Capcom's mobile business has suffered this fiscal year, with revenue dropping by 40 per cent at the nine-month point.
In the first nine-months of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, Capcom's Mobile Contents business earned ¥5.2 billion ($51 million) in revenue, down from ¥8.6 billion ($84 million) in the same period the previous year. That's a drop of more than 39 per cent, and a clear sign of struggle in a business that, thanks to the success of Smurf's Village, once showed great promise for the company's future.
In material distributed to investors, Capcom acknowledged the lack of successful titles in a market that yields high profits. Among others, It is planning to release Street Fighter Battle Combination on iOS before the close of the fiscal year.
Overall, Capcom's Digital Contents division - which includes mobile - showed signs of improvements, earning ¥56 billion ($549 million) revenue, 13 per cent more than the previous year. Digital sales - including DLC and full-game downloads - also improved, hitting ¥7.7 billion ($75 million), 10 per cent higher than forecast for the entire year. However, the cost of doing business was higher, and the division's operating income fell 5.5 per cent to ¥7.3 billion ($72 million).
Capcom's strongest performer was Monster Hunter 4, which has now sold 4 million copies despite only being available in Japan. Dead Rising 3, an Xbox One launch title, sold 1 million copies, with a further 200,000 sales expected by the end of the fiscal year.
Across the whole company, Capcom earned ¥75.2 billion ($737 million) in revenue, up 3.5 per cent, and ¥5.9 billion ($58 million) in net profit, down 10.3 per cent. The company also benefited from the favourable exchange rate, to the tune of ¥662 million ($6.5 million).
Last month, Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto pledged to hire 100 new developers every year for the next five years in an effort to reinvigorate the business.
Dead Rising 3 only getting a million sales is kinda weird. I would've expected more from a launch title, especially for a console that isn't doing bad on the sales end. Maybe the series is petering out in appeal?
0
Ov3rchargeR.I.P. Mass EffectYou were dead to me for yearsRegistered Userregular
Capcom's mobile business has suffered this fiscal year, with revenue dropping by 40 per cent at the nine-month point.
In the first nine-months of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, Capcom's Mobile Contents business earned ¥5.2 billion ($51 million) in revenue, down from ¥8.6 billion ($84 million) in the same period the previous year. That's a drop of more than 39 per cent, and a clear sign of struggle in a business that, thanks to the success of Smurf's Village, once showed great promise for the company's future.
In material distributed to investors, Capcom acknowledged the lack of successful titles in a market that yields high profits. Among others, It is planning to release Street Fighter Battle Combination on iOS before the close of the fiscal year.
Overall, Capcom's Digital Contents division - which includes mobile - showed signs of improvements, earning ¥56 billion ($549 million) revenue, 13 per cent more than the previous year. Digital sales - including DLC and full-game downloads - also improved, hitting ¥7.7 billion ($75 million), 10 per cent higher than forecast for the entire year. However, the cost of doing business was higher, and the division's operating income fell 5.5 per cent to ¥7.3 billion ($72 million).
Capcom's strongest performer was Monster Hunter 4, which has now sold 4 million copies despite only being available in Japan. Dead Rising 3, an Xbox One launch title, sold 1 million copies, with a further 200,000 sales expected by the end of the fiscal year.
Across the whole company, Capcom earned ¥75.2 billion ($737 million) in revenue, up 3.5 per cent, and ¥5.9 billion ($58 million) in net profit, down 10.3 per cent. The company also benefited from the favourable exchange rate, to the tune of ¥662 million ($6.5 million).
Last month, Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto pledged to hire 100 new developers every year for the next five years in an effort to reinvigorate the business.
Dead Rising 3 only getting a million sales is kinda weird. I would've expected more from a launch title, especially for a console that isn't doing bad on the sales end. Maybe the series is petering out in appeal?
Isn't 1 million copies a third of the total Xbones sold? That's pretty good.
Capcom's mobile business has suffered this fiscal year, with revenue dropping by 40 per cent at the nine-month point.
In the first nine-months of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, Capcom's Mobile Contents business earned ¥5.2 billion ($51 million) in revenue, down from ¥8.6 billion ($84 million) in the same period the previous year. That's a drop of more than 39 per cent, and a clear sign of struggle in a business that, thanks to the success of Smurf's Village, once showed great promise for the company's future.
