete with surfing the net, I compete with the newspaper.

Regarding Apple, Fils-Aime said:

Do I think that in the near term they can hurt us more than Microsoft? Absolutely.

I know that most of you RPad.tv regulars aren’t down with Nintendo products, but let’s play a game anyway. What companies, products, and services are Nintendo’s stiffest competition?

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PSPgo Price Cut to $199: Do You Care?

My Google Alerts pointed me to this Reuters story which claims that Sony has cut the price of the PSPgo to $199 USD. I checked a few online retailers, including the lovely Amazon.com, and the price has indeed been cut. Do you guys and dolls care? Would you pay $199 for this sleek, stylish, and discless portable gaming system? Or is $199 still too much (especially for a PSP that can’t play UMD games)? More importanly, black or white?!?

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NPD Console Sales Figures Top 10 Games of September 2010

Here are NPD Group’s top 10 videogame sales figures for September 2010. As some of you know, NPD has scaled back the information it reveals for free. Game sales are no longer broken out by platform. Sadly, hardware numbers are no longer given either. Scientists have predicted that console flame wars will be reduced by 28.8 percent due to NPD Group’s decision. Anyway, here are the numbers:

  1. Halo: Reach (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
  2. Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts, 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)
  3. Dead Rising 2 (Capcom, 360, PS3, PC)
  4. NHL 11 (Electronic Arts, 360, PS3)
  5. FIFA Soccer 11 (Electronic Arts, 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, NDS)
  6. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Square Enix, PSP)
  7. Mafia II (Take-Two 360, PS3, PC)
  8. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Activision Blizzard, PS3, 360, NDS, Wii)
  9. Metroid: Other M (Nintendo, Wii)
  10. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard, 360, PS3, PC)

I was pleasantly surprised to see Dead Rising 2 so high on the list. I underestimated its popularity. RPadholic smartguy was surprised to see a PSP game crack the top 10, but that’s just a testament to Kingdom Hearts’ popularity. The new NPD format combined with declining Wii sales makes this list look funny; it’s kind of weird not seeing New Super Mario Bros. and Wii Fit Plus on the list.

Anything in September’s top 10 surprise you? Show everyone that you’re better than Michael Pachter and analyze this (please)!

Today’s Poll: Will Streaming HD Video Kill Blu-ray?

As most of you know, Blockbuster filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. Most experts chalk this up to a combination of streaming video and Netflix killing brick-and-mortar rental stores. Now that Blockbuster is pretty much dead, who will be the next victim? Will it be the Blu-ray format? Microsoft UK Xbox & Entertainment director Stephen McGill believes so (though he’s obviously biased). He told Xbox 360 Achievements:

Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?

What do you think? Will the convenience and immediacy of streaming video kill Blu-ray? Or are Blu-ray’s fantastic picture quality and uncompressed audio enough to keep the format going? Kindly vote in today’s poll and state your case in the comments section.

[poll id=”72″]

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Michael Pachter Predicts Nintendo Wii Price Cut in Early 2011

With Wii sales down from the scorching sales Nintendo has posted in the console’s first three years, a lot of people are expecting a price cut. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is not one of those people. Gaming’s loudest analyst believes that Nintendo will maintain the Wii’s price for the 2010 holiday season and slash it in early 2011. He told Industry Gamers:

I don’t think that Nintendo has the resolve to cut the price of the Wii heading into the holidays. Recent sales levels have been weak by Nintendo standards, with monthly Wii unit sales averaging just over 300,000 per month in the U.S. However, that’s still on par with Xbox 360 sales, and until Microsoft or Sony cuts price further, the Wii should be able to hold its own. With all that said, I think we’ll see Nintendo maintain price until early next year, and I think we’ll see Walmart implement a similar promotion to last year’s $50 gift card with the purchase of a Wii. That suggests that sales will pick up dramatically, as the effective price for a console, two pieces of software and Wii Motion Plus will be $149.99.

Do think a Wii price cut will happen in 2010 or early 2011? Would you buy a Wii for $150? Or do you still not care about the Wii?

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Microsoft Says That Kinect Will Blow Away the Apple iPad

Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda believes that Kinect for Xbox 360 will “blow away” iPad launch sales. Either he genuinely believes that or he’s trying to outdo Aaron Greenberg’s prediction that Kinect will sell three-million units. Here’s what Tsunoda told Gamasutra:

The preorders have been really strong. As far as what we’re looking at for Holiday, this is going to be stuff that’ll blow away any of the sales you’ve seen with iPad.

I’m a big fan of Tsunoda. I loved his work on EA Sports’ Fight Night series. When the first Fight Night games were being made, Kudo and I were usually the only guys wearing shades indoors at videogame events. All those bonds aside, I’m going to give him this week’s Brian Fellow award for saying crazy sh*t. I just don’t see how Kinect’s launch will be more successful than the iPad’s (without the use of really creative math).

What do you think of Tsunoda’s words? Will Kinect have a more successful launch than the iPad? Or am I right to yell, “That’s crazy!!!” at Kudo’s quote?

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Today’s Poll: Will MS Sell 3-Million Kinect Units This Holiday?

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Microsoft product director Aaron Greenburg said that the company expects to sell around three-million units of Kinect for Xbox 360 this holiday season. This is inline with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter’s (incredibly broad) prediction. Here’s a passage from the excellent Gamasutra article:

“Our estimates that we will sell in excess of 3 million units this holiday,” The company is spending “hundreds of millions” of dollars in marketing, “exceeding in what we did when we launched the original Xbox 360,” says Greenberg.

What do you think? Is Microsoft being overly optimistic? Or will it sell that many Kinect units? Kindly vote in today’s poll and discuss.

[poll id=”69″]

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