Archive for April, 2011

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Microsoft brings home record Q3 results, driven by Xbox and Kinect sales

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Redmond, Washington based software giant Microsoft has recently released their Q3 (ending March 31, 2011) results, reporting a new company record, as the firm brought home $16.43 billion in revenues. Of this massive number, $5.23 billion is counted towards net income, much higher than analysts’ projections, much to the delight of investors, which saw a valuation of $0.61/share. This revenue number may signal a wind of change at Microsoft, as figures are up a healthy 31 percent year-over-year.

Microsoft’s Business Division fared well YOY, with a decent growth of 21 percent, and points to Office 2010 as the fastest selling version of the popular office suite across the product’s lifetime.

Hardware products including Servers and their associated tools saw an 11 percent growth, the division’s fourth consecutive double-digit growth quarter. Microsoft points to a strong enterprise adoption rate of Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, and System Center is primary drivers of this growth. Likewise, Microsoft reports that Windows 7 has now officially become the hottest selling OS in the company’s history, with over 350 million licenses sold. Despite these impressive numbers, overall revenue was down by 4 percent in Q3, which Microsoft attributes to decreased PC sales.

“We delivered strong third quarter revenue from our business customers, driven by outstanding performance from Windows Server, SQL database, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and increasingly our cloud services,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft in a statement. “Office had another huge quarter, again exceeding everyone’s expectations, and the addition of Office 365 will make our cloud productivity solutions even more compelling. We continue to see strong adoption of our cloud-based services among the Fortune 500.”

And while all the business-focused divisions are (for the most part) reporting increases, it’s not until you look at Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices category, where these numbers pale in comparison. This division alone is clearly the driving force behind the record numbers, reporting a whopping 60 percent year-over-year growth. And the primary driver with this division? It should come as no surprise that Microsoft’s motion sensing Kinect for Xbox, which became the fastest selling consumer electronics device in history, is also driving Xbox sales, resulting in happy days in Redmond.

“We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our businesses,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsof in a statement. “Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications.”

Microsoft was reluctant to speak about it’s Windows Phone 7 platform, only mentioning on an earning call that “product reviews are good,” and that, “customer satisfaction is high.” With the growing prominence of mobile, and thus tablet, based user-consumption, can Microsoft now repeat the Xbox process, and get into the wireless game before it’s too late?

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RockYou signs second deal with Loot Drop, Cloudforest Expedition due out this summer

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

20 million+ social gaming firm RockYou has recently announced the continuation of their publishing relationship with upstart studio Loot Drop.  RockYou announced their first deal with Loot Drop back in January, and clearly company execs are impressed, as the deal will now see a second social game forthcoming from industry vets John Romero and Brenda Brathwaite.  Loot Drop’s first title, Cloudforest Expedition is on tap for a summer delivery, and was funded and to be published by RockYou.

“We’ve been collaborating closely with Loot Drop, and their progress on Cloudforest Expedition is blowing us away,” said Jonathan Knight, SVP of Games at RockYou in a statement. “Loot Drop is a natural fit with our design-driven studio culture and with our commitment to developing and publishing the best social games in the world. With Romero, Brenda Brathwaite, and a full roster of veteran developers, their team continues to exceed expectations. We’re honored to be working with them and look forward to adding two Loot Drop titles to the RockYou portfolio!”

Given Loot Drop’s collection of talent, and their associated pedigrees, RockYou’s investment in the firm could pay off in droves.  Along with Romero, most noted for his work Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, and Brathwaite, most noted for her work on Wizardry, Playboy: The Mansion, and Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, Loot Drop features Creative Director Laralyn McWilliam, who’s work on Free Realms earned her a shared spot with SOE Prez. John Smedley on Massive Online Gaming’s list of most influential people in MMO’s, and Austin Studio Head and Game Designer Tom Hall, a long time friend of Romero, and co-founder of id Software, as well as former KingsIsle Entertainment employee.  Given this collection of talent, it’s quite clear to see what RockYou wouldn’t have second thoughts about signing the team to a second title.  Likewise, it would appear that Romero is equally happy with the agreement.

“Since we signed our initial deal in January, RockYou has been an awesome partner. They support our creative freedom as we bring innovation to the story-driven adventure genre with Cloudforest Expedition,” said John Romero in a statement. “Extending the relationship with a second game makes sense, and we’re excited to reveal more details of our projects.”

