Games Industry Wire

Sony has recently announced rebounding profits of 73.7 billion yen ($645 million) for the July-September quarter, thanks to increased sales of TVs, PCs, and cameras, with 1.31 million PlayStation 3s sold, but the game unit’s losses are widening due to the cost of PS3 hardware and its inability to sell enough units. Sony’s game segment (the SCE division), sales did increase 42.9% year-on-year, primarily as a result of the contribution to sales of the PlayStation 3. However, an operating loss of 96.7 billion yen ($841 million) was recorded, significantly larger than the previous year.

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Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes the Xbox 360 portfolio, has generated $165 million in profit during the first quarter of its fiscal year, on revenue of more than $1.9 billion, Microsoft has reported. During the corresponding quarter last year, the division lost $142 million on revenue of about $1 billion. Microsoft in part credited the massive launch of Halo 3 with the games segment’s success this quarter. The title generated more than 3.3 million units during the second half of September, a performance Microsoft bills as the biggest entertainment launch in history.

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Nintendo has announced that profits are soaring and its half yearly net income has more than doubled compared to a year ago. Of course, what that actually means is a lot of people are buying Wii and DS consoles. All this good news means Nintendo has increased its earnings forecast for the whole year from 245 billion yen to 275 billion yen, with total sales coming in at an expected 1.55 trillion yen worldwide. What’s more, as of September 30 this year, the number of Wii units shipped worldwide is 13.17 million, while the DS has raced to 53.64 million …read more

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Square Enix has just announced that Front Mission, the remake of the original Super Famicom turn-based strategy game featuring giant mechs, has shipped to retail. This is the first time that the origin of the series, now over ten years old, has been localized for North America. Players will utilize the DS touch screen to command a squad of customizable mecha.

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After months of web rumors, Microsoft has finally confirmed the existence of a new Xbox 360 SKU called the Arcade bundle and it goes on sale in stores across the US for USD 279.99.The Xbox 360 Arcade is designed to appeal to family groups and comes with five Xbox Live Arcade favourites, a wireless controller, HDMI cable and 256 MB of memory.
“As families gather together this holiday, it’s the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy,” commented Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing at …read more

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Yummy Interactive partners with ALAWAR ENTERTAINMENT to distribute games to BROADBAND OPERATORS
Vancouver, Canada – October 22, 2007 — Yummy Interactive, Inc. (www.yummy.net), a leader in digital distribution technology for video games, has partnered with Alawar Entertainment, Inc. (www.alawargroup.com) to distribute Alawar’s game products for digital download and Games On Demand subscriptions to global broadband service providers.

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Here we go: Citing a source “close to BioWare,” the gaming web site Primotech is reporting that the Mass Effect developer’s Austin, Tex.-based studio is working on a massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game based in the same universe as the company’s beloved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Think the story is nuts? Thats what people said before the Microsoft and Bungie split ways…

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Talk about a smashing success. Gears of War for the Xbox 360 last year sold more than 4 million copies worldwide and was the recipient of numerous awards, including GameSpot’s 2006 Game of the Year. Epic Games’ Gears of War isn’t a game that needs much of an introduction. Suffice it to say, Microsoft announced today that the PC version, announced during this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit, has gone gold and will be churning the retail cogs on November 6.

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Was there any doubt that Halo 3 would rule the charts last month, propelling the 360 to a 5% advantage over the Nintendo Wii in sales for September:
Here are the top games for September 2007.
Halo 3 (This combines all three versions) 3.3 million
Wii Play with Remote 282,000
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass 224,000
Madden NFL 08 PS2 205,000
Skate Xbox 360 175,000
Madden NFL 08 Xbox 360 173,000
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption 167,000
Bioshock Xbox 360 150,000
Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day 141,000
Heavenly Sword 139,000

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It has been reported that Nintendo of Japan is finally ceasing hardware support for the Famicom system (the Japanese equivalent of the NES) as of October 31st. With all the news of Sega finally ending support on the Dreamcast consoles this past year, it is amazing to think that Nintendo has carried on the Famicom system for this long.
According to the report, Itmedia cites the company as stating that the necessary parts for repairs have become increasingly difficult to obtain. IMHO? About freaking time. The Famicom was the one that boosted my interest in gaming when i was young …read more

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