Games Industry Wire

NCsoft Corporation say they saw sales of $78.6 million in the second quarter of 2008, a seven percent increase over the previous year, though their operating profit, pre-tax profit and net income all dropped, 25%, 31%, 42%, respectively, according to the South Korean company’s second quarter financials released last night.
The news comes during a week of rumblings that NCsoft’s Austin office may be on the verge of laying off staff or closing, a rumor that NCsoft vehemently denies.
Lineage and Lineage II both saw a drop in sales compared to last quarter as did Guild Wars, while City of Heroes and …read more

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Namco Bandai has reported its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2009, with a fall in profit of around 63 per cent compared to the previous year. The three months to the end of March saw profit just above the JPY 1 billion (USD 9.2 million) mark, compared to last year’s Q1 figure of JPY 2.8 billion (USD 25.8 million).
Revenue and operating income were also both down year-on-year, by 6.4 per cent to JPY 90 billion (USD 830 million) and by 65 per cent to JPY 1.5 billion (USD 13.8 million) respectively.

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Liezen, Austria, July 24th 2008; The Austrian games publisher JoWooD Productions expands its portfolio with additional titles for Nintendo® DS™. In cooperation with 3rd party publishers such as „The Games Company“ and „Tivola Publishing“, new games for the handheld system are about to be released in the course of FY 2008.

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It look like EA really wants Take-Two badly. EA has just announced it has extended for a fifth time its unsolicited offer to acquire all of Take-Two’s outstanding shares untill August 18, 2008. The extension comes, as previously rumoured, after approximately 11,741,339 shares of Take-Two had been tendered in by the previous deadline of July 18, accounting for around 15 per cent of the total.
“Take-Two’s Board continues to be 100 per cent committed to maximising stockholder value and remains unanimous in continuing to recommend that our stockholders not tender their shares to EA,” responded Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s chairman.\

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A post over at Neogaf shows that the newest Sonic game is titled “Sonic and the Black Knight” and features Sonic holding a sword. Read that again for me. Sonic + Sword. I have no idea what goes on with Sega these days.

Here’s what we know so far: It is a Wii exclusive Sonic adventure and Sonic will indeed be holding/using that sword. At least it aint a gun…oh wait…

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Following the announcement that EA Partners had been chosen to publish id Software’s upcoming Rage, id’s co-founder recently told gaming site GameSpot that he once took a very dim view of the way EA dealt with small studios.
“I’ll admit that, if you asked me years ago, I still had thoughts that EA was the Evil Empire, the company that crushes the small studios… I’d have been surprised, if you told me a year ago that we’d end up with EA as a publisher,” John Carmack said.
However, Carmack said his feelings changed after a number of EA’s existing partners gave the …read more

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During its E3 2008 press conference today, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a new partnership with famed shooter developer id Software. The publisher will be delivering Rage, the new IP id announced last summer.
“Rage represents a new direction for our games,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. “Rage is a shooter unlike any other, developed on our cutting edge new technology, and built to the exacting standards id is famous for. We’re excited to have the support of EA Partners to launch RAGE on the world.”
“The Rage publishing deal is the epitome of EA Partners’ mission: Provide the world’s …read more

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Sony CEO Howard Stringer has reportedly dismissed Nintendo’s Wii as an “expensive niche” games machine. Speaking at the Allen & Co Media Conference last week, Stringer said the Wii doesn’t compete with the PlayStation 3 because it doesn’t have the ability to play Blu-ray movies or have full access to the internet. Hmm, where did i hear that before?
“I’ve played a Nintendo Wii. I don’t see it as a competitor,” said Stringer, reports Bloomberg. “It’s more of an expensive niche game device. We’re selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it’s still the best way to buy a …read more

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2K Games has announced that it will be the North American and international publisher for Cryptic Studios’ newest MMO, Champions Online for the Xbox 360 and PC. Champions Online is scheduled for release in spring of 2009.
“2K Games is excited to work with such a talented group as Cryptic Studios,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Given their stellar pedigree and amazing grasp of the MMO genre, we are confident that Champions Online will deliver an innovative and exciting action MMO experience to gamers.”
If Cryptic has learned a thing or two since COH/COV launched, then we may just be in …read more

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It’s E3 Time once again and Square Enix’s offerings are some of my personally anticipated showings. One SMALL question though: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS FINAL FANTASY XIII?
Here’s a list of what’s on the floor at the Los Angeles Convention Center for E3:

On display at the Los Angeles Convention Center at Concourse 401 from July 15 – 17, the following titles will have playable kiosks: CHRONO TRIGGER®, DRAGON QUEST®: The Chapters of the Chosen™, FINAL FANTASY® IV, INFINITE UNDISCOVERY and
SONG SUMMONER: The Unsung Heroes.

E3 2008 Line-up
(Square Enix)
Multiplatform
THE LAST REMNANT
Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360® / PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system
Genre: RPG
PAL …read more

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