GameRush Entertainment: Feeds

GameStop CEO: PS3 a 'great machine,' but pricey

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:54:31 -0600

GameStop's CEO said Thursday that the price Sony's PlayStation 3 may be a bit too high. According to the retailer's Chief Executive Daniel DeMatteo, the PS3 is a "great machine," but for the current economic environment, it is just a bit pricey. With hardware sales led by the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360, DeMatteo said that consumers are flocking to video games because they see value in them, as titles are relatively cheap entertainment due to the amount of hours gamers can get out of them. GameStop's buy-sell-trade business has picked up amid the recession, posting a record number of consumers trading in used games. DeMatteo said he thinks video games will hold up fine looking forward into 2009, but that "no one could be absolutely totally optimistic." Read the full article

Report: Xbox 360 represents Microsoft at its best

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:25:27 -0600

As Microsoft enters 2009, its video game console may be the "X factor," as the Xbox 360 represents software giant at its best, according to a new report. "Microsoft delivered a reasonably solid and full- featured product ahead of rivals," said Christopher Saunders of InternetNews. "With the Xbox 360, it cultivated publishing partners, kept hurdles relatively low for software developers, remained aggressive in pricing and managed to adjust the platform to evolve with the times -- most recently upping its focus on downloadable video and Wii-like avatars." "Sure, there were some problems, such as the so- called Red Ring of Death reliability issues. But overall, the Xbox 360 represents Microsoft at its best: leveraging its tremendous resources to deliver a product that fits the needs of next-gen console users. And it did this after brute- forcing its way into the game console space." "But a look at the Vista operating system experience also threatens to make the Xbox success an exception to the rule," he said. Read the full article

Xbox 360 tops PS3, Wii in online buzz

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:51:02 -0600

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is currently the most buzzed about video game console, topping Sony's PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, Nielson Online reported. According to the Internet media and market research service, the 360 garnered the largest share of online buzz among the top game consoles, with 41.6 percent of messages mentioning Xbox, Wii, or PlayStation between November 1 and December 9. Wii and PlayStation ranked number 2 and 3, with 29.8 percent and 28.6 percent of game console messages, respectively. Read the full article

Sony to launch PlayStation Home December 11

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:51:44 -0600

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced that its highly anticipated PlayStation Home Beta service for PlayStation 3 (PS3) will become available for all PS3 users around the world on December 11, 2008. Following the successful completion of the closed beta service, PlayStation Home's open beta service will continue to evolve with new features and functionality. PlayStation Home is a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. By leveraging the power of PS3, PlayStation Home delivers overwhelming visual graphics and rich gaming social experiences only possible on the PS3 platform. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the Club feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. PlayStation Home, available as a free download starting December 11, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB (XrossMediaBar) on PS3. Users will be able to experience basic features and services of PlayStation Home, free of charge. PlayStation Home will allow open interaction among users, business partners and SCE, and will evolve with additional features including dedicated game spaces, special events and exclusive themed items, to further enrich the entertainment experience on the PS3 platform. "PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3's overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe," said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCE. "We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward." Read the full article

Sony cuts 'not expected' to hit PlayStation division

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:14:05 -0600

Sony's announcement Tuesday to slash 8,000 jobs worldwide and shut down some plants is "not expected" to hit the company's video game sector. The electronic giant's latest move is aimed at cutting costs by $1.1 billion a year amid a global downturn and stronger yen battering profits. "Particularly within its electronics business, where Sony has been most affected by the acute downturn in the economic climate, the company has already undertaken certain short-term measures, including adjusting production, lowering inventory levels, and reducing operational expenses. Going forward, Sony intends to adjust product pricing to mitigate the impact of the appreciation of the yen, curtail or delay part of its investment plans, and downsize or withdraw from unprofitable or non-core businesses. Furthermore, Sony plans to realign domestic and overseas manufacturing sites, reallocate its workforce and reduce headcount," the company said in a statement. Sony's PlayStation video games division, along with the Sony Pictures movie business, is reportedly "not expected" to be affected by the cost-cutting drive. "Through these measures, Sony will aim to establish a corporate structure capable of delivering estimated total annual cost savings of more than 100 billion yen by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010." Read the full article