In material distributed to investors, Capcom acknowledged the lack of successful titles in a market that yields high profits. Among others, It is planning to release Street Fighter Battle Combination on iOS before the close of the fiscal year.
Overall, Capcom's Digital Contents division - which includes mobile - showed signs of improvements, earning ¥56 billion ($549 million) revenue, 13 per cent more than the previous year. Digital sales - including DLC and full-game downloads - also improved, hitting ¥7.7 billion ($75 million), 10 per cent higher than forecast for the entire year. However, the cost of doing business was higher, and the division's operating income fell 5.5 per cent to ¥7.3 billion ($72 million).
Capcom's strongest performer was Monster Hunter 4, which has now sold 4 million copies despite only being available in Japan. Dead Rising 3, an Xbox One launch title, sold 1 million copies, with a further 200,000 sales expected by the end of the fiscal year.
Across the whole company, Capcom earned ¥75.2 billion ($737 million) in revenue, up 3.5 per cent, and ¥5.9 billion ($58 million) in net profit, down 10.3 per cent. The company also benefited from the favourable exchange rate, to the tune of ¥662 million ($6.5 million).
Last month, Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto pledged to hire 100 new developers every year for the next five years in an effort to reinvigorate the business.
Dead Rising 3 only getting a million sales is kinda weird. I would've expected more from a launch title, especially for a console that isn't doing bad on the sales end. Maybe the series is petering out in appeal?
Isn't 1 million copies a third of the total Xbones sold? That's pretty good.
Half or a third. I mean yeah that's pretty good. I just realized I sound like Square. "NOT ENOUGH." A million is solid as far as raw numbers go, but these mega publishers expect more typically.
+1
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Considering that Capcom tried to tank the Dead Rising franchise because DR1 being a hit wasn't mega-profitable enough and the guy who made DR2 basically had to use Capcom's development system against itself to even get the game made, I'm surprised Capcom hasn't already come out and announced they will be burning all Dead Rising material in a big fire and deleting all digital copies because DR3 sold "only" a million copies on a brand-new system which has only sold a handful of millions so far.
And here's another Industry tidbit. Hey Canadians, remember 6-7 years ago when our games cost $5-$10 more than the US prices? Yeah, our dollar's dropping and the big retailers are wasting no time hiking prices again.
Patrick O'Rourke
Published: January 28, 2014, 7:52 pm
Updated: 2 weeks ago
A A A
Have you got used to paying $59.99 for new video games in Canada? Well get ready to be disappointed.
Many Canadian retailers are reportedly raising the price of their games by between $5 and $10, due to the relatively weak Canadian dollar. Back in about 2008, it was customary for Canadians to spend about $10 more on new video games than their American counterparts, but for the last few years, due to the Canadian dollar’s relative parity with the U.S. dollar, the price disparity was non-existent.
Certain retailers like Amazon.ca, Future Shop and Best Buy are still holding to a $59.99 price point, at least for current titles. Some pre-order games, like South Park: The Stick of Truth, are priced at $64.99 on BestBuy.ca. Ebgames.ca is selling many of its titles, especially games available for pre-order at prices between $64.99 and $69.99.
While unconfirmed, some Neogaf users are reporting these price hikes will be making their way to all stores, online and retail, selling video games across Canada.
It’s also unclear if this price hike will affect digital downloadable copies of games.
And then there's this somewhat snide editorial by one of our local mobile developers on the topic.
Videogame Prices are on the Rise in Canada – Depending on Your Definition of 'Videogames'
Posted by Ryan Henson Creighton on Feb 7, 2014
i had to laugh when i read some articles warning that the price of "games" in Canada is set to rise. Self-appointed video game sage Michael Pachter predicts a return to a $69.99 price point for new-gen PS4 and Xbox One games following a low of $49.99 and $59.99 on their console predecessors. The faltering loonie has already made that prediction a reality here in Canada, with "game" prices for many titles hitting $69.99 at retailers like EB Games, Best Buy and Future Shop.
The report by Fansided clarified that these prices are for "standard games," and that the price hikes affect "Canadian gamers," adding that "it may be commonplace for $5 to be bumped for the majority of games going forward," citing Game Deals Canada.