Again, Loot Drop’s inaugural title, Cloudforest Expedition is planned for a summer launch.  It should be interesting to see how Romero’s experiment pans out, as he’s operating under the premise that an independent games studio can produce IP for a variety of publishing firms, all the while, maintaining the artistic and creative freedom usually reserved for firms with not-so-large deals.

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Breakthrough challenges Facebook players to solve real-world issues

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Building upon a growing movement in the gaming industry, whereby players are tasked with solving real-world issues in a virtual world environment, global human rights organization Breakthrough is enjoying success with their unique groundbreaking Facebook gaming event, America 2049. The title is now entering it’s 4th week of a 12 week cycle, and counts a healthy 11,000+ players.

“‘America 2049’ resonated with me because I love the idea of people fighting at all costs for their right to pursue the life they choose, without fear of persecution,” said Harold Perrineau in a statment. “I hope the game will inspire young people, especially, to help stop institutionalized hatred and intolerance — today.”

The game/problem solving event revolves around assignments tasked by Jefferson Williams II, as they seek to capture fugitive Ken Asaba. However, this is no regular cloak-and-dagger event, as American 2049 has a vastly different landscape as we know it today . Or is it? Players encounter an America that is fiercely divided by race and ethnicity, not-so-female friendly, and at a loss for self-expression.

“‘America 2049’ is literally a game-changer,” said Breakthrough President & CEO Mallika Dutt in a statement. “It parachutes us into an alternate reality not far from our own, where we must make critical decisions about how we want to define ourselves as a nation. While immersing us in one possible future, it inspires us to recommit to an America built on diversity and human rights.”

And if the, “Now that’s something different, let’s have a look…” format of the game wasn’t enough to pique users’ interest; Breakthrough has scored some top level acting talent. The character of Jefferson Williams II is voiced by Alias actor Victor Garber, while the antagonist Ken Asaba is portrayed by LOST’s Harold Perrineau. Other top shelf talent includes Cherry Jones of 24, Anthony Rapp of Rent, and Margaret Cho of multiple media formats. All talent involved were not paid, and chose to donate their time and talent to the project.

American 2049 creative director and producer Heidi Boisvert comments, “By placing ‘America 2049’ on Facebook, Breakthrough is using one of the web’s most popular cultural platforms to create the possibility of changing culture itself.” Boisvert was joined by award-winning lead writer and co-game designer, Andrea Phillips. This is Boisvert’s second project with Breakthrough, as she’s previously produced ICED: I Can End Deportation, another social change game that dove into controversial U.S. immigration policies, and attracted some 150,000+ users.

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Summit Partners and TA Associates invest $350 million in Bigpoint, gain controlling share

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Hamburg, Germany based Bigpoint, one of the largest online gaming destinations, has recently announced that both Summit Partners and TA Associates have invested in the company to the tune of $350 million.  This new funding is slated to be used as “recapitalization,” and will continue to fuel Bigpoint’s growth.

This buy-in by both firms signals a controlling share, as previous shareholder Comcast Interactive Captial’s Peacock Equity Fund will sell off their holdings as part of the deal.  Likewise, GMT Communications Partners and GE will also sell the majority of their remaining investment in the firm.  As for the company’s founder Heiko Hubertz, will retain his ownership stake, “I see the potential in Bigpoint to exceed a value of one billion dollars and become the top online gaming company in the world.” Added Hubertz, “Our thanks go to GMT Communications Partners and Peacock Equity Fund for three very exciting years. Their support has seen the company rapidly grow during this period.”

There also appears to be no bad-blood brewing behind the scene, as Comcast Interactive Capital Executive Director Megumi Ikeda comments, “We received an excellent return on our initial investions.  Wile we are selling our share, we are very optimistic about Bigpoint’s future and are continuing our operational relationship with them at NBC Universal,” in a statement.

It’s exactly this relationship with NBC Universal that has been a driving force behind Bigpoint’s success.  You’ll remember that Bigpoint has had previous success with work for the USA Network, an NBC Universal property, their Battlestar Galactica Online title, a property of Syfy, also an NBC Universal company, and the most recent deal regarding Universal Monsters, a title that highlights NBC Universal’s deep catalogue of bad-doers including The Mummy, Frankenstein, and Dracula.

And Bigpoint’s 700+ workforce aren’t just focusing on NBC Universal products, as Farmerara, DarkOrbit, RamaCity and Drakensang Online are all already in the pipeline, proving to new investors that the company is well on track to achieving Hubertz’s lofty billion dollar goal.