Gears of War 2, Wii Fit, Fallout 3 big sellers in November

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:35:27 -0600

November video game software sales will be $1.4 billion, up seven percent, according to a forecast from Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. "November includes only two days of sales post- Thanksgiving, compared to nine days of sales last year, so the gift-giving bump for software and hardware sell-through should be lower year-over- year," Pachter said. Gears of War 2 was likely a big seller in November, with the title pushing 300 million copies sold. "Microsoft's Gears of War 2 likely sold as many as 3 million units during the month, resulting in over $180 million in sales of that game alone, compared to Microsoft's overall sales of just $62 million last November." "Similarly, we think that strong Wii hardware sales and better supply of Wii Fit likely resulted in Nintendo sales of $120 million combined for Wii Play and Wii Fit, compared to just $28 million in sales last year." "Bethesda announced in November that its Fallout 3 had sold 4.7 million units, although October NPD results showed that only 510,000 units had sold through in the U.S. that month. While it is possible that sales of the game were somewhat higher in Europe, we expect to see as many as 1.5 million units (around $90 million) in November, allowing Bethesda to capture significant share during the month." "Thus, although we estimated that the publishers we cover had relatively flat year-over-year sales, we expect Microsoft and Bethesda to account for the bulk of the November sales gains," he said. Read the full article

Pachter: 1.4 million Wiis sold in November

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:01:28 -0600

Nintendo sold a whopping 1.4 million units of its Wii video game console in the month of November, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. Sales of the Nintendo Wii remain strong this holiday shopping season, with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata claiming that more than 800,000 Wii systems were sold in the U.S. during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday (November 23-29), more than doubling the 350,000 units sold for the same week last year. The Wii was also the most popular product of Black Friday, with many retailers, including Best Buy and Circuit City, continuing to sell out of the console online. Wal-Mart has reportedly increased its Wii inventory to "tens of thousands." "When the economy is strong, people tend to buy three things from the top of their wish list," Iwata said. "But when things are bad, people often buy only the first thing on their list." "Fortunately for us, a lot of shoppers put our products at the top of their list," he said. Read the full article

Wal-Mart to offer 'tens of thousands' of Wiis Monday

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:14:25 -0600

Wal-Mart is reportedly set to offer "tens of thousands" of Nintendo Wii video game consoles over its Web site starting Monday. The mega-retailer said it will sell the console as a "value bundle" for $329 while supplies last. Other U.S. retailers, including Best Buy and Circuit City, have listed the Wii as sold out online. According to Wal-Mart spokesman Ravi Jariwala, the latest supply of the console was secured with the help of the retailer working closely with Nintendo throughout the year. The Wii has once again proven to be hot seller this holiday season. The console itself was the most popular product of this year's Black Friday and the most-searched for on eBay, followed by Wii Fit. "Asides from our Web site, expect to see the Wii available at Wal-Mart stores as well," a Wal-Mart rep told GameRush Entertainment. "Shipments of the console will continue through the holiday season and into 2009, but supplies are limited," he said. Read the full article

Konami ready to bring Metal Gear to Xbox 360?

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:53:40 -0600

Konami has put up a teaser page on its English- language Web site, puzzling gamers everywhere to find out what it exactly means. With a single line of text stating, "A next Metal Gear is...," the teaser features an upside-down exclamation point, plus sign, and exclamation point, equaling a symbol that looks awfully similar to the Xbox 360's power switch. Gamers will have to wait and find out what it means for now, as Konami is keeping its lips tight on this one, responding with only a "no comment." Read the full article

Microsoft: Xbox 360 in Japan an 'interesting challenge'

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:33:57 -0600

On the heels its Xbox 360 console's record- breaking sales performance over Black Friday weekend in the U.S., outselling Sony's PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one ratio and a 25 percent increase from Xbox 360 Black Friday sales figures from 2007, Microsoft said Wednesday that the Japanese market is an "interesting challenge." Speaking in an interview at the Reuters Media Summit, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Strategy and Business Development Shane Kim explained the company's focus on the Xbox 360 internationally. "We continue to focus tremendously internationally. Europe in particular is very big area of focus for us, Japan has always been an important market for us," Kim said. "That's an interesting challenge because we're competing with Sony and Nintendo on their home turf there, but we've enjoyed greater success recently with Xbox 360 outselling the competition in many cases." "We're seeing greater third-party support from Japanese publishers, which also helps with Japanese content." "We're going to continue to grow internationally because, again, we want to build on that core gaming base that we've established from the previous generation," he said. Read the full article