The majority of games for Canadian gamers are priced at 70 bucks, are they? That assertion didn't smell right to me, so i decided to bust out the Stats Gun. According to the Entertainment Software Association Canada's annual study of the Canadian video game industry, more Canadians said they play games on computers and handheld systems than they do on consoles. While console game sales still account for well over half of video game revenues in Canada (likely owing to those $70-a-pop price tags), it's fallacious to suggest that the "majority" of games will ring up at such a high price.
i took a quick survey of the Steam storefront for Mac/PC/Linux, platforms on which 36% of Canadians said they play games, which enjoys a 95% penetration rate of ownership. At the time of writing, the average price of the games featured on Steam's prestigious front page was $17.48 (although, to be fair, the page included a number of sales on older titles). The average cost of the top 10 paid games on Apple's iPhone (which is among the mobile devices that 21% of Canadians use to play games), is $4.09. On the handheld front, where 44% of Canadians play, the PS Vita averaged $40.10 and the Nintendo 3DS rang it at $38.32 average per game.
The objection that would erupt from any self-proclaimed "gamer" at this point would be that Fansided was talking about "games." You know—GAMES? Stuff like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, The Last of Us. GAAAAMES!! Not Flappy Bird. That's not what we mean when we say "games." i mean, Flappy Bird is a game, technically. But this report is talking about gaaames played by gaaamers. REAL games. GUY games. Like, actual REAL games on REAL consoles, where you can shoot hookers in the face and chainsaw aliens in half and cool stuff like that. Gaaames.
Incidentally, the ESAC's report also states that 58% of Canadians self-identify as gamers , that nearly half of those gamers are female, and the average age of gamers in Canada is 31 years old. i'm confident that those resourceful grown-ups, many of whom understand the value of a buck, can find ways to get their kicks at under $70 per title.
Avoiding his ranting on "real games vs. Flappy Bird" (which I find amusing as a bona fide lady who plays both console and Steamy games and knows full well why people write articles about console game price shifts), the growing digital marketplace makes this new era of price differentials interesting. Most of them charge in USD and let the credit card companies sort the currency conversion out, making digital purchase prices a lot more flexible and quicker to change that the retail stores... but also making it difficult to tell whether you're winning or losing when you buy online, since you often won't see what you were actually charged by the credit card company until you get your statement. I think Nintendo charges CAD prices so that it can scrupulously collect regional sales taxes, so maybe that'll be the first store to watch in order to see if prices go up digitally rather than just at brick 'n' mortar.
Fun with currency!
Want to find me on a gaming service? I'm SwashbucklerXX everywhere.
I would hope that most Canadian consumers wouldn't put up with this bullshit and would refuse to pay the extra cost, but sadly I already know that most people will just go along with it.
It's a temporary, artificial low largely caused by Harper because he somehow thinks it will help the economy. Retailers could at least wait a damn month before making such a dickish change in their policies.
The Witcher series’ lead gameplay designer Maciej Szcześnik and gameplay producer Marek Ziemak have both joined 11 bit studios, the company announced this morning. At the studio, Szcześnik is the lead designer of a brand new game in development.
“I’ll be responsible for the entire design of a game that took shape in my imagination,” he said in a statement. “It’s a really exciting feeling to create a new world from scratch, make its characters and rules and to know that I have this blank page to fill with my ideas and then bring them to life.”
Meanwhile, Ziemak’s role at 11 bit is a little more mysterious, and will be announced “soon,” alongside news of the studio’s projects. Judging by a comment released by Ziemak, though, it sounds like it could be related to indie games.
“I’ve been watching the indie-game scene for quite some time and I love its creativity and freshness,” Ziemak stated. “Without going into details, expect some hot news from us around March.”
The Xbox One version of Szcześnik's next game should give you a cheevo if you can pronounce his name correctly.
She-zen-ick?
Or She-zez-nik?
0
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
It's all fun and games, but the "war front" setting is getting old. Well, it's been old for a long time. War and zombies.. bleh. Done to death.
Can we get some more dinosaur or alien games already?
