If the latest sales data are any indication, the videogame industry may be headed for a rough holiday season. NPD Group reports that revenue from consoles and software plummeted during October, falling 16.4 percent from September and 19 percent year-over-year. It was the industry’s seventh consecutive monthly decline.
Reporting a second-quarter loss that widened thanks to a weak videogame market, Electronic Arts today said it will cut 1,500 jobs by early next year as part of a restructuring effort aimed at trimming at least $100 million in costs. This after announcing plans this morning to acquire social network game maker Playfish for $400 million.
Electronic Arts is betting big on social gaming. This morning, the videogame publisher said it will acquire social network games maker Playfish for $400 million. An interesting move given that the company’s leadership dismissed rumors of such a deal just last month.
“It’s clear that the quality of iPhone games is eclipsing its console counterparts, and that’s even more acute when you compare it against the prior generation.” That’s what ngmoco co-founder and Electronic Arts alum Neil Young said of Apple’s iconic handset at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this year, and it’s worth reflecting on a bit in light of a new report from Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi that claims the iPhone OS will soon create pricing and customer migration pressure for traditional gaming platforms.
After nearly a year out of the public eye, Apple CEO Steve Jobs returned to it yesterday at the company’s annual music event. It was his first public appearance at an Apple gathering since Oct. 14, 2008, when he uncrated the company’s new unibody MacBooks, and it far overshadowed the new products he was about to announce. In fact, it could be argued that public confirmation of Jobs’s health since his return to the company was truly the most significant announcement of the day.
Apple has sold some 225 million iPods to date, making it one of the most popular electronic devices ever. And it’s sure to sell even more after the updates the company announced at this morning’s event in San Francisco. Among them: Larger, cheaper iPod touches and nanos with cameras and FM radios.
“Our love affair with the iPhone began by simply touching it. This was rapidly becoming the most important device I had ever owned, it was an all-encompassing, complete device. And I knew that that device was going to enable incredible things for gaming.” That breathless and swooning introduction aside, ngmoco co-founder Neil Young’s keynote address at the Game Developers Conference today was a noteworthy one in that it really heralds the arrival of the iPhone as a gaming platform.
Electronic Arts is experiencing first hand what it’s like to be on an evolutionary downswing in one of its life-simulation games. Its stock dragged down to its lowest price in seven years Friday after scaling back its earnings forecast and announcing layoffs, EA is on a nasty downward spiral despite strong sales of videogame titles like “Spore” and “Rock Band 2.” And with a market value of about $7.2 billion–down from $19 billion a few years ago–there’s a chance the company may soon find itself cast as the prey to a larger rival’s predator in a nasty mergers-and-acquisitions turn on its Creatiolutionism game “Spore.”
The high-speed pursuit by Electronic Arts of Take-Two Interactive Software and the bounties of its Grand Theft Auto franchise has ended in a set of flat tires. On Sunday EA (ERTS) dropped its $2 billion tender offer for the rival videogame maker. The company didn’t say exactly what prompted it to end talks with its smaller rival, though presumably it had something to do with Take-Two’s bashing of EA’s $25.74-per-share bid as too low and the company’s acquisition strategy as “mystifying.”
With its original tender offer for Take-Two Interactive set to expire today in a cloud of investor disdain, video-game publisher Electronic Arts did what any company whose acquisition target is in market ascension would do: It extended its offer by a month, to May 16.
And then it lowered its bid to $25.74 a share, [...]
We’re telling IT executives to not support it because Apple has no intentions of supporting (iPhone use in) the enterprise. This is basically a cellular iPod with some other capabilities and it’s important that it be recognized as such.”
–Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, July 2, 2007
Today’s an important one for Apple (AAPL). The company is hosting [...]
Note: John Paczkowski live-blogged the following on his iPhone from Moscone Center West in San Francisco:
9:55 a.m.: Break out the Cupertino Kool-Aid: the show’s about to start.
Uh-oh. We’re being told turn off all electronic devices. Guess that means the laptop’s out. We’ll have to do this one on the iPhone. Not as bad an option [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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