Posts Tagged ‘wiiware’

Gameloft reports 20 percent increase in sales over the first half of 2009

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Ah yes, what would mid-summer be without a plethora of financial statements and results? Charting the results coming out this week, we’ve got Changyou up, Ubisoft down, and Gameloft up. In Gameloft’s primarily mobile gaming focused world, Q’s 1 and 2 have seen reasonable growth, indicating that they’re clearly delivering what customers want.

Banking approximately €60 million during the first half of 2009, representing a 20 percent growth year-over-year. Side by side, Gameloft’s numbers:

gameloft numbers

With the majority of their focus on building mobile games utilizing Java, Brew, and Symbian technologies, 95 percent of the company’s revenues derive from this sector. The remaining 5 percent come from console games sales. Gameloft also supports titles for WiiWare, DS, Xbox LIVE arcade, iPod/iPhone, and PCs. Gameloft attributes part of it’s success to manufacturers advancements and innovations, specifically Nokia and Samsung. Obviously, when speaking mobile games, one can and must not overlook the 800 pound gorilla in the room that is Apple’s iPhone, which Gameloft points to as a source of it’s success, citing the AppStore as a major source of income. And not to be left out of the party, Gameloft is also seeing significant numbers arising from RIM’s blackberry devices.

Gameloft has a number of partnership agreements with some of the largest names in the business including Viacom, Sony Pictures, ABC,, Ferrari and Ubisoft Entertainment, as well as individual personalities such as Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, Reggie Bush, and yes….Chuck Norris. Perhaps Gameloft can leverage some Chuck Norris to help Ubisoft’s faltering numbers?

While Gameloft maintains a network of offices around the world, the largest share of Q 1+2 revenues came from Europe (38 percent). North America continues to be a strong growth market, garnering 33 percent of Gameloft’s first half revenues, and showing a 39 percent increase in activity. The remaining 28 percent of revenues come from areas listed only as “the rest of the world.” Stepping back and looking at the year-over-year picture thus far, Europe again takes the top earning spot with 43 percent, North America showing 30 percent, and “the rest of the world” making up 27 percent of total sales.

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Microtransactions arrive in Capcom’s Mega Man 9

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

With the release of the digital download only Mega Man 9, there’s another great feature awaiting players: customized upgrades via microtransactions.

Released late last week, Capcom’s Mega Man 9 will offer players the ability to update the game via puchaseable features.  While the content is not yet available for download, the online manual lists a number of optional features and the pricelist for each.

Here’s what Mega Man 9’s got on tap thus far:

  • Endless Attack: (300 Wii Points) Test your skills on a stage without end. Try to break the record for getting the farthest. Releases October 6.
  • Hero Mode: (100 Wii Points) Play the game with a more difficult level of enemy distribution. Releases October 20.
  • Superhero Mode: (100 Wii Points) Play the game with a super difficult level of enemy distribution. Releases October 20.
  • Proto Man Mode: (200 Wii Points) Play the game as Proto Man. You can use the shield while jumping. There is no story for Proto Man. Releases October 6.
  • Special Stage: (100 Wii Points) Gives you another Time Attack stage to try, including a new Boss at the end. Results will be displayed in the rankings. Releases October 20.

After giving Mega Man 9 a go, let’s hope that there will be additional items for sale in the game, as this is proving to be the most challenging Mega Man to date.  Not quite enough to make me want to bag it quite yet, but getting very close.  There’s a fine line between challenging and downright impossible.  As with any new game, there’s always a lot of trial and error involved in boss fights (and some NPC’s as well), but Mega Man 9 presents players with a seemingly impossible trio of robot elephants that lob multicolored balls at you.  After doing a bit of digging around, it seems that I’m not the only one with elephant troubles: Patrick Kiepek over at MTV is having the same difficulty.

From what I’ve played thus far, it’s been quite a challenge, and I’m not quite ready to shelve Mega Man 9 quite yet, but as previously mentioned, hopefully Capcom/Wii intend on either a content upgrade (I’m not asking for a cakewalk…just a tab bit easier guys) or some juicy (temporary) microtransaciton goodness that’s going to help me blast said elephants (and hopefully Concrete Man as well) into next week.

“Mega Man 9” arrived on WiiWare and PSN last week and goes live on Xbox Live Arcade this coming Wednesday.  Who knows…maybe Microsoft users will have an easier time with it?

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Gameloft rocks the top spot in Mobile Gaming

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Pocket Gamer, considered by most to be the industries leading figure in mobile gaming recently published it’s findings of a comparison study reviewing all game publishers. The study was based on 313 international game reviews made public between January and March 2008. Rankings and ratings were compiled from heavy hitters Pocket Gamer, IGN Wireless, Mobile Game FAQs, Airgamer, and midget review.

Gameloft came out on top, receiving the award for “Best-Ranked Mobile Game Publisher”. Editor in chief of pocket gamer said, “Gameloft’s tally was based only on 34 available reviews out of the 313 that we studied. This makes the outcome all the more impressive because they managed to secure very high scores based on a small number of published reviews.”

“Receiving this honor from Pocket Gamer is a true privilege,” said Michel Guillemot, President and CEO, Gameloft. “We will strive to live up to this distinction by continuing to deliver the best titles worldwide.” Gameloft surpassed the competition with an average score of 7.94 out of 10, ahead of the second place publisher that earned a median score of 7.61.

Gameloft is a leading international publisher and developer of video games for mobile phones and consoles. Creating games since 1999, they have options available for handsets equipped with Java, Brew, or Symbian technology. Gameloft also publishes titles for WiiWare and DS, Xbox LIVE arcade, iPods, and PCs. Gameloft’s top titles include Block Breaker Deluxe, Asphalt: Urban GT, and New York Nights. Gameloft enjoys network distribution in over 80 countries globally.

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