“The investment by TA Associates and Summit Partners is a validation of Bigpoint’s leadership position within the gaming industry, and will give us a huge boost toward becoming one of the most successful gaming companies worldwide,” said Hubertz, in a statment. “Summit Partners and TA Associates are supporting Bigpoint’s international expansion; a course we set out upon in recent months with the opening of new offices in the United States and Brazil. I’m looking forward to a future partnership of mutual trust and cooperation.”

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Japan’s GREE acquires OpenFeint for $104 million

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Announced late last night, Japanese mobile gaming platform GREE has plunged into the global gaming market with a massive purchase: OpenFeint.  According to the statement, GREE has acquired OpenFeint’s outstanding securities for $104 million.  In addition to the buyout, GREE is pumping the firm full of additional cash to fuel accelerated growth of the already massive platform.  OpenFeint staff members are expected to stay aboard, including CEO and founder Jason Citron, as GREE has also worked long term incentives into the deal.

In combination, GREE/OpenFeint will reach 100 million users worldwide, with a healthy 75 percent arriving from OpenFeint, who’s numbers have grown to include over 19,000 games developers in just two years.  GREE intends to incorporate their own social gaming and platform experience into the OpenFeint model and drive mobile social gaming to new heights.

“At GREE, we are socializing the next evolution of games and, as the best-in-class US-based mobile social network, OpenFeint is the ideal partner for us to offer the best mobile social games to the largest global audience,” said Yoshikazu Tanaka, founder and CEO of GREE in a statement.

The new OpenFeint/GREE program is already off to a head start, as the companies also announced a massive international expansion plan, with offices slated to soon open in Beijing, Singapore, and London.  The company is aggressively seeking top talent, and plans on doubling in size over 2011.

With over 19,000 traditional and free-to-play games developers taking advantage of OpenFeint’s connectivity and other offerings, the firm is the world’s largest cross platform social gaming network for smartphones.  Over 5,000 games incorporate OpenFeint technology, including App Store and Android Marketplace top sellers Fruit Ninja and Tiny Wings.  And one of the most obvious wins for GREE is OpenFeint’s already existing partnerships with leading mobile carriers, resulting in coverage on over half the US market share.

If OpenFeint’s name and Japanese investment rings a bell, you’ll remember that social/mobile gaming competitor DeNA has already provided investment in OpenFeint.  I guess we now know what “outstanding securities,” GREE is speaking to.  So the question remains: what happened with DeNA?  It would have appeared to any outside investor that DeNA was well on their way to an acquisition.  Initial investments to test the technology and relationship waters, and then, bam! the acquisition.  However, DeNA’s offices were raided by the Japanese FTC on antitrust suspicions this past December, possibly presenting a snag in DeNA’s otherwise full steam ahead acquisition aspirations.

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Nexon: How to make Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list two years running

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

After accomplishing a global spread of their innovative idea, free-to-play, Nexon is looking to the next generation of success, and has recently been named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Gaming for the second consecutive year.

We’ve covered Nexon’s various achievements this year, but a quick rundown sees the company diving head first into Mobile, Social, and Console gaming congruently.

On the mobile front, Nexon produced a special “Thief Edition,” of their bread-and-butter, side scroller, Maple Story for iOS devices in 2010, while March of this year saw the arrival of their “other” top seller, Kart Rider which counts a massive 200 million registered users worldwide. Within it’s first week of availability, Kart Rider clocked over 1 million downloads.

Socially, Nexon has been a bit late to the party, however they’re making up for it with a significant partnership with A Bit Lucky which focuses on cross-platform social gaming. Not putting all their eggs in one basket, Nexon has also founded the iNiative program which selected both Antic Entertainment and onetribe to receive $1 million in capital to put towards developing games for social networks. It’s still unclear as to who exactly is driving development, but Nexon has announced a Facebook bound version of MapleStory, aptly titled MapleStory Adventures.

And finally, on the console front, just last month, Nexon announced plans to bring their popular fighter, Dungeon Fighter Online to Xbox 360 users, available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese.

Obviously, with so many plates spinning, Fast Company has, yet again, taken notice. Dungeon Fighter Online with it’s 200 million global registrants, and MapleStory (90 million worldwide registered users) are leading the charge, and the gleam of Fast Company’s eye. But it’s not just Nexon’s actual gaming titles that have garnered a nod from Fast Company. The organizations’ innovative business model surrounding their Game Cards which carry pre-determined amounts of NX, Nexon’s virtual currency, are available at more than 70,000 retailers across the US in 7-Eleven, Toys ‘R Us, and Gamestop outlets.

