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Kaz Hirai Still Believes PS3 Will Take The Lead

Apparently Kaz Hirai has failed to receive the memo, that or he strongly believes in the Playstation brand. Along with the usual speil about the ten year lifecycle of the PS3, he believes that the PS3 sales should pick up and eventually this generation it will regain the lead.

“I am very confident that after the 10-year lifecycle we will have the install base that we are looking for and that is obviously to be in the leadership position.”

Instead of a sprint, the race to the finish is actually a marathon, and simply Nintendo and Xbox simply don’t have the legs to keep on going. But then again, apparently he’s never seen a sales chart which are often dominated by year plus old Nintendo software.

Clearly even at this stage it’s impossible to predict the situation in a few years, but certainly the odds right now remain stacked against Kaz.

Blockbuster’s New Plan Won’t Affect Gamestop

Just today we brought you news that Blockbuster is ramping up their involvement in the video game selling business. Soon you’ll be able to buy new consoles and a wide variety of games straight from your local Blockbuster rental location. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets has assured Gamestop investors that this move won’t hurt Gamestop’s profits at all. This is likely a move of slight desperation on Blockbuster’s part as it’s probably likely that their popularity has dropped with Netflix and the iTunes store as well as On Demand cable boxes making video rentals cheap and easy. Give most people the option of either walking/driving to their rental store or pushing a button on their remote for the same price and they’ll choose the option that keeps them in their slippers every time.

Gamestop has very little to worry about for several reasons. First of all there’s familiarity. Sure, most everyone knows about Blockbuster, but if your local deli started selling computer hardware, you’d probably stick to the sandwiches.

Secondly you’ve got a different group of people working a Gamestop than you do at a Blockbuster. Go to a Blockbuster and ask for movie recommendations. Everyone likes movies. That doesn’t mean everyone knows about movies. Ask two different people the best movie of all time and you’ll probably get contrasting answers. Some people like depressing indie flicks. Some like lighthearted romps through  Gamestop is generally staffed by gamers. When I walk into my local Gamestop the workers are almost always talking about some game or other. People ask for recommendations and usually get pretty good stuff because of it.

Thirdly is just the sheer amount of space a store dedicated to a sole category of merchandise can dedicate to each of its products. Blockbuster would do well to phase out the incredible volume of terrible horror/action films that clutter their shelves. Nobody cares about Kevin Sorbo or Dolph Lundgren anymore (it’s debatable if they cared about Sorbo in the first place). Gamestop has every inch of their space stocked with gaming merchandise. Every older film that sits on the Blockbuster shelves and gets dusty is space where Gamestop is putting a PSP case or a Wii game.

Analyst says Wii games need better advertising

Retailers are complaining about the low sales numbers of many new Wii games, and an analyst for Wedbush Morgan has pointed the finger at video game publishers for ‘failing to embrace unconventional means of advertising that would reach a wider audience’. Michael Pachter, the analyst in question, likely has no idea that for the most part Wii games that aren’t first party titles have been relatively spotty in quality. He cited the failure of games like “Boogie” to reach the non-hardcore gamer audience as part of the problem. Or, Mr. Pachter, it could be that games like Boogie fail because they’re essentially crap foisted upon the public. There’s an entire subsection of the industry that involves poorly-made games sitting on the shelves waiting for an innocent grandparent/uncle who knows nothing about video games and thinks that this racing game seems interesting. Games have a relatively low need for marketing: get a good game on the shelves and people will generally find out about it through word of mouth if nothing else. Sure, there are some gems that slip through the cracks now and then, but for the most part, good games don’t go unnoticed.

Analyst: Game Sales To Drop In Fall

According to Robert Higginbotham, one of the many analysts working for Goldman Sachs, a lack of quality titles in the second half of this year is going to see video game sales drop. Wiii Fit and GTAIV are the only ‘killer titles’ set to come out this year supposedly, which is likely to lead to a lack of sales for the industry. Apparently Fallout 3, Fable 2, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Gears of War 2, Halo Wars, The Force Unleashed and Resident Evil 5 are all going to fail to make a splash. Someone should let the folks at Goldman Sachs know that their analysts would be much more useful if they actually had an involvement in the video game world beyond reading news postings. One can’t help but wonder if these analysts are assuming those games are the only big ones this year just because there’s so much buzz going around them since they’re the next big things to come out.

Patcher says EA Takeover Could Postpone GTA IV

Time for your daily dose of business speculation, from analyst Michael Patcher. As always, he presents interesting insight about upcoming products, this time GTA IV, where he speculates an April 29th release date might not be as locked in as we all once hoped. He figures if the EA merger goes through before April 29th, GTA IV could very likely be delayed until the fall.

He actually speculates that the only reason GTA IV is coming out when it is, is because Take Two has to push the product out the door to deal with the bad financial situation they are currently in. A release during the fall season would obviously yield a bigger profit, and if EA takes over, they’d certainly have no issues with waiting.

It certainly is an interesting scenario, but it seems Take Two is doing everything in their power just to make it to April 29th. Certainly if EA doesn’t force its way in by then, the tables may turn.

