Regular franchise updates still risky, says investment firm [update]
![b5db8_call-of-duty-blaze-1 Regular franchise updates still risky, says investment firm [update]](http://wii.wowgoldit.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/b5db8_call-of-duty-blaze-1.jpg "Regular franchise updates still risky, says investment firm [update]")
There’s nothing quite like an investment firm’s corporate finance director to ruin your company’s carefully orchestrated release strategy. Speaking to GI.biz (account required) IBIS Capital’s Tim Merel cast some aspersions on the common industry strategy of frequently iterating on major franchises. He noted that major franchises are receiving increasing investments and producing increasing returns, but added that there is a significant risk involved. “The gaming equivalent of Eddie Murphy’s Pluto Nash ($100m cost, $4.4m revenue) is what scares the money men,” said Merel, “so the risks of launching new franchises or making a mess of existing franchises becomes enormous.”
Merel elaborated that the major fear is that the games industry will follow the Hollywood path, “with accountants and lawyers running the show” while developers are relegated to the role of “execution monkeys” — sounds like someone’s been reading Bobby Kotick’s diary. According to Merel, it makes sense to invest in major properties in the “short-to-medium term, but overdoing it could become very “risky.”
Of course, all this comes on the heels of Ubisoft announcing its plans to “come out more often” with new titles. The company even went so far as to aim for 12-18 month release schedules for its major franchise titles. Meanwhile, Activision makes no secret of its own strategy, iterating its franchises every single year (though it’s hard to argue with its success so far).
Update: Tim Merel is the corporate finance director for IBIS Capital, not an analyst as we previously wrote.
Regular franchise updates still risky, says investment firm [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Retailers still receiving Wiis, demand outpacing slowed supply
There’s no question: retail has a serious lack of Wiis, once again. Yes, this is 2010, but you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking it feels more like 2008. Following up on several tips over the past month about online and retail Wii “shortages,” the best we can discover is that supply is still coming in to retailers, but that demand is exceeding it — it’s that same old Wii song we’ve heard for years.
“We’re still getting [Wii] in, but it’s just slow. We’ve tried getting more from other stores in our district, but we’re just selling out too fast,” a Best Buy employee told Joystiq. One GameStop manager claimed this supply issue happens every year after Christmas and estimated things will get better in mid-February. Other retailers echoed: supply is still coming in, but selling out fast. Online stores, like Amazon and NewEgg, aren’t faring any better.
We’ve requested comment from Nintendo a couple times on this issue, but the House of Mario is staying mum. We’ve also requested official comment from all the major retailers, but have not received a response. If you know someone looking for a Wii, the best we can do is repeat the same advice we’ve been giving for years: just keep calling your local retailer and ask when it’ll receive more stock.
Retailers still receiving Wiis, demand outpacing slowed supply originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Marvelous execs take pay cuts in the face of losses
Marvelous Interactive executives have taken a pay cut in response to a bad earnings forecast due to the publisher’s low sales figures. Executives will take a 15-17 percent cut in pay, directors will be hit 25-43 percent, while the CEO will take a 77 percent reduction.
What’s unclear is if this is a sign that executives are taking responsibility for what happened, or if there simply isn’t enough money in the coffers to pay them.
[Via Siliconera]
Marvelous execs take pay cuts in the face of losses originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WiiWare devs speak out on lacking support from Nintendo
Speaking with a handful of indie WiiWare game devs, GamesIndustry.biz (warning: login required) uncovered the not-so-startling truth behind Nintendo’s support for third party devs on its digital distribution platform: there is none. “We feel that Nintendo is not doing enough to promote the service at all,” said JV Games VP Jag Jaeger of the publisher’s support.
Jaeger added that it’s not just a question of underpromotion, it’s also a measure of not having access to the same tools that The Big N does. “Help create a more even playing field by allowing developers to use Nintendo resources … even a more fair use of the Nintendo Channel would help — Pokémon will be advertised for months while third party titles get a week usually.” He also argued the subject of localization/marketing support in foreign markets and Nintendo’s general “fend for yourself” attitude towards WiiWare development. “Nintendo, in my opinion, could do more to keep the WiiWare and DSiWare stores in customer’s minds,” agreed Nnooo’s CEO and creative director Nic Watt. We’ve asked Nintendo for a response to the various allegations and will update this post if we hear more.
Source - Developers call on Nintendo for more WiiWare support (requires login)
WiiWare devs speak out on lacking support from Nintendo originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We got our wish: New console IP up 106% since 2007
If we’ve learned anything from the latest “Divnich Debrief” on IndustryGamers, it’s to be careful what we wish for. Video game anthropologist analyst Jesse Divnich has crunched the numbers and formed a surprising statistic: 106 percent — the percentage increase in the number of new console game properties introduced from 2007 to 2009 (61 new IPs in 2007 compared to 126 in 2009). One hundred and twenty-six!
Surprised? We are, considering that we’ve pined for new game experiences, as we’ve stocked our shelves with sequels these past few years; all those 2s, 3s and 4s — heck, we’ve got a spot reserved for a “13″ in March. Still, we’d like to think our collections owe more to exquisite taste than a compulsive habit to collect them all. After all, as Divnich points out, of those 126 new properties introduced last year, not one received an aggregate review score of over 90 percent.