“While Nexon has had great success in Asia and North America, our efforts to expand our platform reach is a push to make Nexon a global gaming power,” said Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim in a statement. “To be named on the Fast Company list of Most Innovative Companies in Gaming two years in a row is truly such an honor for the entire organization. We look forward to many more years of offering the best gaming experience to our fans, whether that be PC, mobile or social network platforms.”

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Zynga pulls Mafia Wars from MySpace

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

MySpace.  A stellar example of what can go drastically wrong when you’re sitting pretty at the top.  While the flailing social network has seen it’s fair share of blows, it would appear that just another nail in the coffin has recently been stuck.  According to notice posted on the game’s MySpace home, Zynga has pulled the plug on MySpace, and is now sending players to Zynga’s own MafiaWars.com; further evidence that the social games maker would like to become less and less dependent on social networks in general.  With that said, Zynga is still relying on Facebook Connect from their own platform.

Significant in it’s own right, this move has particular meaning, as Mafia Wars had been the second most popular game on MySpace as recently as March, according to an Inside Social Games report, counting a healthy 13 million players of the title on MySpace.  Granted, these figures do not include regularly playing members, but still a grande number.

Zynga’s stand-alone title, Zynga Poker is still available on MySpace, however YoVille and Fashion Wars have already quietly exited the platform, while Zynga’s big guns, CityVille and FarmVille have never been available to MySpace users.

So in addition to Zynga’s push to pull users off the social space and bring them home to their own platform, various sources including TechCrunch are speculating that Zynga is simply beating a dead horse by continuing to put time, money, and effort into a sinking ship, i.e. MySpace.

According to a March ComScore report, MySpace’s numbers are in freefall, dropping from 93 million unique users to 63 million over the course of a year.  It would also appear that the MySpace exodus is accelerating, with 10 million monthly users saying sayonara between January and February.

This move by Zynga flies directly in the face of MySpace’s goals, as just last year, the platform took on a Hi5-esque role, shifting their focus from social network to social gaming destination, with little to no success.  Adding insult to injury, just 5 short months later, Zynga was able to attract and hire MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta.  And then there’s that massive layoff this past January, which saw approximately 600 employees let go.

So with the walls crumbling around them, the question remains; what does the future hold for News Corp. owned MySpace?  Remember, the firm paid a massive $580 million for MySpace back in 2006, but can still be seen as a bargain when compared to AOL’s $850 million purchase of Bebo.  So when seen in this light, perhaps a tax write off would make more sense?

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Playcast claims “FIRST!” with cloud gaming in Asia

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

For all the coverage that Gaikai and OnLive have received, there’s one “other” player in the market that’s been quietly going about their business. In a joint partnership with SingTel, cloud gaming service Playcast has recently announced the commercial launch of their Games On Demand service in Singapore. Partnering with Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), the partnership is the first of it’s kind in the region, and marks a milestone in Playcast’s Asian expansion plans.

“Asia represents a huge opportunity for our game streaming service,” said Guy de Beer, CEO of  Playcast in a statement. “We believe that the partnership with such a powerful platform in the region such as SingTel, will succeed in markets where the console-based gaming economy has had somewhat limited success.”

Branded under the banner “ESC,” this Games on Demand service is presented as a new offering for SingTel customers, and is now available in the region to anyone with a fiber optic or broadband connection with a rated speed of 10Mbps or greater. The streaming games are rendered and executed at SingTel’s data centers, and arrives on consumers’ PC or SingTel “exCite” TV service monitors as an MPEG stream, taking advantage of both DSL and FTTH access networks.

“SingTel is very pleased to be working with Playcast on our cloud gaming service ‘ESC.’ This partnership marks the start of a revolutionary process in Asia as it will change the way people play video games. Using Playcast’s breakthrough technology, our customers can enjoy playing high-end video games without worrying about their computer capability because their games are now all hosted on SingTel’s cloud servers. This will also help us to broaden the reach and accessibility of video gaming by opening it up to new demographic groups,” said Allen Lew, SingTel’s CEO Singapore in a statement.

When it comes down to dollars and cents, the “ESC” service comes in at a cool $9.99 Singapore Dollars, or approximately USD $8 for a monthly subscription, while a one day games-fest will cost consumers $1.99 ~ USD $1.60. Both options give gamers access to a healthy catalogue of titles to choose from leading publishers including Activision, Atari, Disney, Capcom, Codemasters, THQ, and Strategy First.