Patcher Predicts 3-4 Million Wii Fit In US

Wii Fit has already done relatively big and consistent numbers in Japan, but Michael Patcher feels strongly that it will also be quite the hit on American shores. In a recent article with the New York Post, he predicted “Wii Fit will sell 3 million to 4 million in the US if they market aggressively.” Certainly a bold claim, but one that could easily come true. With so many Wii owners into Wii sports, and the fitness craze rounding it out, it seems that Nintendo could have a game that could give just release Smash Bros. Brawl a run for its money in as little as a few months afterwards. With Nintendo already bracing for a success, they are certainly going the extra mile to make sure they have a solid amount of units ready to go on day one.

One thing is for sure, Nintendo needs to stop pumping out these million seller success stories if they ever have any hope of actually getting some Wiis to sit for a reasonable amount of time on store shelves.

Analyst Disapproves of Take-Two’s EA Rejection

While we all know that Take-Two has recently rejected EA’s offer of a 2-billion dollar buyout, many of us have questioned how good of a move that actually was. Well everyone’s favorite analyst, Micheal Pachter, has taken note of this rejection and stepped forward to let everyone know what he thinks on the subject.

Previously quoted to have said that EA’s offer was “more that adequate”, Pachter comments on Take-Two’s statement of exploring financial alternatives saying that there is pretty much no chance that they will come across a better offer than EA’s thus making Take-Two’s rejection somewhat of a mistake.

Pachter also lets us know that his statements are based on the fact that there have been no other offers of a buyout from another company and EA is inevitably Take-Two’s only option.

Everyone here Digitalbattle wants readers to know that we do not necessarily support Mr. Pachter’s, or any other analysts for that matter, statements and that we are holding out for Take-Two’s biggest game of the year, GTA IV, before we take our final stance on the matter.

GTA IV Might Hurt Iron Man Opening

If there’s one thing people love, it’s the big budget superhero films. Whether people are drawn by the stars involved, a love of the character or the sheer love of explosions and fancy special effects, many of them have rocked the box office. Some of the lesser known heroes like Ghost Rider might have been less successful and there are probably a whole lot of people who don’t know much about Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. is likely to draw a lot of people as he’s without a doubt one of the best actors we’ve seen in a superhero flick since Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. Unfortunately for Marvel, there’s a lot of overlap between the comic book demographic and the video game demographic. Iron Man opens on May 2nd; GTA IV hits the shelves on April 29th, a mere handful of days previously. The folks behind Iron Man are worried that too many gamers are going to be glued to their couches playing GTA IV and will neglect to go see the film at all. There’s a precedent set as the weekend following the release of Halo 3 saw a major slump in ticket sales (although I don’t think there was anything good coming out that weekend, which might have been the real cause).

Sony Shares Rise, Analysts Display Their Brilliance

In a display of complete predictability Sony’s stock prices rose almost 5% after Toshiba’s announcement that they will be pulling HD-DVD support, essentially cedeing the format war to the Blu-ray camp. In the wake of this, many analysts have chimed in with brilliant observations that many amateur observers of the format war made months ago, and that could have been made by anyone with a basic knowledge of business. Some of their amazing insights included the fact that the PS3 having an integral Blu-ray player will be bad for Microsoft as they’ll have to scramble to get a Blu-ray add-on on the Xbox 360 and that people who were nervous about purchasing a piece of technology which could potentially become obsolete will be much more likely to buy a PS3 or other Blu-ray player.

THQ CEO Sells Off Stock

It’s usually not a good indication when a CEO sells off some stock, usually. THQ CEO Brian Farrel has exercised options for over 73 thousand shares, immediately selling off 52 thousand of them. He received them at $7.89 dollars, selling them at $19.40 dollars, netting him just over $10 million. Pretty sweet deal. The THQ stock has fallen from over $35 a share a year ago, to a mere $19 a share today.

Analyst: Next-gen by 2010

Speaking to Gamespot, Pacfici Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson suggested that both Microsoft and Nintendo will announce the successors to the Xbox 360 and Wii, respectively, in 2010.

“We believe that peak industry sales will occur in 2010, given that Microsoft will likely introduce its next console that year and Nintendo will likely launch before then,” he said. “Further, 2010 is also likely to coincide with the end of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP cycles.”

His comments ring true with the usual four to five year product life cycle on most consoles. He, however, did not comment on the PS3, as Sony has stated continuously that they hope to squeeze out ten years from the console.

Rumor: Toshiba To Pull HD DVD Very Soon

This has really been one crazy week for all those big “wars” out there. The Election Primary is coming to a head, the Writer’s Strike has ended, the hardware sales have gone completely topsy-turvy, but perhaps even crazier than those, is that long running format war is about to come to a close.

As with all these things, it wasn’t too hard to see it coming, especially with the length the high def format war has been going for. Most individuals declared the format war completely over when Warner pulled out, and truly it has been a tailspin ever since. Toshiba has made some valiant efforts. Their players are relatively extremely cheap compared to Blu-ray. Fire sales have done some, but certainly not enough to make a difference in the growing gap, and they even put out a Superbowl ad.