The lesson, as Divnich tells it, is that publishers are barbarians (see, the image does make sense). In other words, when we the consumers stop buying properties worn barren by those plundering publishers, they turn to mass-producing new IP, in search of a hit, which is then quickly ravaged (think: sequel, sequel, sequel — in short succession) as the cycle repeats itself. The solution, Divnich poses? Simple — for publishers to consider Blizzard’s calm approach (at least it’s worked on the PC platform) and farm their prize properties with sustainability in mind. We suppose that makes it our job to suffer excruciatingly long droughts, while keeping the faith. Who wants to join us for the seasonal StarCraft Dance?
We got our wish: New console IP up 106% since 2007 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo: NSMB Wii has sold 2 million in US
Yesterday’s NPD announcement that New Super Mario Bros. Wii had sold 1.4 million copies in the November NPD period was impressive. But Nintendo topped it today by noting that, including sales after the NPD cutoff date, the game has reached a total of two million copies. It’s not Modern Warfare 2 or anything, but it is a very strong start for a game that is likely to have a very long tail. Even just in November, it easily beat New Super Mario Bros.’s first month on DS (which, admittedly, was May and not November).
Nintendo also announced that the Wii has reached a US installed base of 23 million, and that the DS broke the November handheld sales record set by … the DS.
Nintendo: NSMB Wii has sold 2 million in US originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo DS exceeds 10 million units in the UK
GamesIndustry.biz reports that the DS has officially exceeded 10 million units sold in the UK. The revelation comes courtesy of data from European number crunchers GfK Chart-Track and, according to Nintendo, the handheld is currently owned by one out of every six UK residents. Of course, there’s no telling how many people have purchased more than one of the console’s many, many iterations. Still, the DS has managed to reach the 10 million mark faster than the PS2 did, just shy of five years since the handheld launched in March 2005.
We’ve been holding this back for a while now, but it’s probably time to just come out and say it: It looks like the DS is a success.
Nintendo DS exceeds 10 million units in the UK originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’
Nintendo’s focus on “evergreen” titles has been a staple of the publisher for years now, with marketing support lasting longer than ever with this generation’s major releases. So it surprised us last April when the company said it hoped “word of mouth” would help push GTA: Chinatown Wars‘ lackluster initial sales higher as the months progressed. However, when executive vice president Cammie Dunaway recently spoke with MTV Multiplayer, Nintendo’s traditional message quickly returned. “Part of what’s needed is you have to continue to put marketing support behind these titles.”
She also called sales “frustrating, quite frankly,” but declined to comment on Rockstar’s marketing surrounding the release of the game. Dunaway remained diplomatic through the conversation though, only offering, “The old dynamic of ‘throw it on television for a few weeks and then move on and forget it’ just doesn’t work,” giving us little more than a taste of her real feelings behind the release’s marketing push. Check out the whole clip after the break.
Continue reading Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’
Nintendo: GTA Chinatown Wars sales ‘frustrating’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Grand Theft Auto franchise may have ‘peaked,’ according to analyst
While Take-Two has a number of solid properties, such as BioShock and Borderlands, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto is unquestionably its largest and most important franchise. However, sluggish sales of recent GTA efforts, from the handheld Chinatown Wars to the 360-exclusive DLC Episodes from Liberty City, have Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter worried about the future of Take-Two’s flagship brand.
“Has the Grand Theft Auto franchise peaked? Given the strength of GTA IV in 2008, the question may seem misplaced, but our concern is that the very highly rated new GTA content for Xbox as well as PSP and DS did not perform up to expectations in 2009,” Scahchter notes, while addressing potential criticisms to his claim. “Now, we very clearly understand that these do not represent ‘true’ new GTA titles. However, the fact is that these were compelling titles, attractively priced, and reasonably well-promoted, yet they fell relatively flat.”
Considering well over ten million people purchased GTA IV, the lackluster sales for these spin-off efforts is even more evident. Does the GTA name no longer carry the weight it once did? Or, are gamers simply waiting for a game that doesn’t take place in Liberty City?
Grand Theft Auto franchise may have ‘peaked,’ according to analyst originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TNA seeking ‘long-term partner’ for future 360/PS3 TNA Impact! games
Yesterday’s announcement that TNA Impact!: Cross the Line would be heading to DS and PSP by way of SouthPeak Games (a game left over from the collapse of Midway Games) wasn’t exactly a shock to ardent followers of the franchise. The question of whether or not TNA would pursue additional games on current-gen consoles (360/PS3/PC), however, remained up in the air. We spoke with a TNA representative last evening who told Joystiq that the company is “working on a long-term solution” for the development of said games.
“We absolutely want a long-term partner for video games, and it’s super important to TNA to have a long-term partner for games on the current consoles like 360 and PlayStation,” the rep said. And though he admitted (after much prying, in fairness) that development of that next TNA game on 360/PS3 is “kind of open to the market” in terms of a developer/publisher, the company “likes SouthPeak as a partner now” and “would like to continue to work with them.” For now though, SouthPeak will only retain the right to publish the TNA back catalog and the upcoming handheld title.
TNA seeking ‘long-term partner’ for future 360/PS3 TNA Impact! games originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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