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PS3 tops 50 million units sold worldwide – over 105k digital downloads

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Announced late last week, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) is proudly touting their PlayStation 3 sales numbers, with over 50 million units sold worldwide, as of March 29, 2011.

This is quite a significant number for the console manufacturer, as the platform has seen some stiff competition since it’s inaugural showing in 2006. The first and most obvious being Xbox, which once cornered the market on a “gamers” console, whereas Sony initially started pitching the PS3 as a hub for your home media, which also happens to play games. And there there’s Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii that, for a while, seemed to be ready to eclipse both Sony and Microsoft. Sony proudly notes the “future proof” technology involved with the PlayStation 3, including it’s Blu-ray disc player, a factor that’s been reviewed time and time again as a major contributing factor to the platform’s pricing point.

Side by side with the 50 million units sold announcement, Sony is pointing to the PlayStation Move controller as a primary driver of sales acceleration. Since it’s launch in 2010, the Move controller has sold over 8 million units worldwide. Used in conjunction with the PlayStation Eye camera to detect users’ movements and position in 3D space, the Move motion controller now has 155 supported titles within the PlayStation realm including Sports Champions, SingStar Dance, Killzone 3, and the upcoming SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals.

And what would a stats parade be without some online numbers? Sony doesn’t disappoint, and announced that their PlayStation Network service is now 75 million members strong, and operating in 59 countries and regions around the globe. In addition to selling digital downloads via the PlayStation Store, Sony has been putting in a great deal of time trying to cultivate a “PS3 community” through various interactive options including PlayStation Home. While the effectiveness of these efforts have been hit or miss in the past, with the addition of  Free Realms to the PlayStation lineup, this community cultivation could be a rather valuable plume in Sony’s cap. In the numbers department, Sony has revealed that, to date, 105.988 digital downloads of content have passed through the PlayStation Network service.

And last, but certainly not least, Sony stands alone in the console crowd with at least one unique feature: the make electronics other than computers. Also a television manufacturer, Sony is able to fine-tune the relationship between console and display, and they’ve taken full advantage of stereoscopic 3D gaming and Blu-Ray 3D. These features are readily available to owners of Sony’s “BRAVIA” line by simply connection one HDMI cable. As of April 1, 2011, Sony counts 89 3D titles amongst it’s lineup.

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Fandango, Fox and Rovio bring ticketing abilities to Angry Birds RIO

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Leading online moviegoer destination and mobile film ticketing provider Fandango has recently teamed with Angry Birds developer Rovio and Twentieth Century Fox to provide U.S. show times, as well as ticketing abilities, all from within the popular Angry Birds RIO game.

RIO has already proven it’s success, with a $55 million international box office take, firmly placing the film in the world’s top-grossing film of the week.  The film opens in the U.S. today, Friday, April 15th.

“There’s always been a huge crossover between film fans and the gamer audience,” says Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of Fandango in a statement. “We’re thrilled to work with Fox and Rovio to exclusively provide another convenient way for fans to get tickets to one of the season’s most highly-anticipated movies.”

Kicking things off with a bang, Angry Birds apps for smartphones and tablet will now feature a direct link to Fandango’s site, where fans can check in on their local listings, and with only a few clicks, purchase tickets to the film right then and there.

“As we gear up for the U.S. theatrical release of RIO this Friday, we’re excited to work with Fandango and Rovio to give fans an easy and fun way to purchase tickets to this incredible film,” says Peter Levinsohn, President of New Media and Digital Distribution for Fox Filmed Entertainment in a statement.

If you’ve not gotten your hands on Angry Birds RIO, the title combines the standard Angry Birds we’ve all come to love, plus additional cameos from RIO’s fine-feathered friends.  The application has been downloaded over 10 million times within it’s first 10 days of release, and constantly ranks high on both iOS, Mac OS, and Android operating systems.  Sweetening the deal for Angry Birds RIO/Fandango participants, those that purchase tickets via this mechanism will be automatically entered into a sweepstakes that offers a chance to win on of five iPad2s.

“We are pleased by the runaway success of Angry Birds RIO, as we continue to increase our footprint in Hollywood,” says Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio in a statement. “We’re happy to work with Fox and Fandango to make it easy for the fans to be able to see the excitement of the movie RIO up on the big screen.”

YouTube video player

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