But sources tonight are reporting that this isn’t enough, and analysts say it is only a matter of weeks before Toshiba pulls out and the world goes Blu-ray. Naturally, the format war is extremely relevant to the videogame industry, as for better or worse, the PS3 banked a lot on Blu-ray and its performance. With the end of the war in sight, and consumers confident they have the winning format, could the PS3, the lagging system of the bunch suddenly have a major turnaround? Being one of the cheapest Blu-ray players available, if the public really started jumping on Blu-ray in a major way, we could be looking at a whole new ball game.

You can read the story that just went live from the Hollywood Reporter, a fairly reliable new source, which is reporting the end and all of its implications.

EA Predicts $6 Billion Revenue In 2011

It’s not only analysts who can look into the crystal ball, EA’s executives can too, it appears. The company predicts that in fiscal year 2011, they’ll have revenues of $6 billion. That’s over 50 percent higher than the estimated 2008 revenue, which is expected to be at just under $4 billion. The “news” helped EA’s stock to gain 5% at NASDAQ today.

Sega Sammy Cutting 400 Jobs

Japan’s Sega Sammy, the part SEGA owned holdings company, is looking to cut 400 jobs, citing bad yearly results. The company lost almost $150 million in 2007, after having profits of $460 million in 2006, a huge difference, by any means. As a result, as usual, someone’s losing their job, or some 400 people. Furthermore, they’re looking to close 110 unprofitable arcade halls around Japan. SEGA and Sammy holdings, makers of Arcade games, merged in 2004.

Activision Q4 Sales At $1.48 Billion

Activision has announced its Q4 2007 sales — the big money maker quarter for many game publishers — where sales were up 80%, reaching a massive $1.48 billion, profits reached $272 million. It’s mostly fueled by Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero 3, which have seen enormous success, both titles selling millions of copies. Activision expects the Q4 earnings to carry into Q1 2008, with $350 million in additional sales.

Nintendo Shares Hit 7 Month Low

Despite having two consoles with monumental success, Nintendo is still vulnerable to the market as everyone else. Investors are fearing a recession in the US, which will affect Nintendo just as any other entertainment and consumer electronics company. The Nintendo stock hit a seven month low on the Nikkei yesterday.

Most of the Asian market, especially the Japanese, has been hit hard the first month of 2008, and Nintendo is no exception. The Nintendo stock doubled in value in 2007, but that could all return back to normal in the upcoming months, as sales in the US will drop as the consumers and investors are cautious during these times.

Analyst Predicts 2008 Game Sales At $10bn

Last year, revenues from game sales hit a record $8.6 billion, according to the NPD group. One analyst thinks it can get even better; Janco Partners’ Mike Hickey thinks that the industry can see $10 billion in game sales in 2008, saying that the PS3 would see the biggest growth in 2008, followed by the Wii and PSP, with the Xbox finishing up the race.2007 was a remarkable year, mainly because of the great year for Nintendo, as the Wii and DS games flew off the shelves, and then you have the holiday season, which was the biggest in history, with Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Orange Box, and a ton of other games. It’ll be pretty hard for 08 to beat that, even with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Gran Turismo and MGS4 in the lineup.

Sony Cuts PSP Dev Kit Costs In Half

Sony is looking to attract more developers for its portable platform, and the best way to do that is to lower the price of the dev tools. Sony has announced that the price on the PSP dev kit has been cut in half, and now costs a mere $10,250. With the announcement was also mentioned that new and updated tools are ready for developers. Last year Sony halved the cost for the PS3 dev kits as well, which resulted in more interested from smaller studios.

Analysts Predict Recession Good For Gaming Industry

Despite a year that saw dips in global stock markets and huge drops in the strength of the United States economy, analysts are predicting that on the heels of a record year for the video game industry we’ll be seeing even further growth. In 2007 the US game industry took in $17.94 billion with about half of that being software sales alone. Despite the apparent flaw in logic implicit here, the essential “but if we have less money, why would we spend more money?” question, there is some precedent to think that a period of economic decline would increase consumption in other areas. In the early 20th century when the United States was going through ‘the Great Depression’ movies and various other entertainments were extremely popular. In the early 90s and 2000s, both periods of economic slump, video games helped drive economic growth as well. The simple cause is this: what do movies, television and video games all have in common but escapism. Video games especially are a relatively affordable one, as the average movie ticket will cost $6-10 depending on your location and only last for maybe three hours if it’s an epic. Games can be purchased for as little as $10 sometimes and even brand new titles that cost upwards of $60 (remember, buying a copy of Rock Band is over $100) will net you many more hours of entertainment.

Vivedi Loans $5 Billion For Activision Merger

Vivendi Games and Activision announced a major merger deal last year, and the deal is about to be finalized these days. Vivendi, the parent company of Vivendi Games, announced a $5.13 billion loan to complete the merger. The loan will also be spent for Vivendi’s acquisition of French telecom provider Neuf Cegetel, which will cost about $2.2 billion. On December 12 last year, Vivendi announced the merger of the two companies, effectively becoming the biggest game publisher in the world.

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