Imagine something like DayZ/Rust with server centric goals, like surviving an island of dinosaurs with bows and arrows and traps. Maybe aliens are landing in hunter parties to capture dinos themselves, so that's where you can get various technologies.
Or some games based on Spy vs Spy?
I realize big titles are milking their fan base, and that's fine, I just wish someone with money would put a little creativity into something new.
TUUUUUUUUUUUUROOOOOOOOOOOOOK!
+2
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Well, if you want to take out the action/violence from games you run into a few large problems.
1) As said, they don't (generally) sell.
2) Almost universally the stories are crap and always have been. Even the ones that aren't probably don't pass point 1 on the story.
3) If there's no player input it's not really a game, it's a interactive story. Which isn't a problem, unless you want to make a game. Adventure games get around this, but even the successful ones fail point 2 mostly. And, of course, 1.
4) Violence is fun to most everybody, even the people who want more of not-violence. Removing fun is bad.
Until they at least crack #2 in a game (and every game that's held up as doing so has failed to grab me personally, just as an example) I don't really even want them focus too hard on it. Just my take on it, and of course there's no way violence is going to go away anytime soon anyway.
Most people like playing games that involve reaction times, aim, skill, speed etc (with the exception of sim games, puzzle games etc). There aren't many situations in real life that require such abilities that don't involve violence - except for Sports games, and those sell massively as well.
Platformers?
0
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Despite the admittedly sluggish outlook for micro-consoles like Ouya, plenty of electronics companies are interested in taking a stab at the market. According to a report from Kotaku, a presentation during the Samsung Developer's Conference outlined the Korean company's plans to launch a new videogame platform. Both concepts could make their way to the public later this year.
The "Samsung Gaming Service" takes a two-prong approach in offering games to what Samsung Innovation Lab director Alan Queen calls the "console skeptic" portion of the market. The first is Samsung Mobile Console, which essentially allows you to hook your Samsung handset to an HDTV and play games via a Samsung-branded Bluetooth controller. You could also potentially send games to your television through WiFi. The company sees this option as a competitor in the micro-console space.
Secondly, the company is also working on Samsung Multi-Screen, which offers a game storefront within Samsung Smart TV features. Developers can thereby release games for both Samsung mobile devices and television sets. Both platforms will reportedly roll out in the fourth quarter of 2014. Samsung has tossed around similar gaming concepts over the last couple years, though little has come to fruition.
Yay for hooking things to your TV, though as it's presented I don't see anything here that will give any potential competitors sleepless nights.
Hooking things to your tv? Not needed.
What exactly do you think the computers in "smart tvs" are?
Samsung can make Galaxy S2/S3 parts for next to nothing now, and slap them in the back of a big screen LED tv to give it "smart" capabilities, and that is actually exactly what they've been doing.
Well, if you want to take out the action/violence from games you run into a few large problems.
1) As said, they don't (generally) sell.
2) Almost universally the stories are crap and always have been. Even the ones that aren't probably don't pass point 1 on the story.
3) If there's no player input it's not really a game, it's a interactive story. Which isn't a problem, unless you want to make a game. Adventure games get around this, but even the successful ones fail point 2 mostly. And, of course, 1.
4) Violence is fun to most everybody, even the people who want more of not-violence. Removing fun is bad.
Until they at least crack #2 in a game (and every game that's held up as doing so has failed to grab me personally, just as an example) I don't really even want them focus too hard on it. Just my take on it, and of course there's no way violence is going to go away anytime soon anyway.
Most people like playing games that involve reaction times, aim, skill, speed etc (with the exception of sim games, puzzle games etc). There aren't many situations in real life that require such abilities that don't involve violence - except for Sports games, and those sell massively as well.
Well, if you want to take out the action/violence from games you run into a few large problems.
1) As said, they don't (generally) sell.
2) Almost universally the stories are crap and always have been. Even the ones that aren't probably don't pass point 1 on the story.
3) If there's no player input it's not really a game, it's a interactive story. Which isn't a problem, unless you want to make a game. Adventure games get around this, but even the successful ones fail point 2 mostly. And, of course, 1.
4) Violence is fun to most everybody, even the people who want more of not-violence. Removing fun is bad.
Until they at least crack #2 in a game (and every game that's held up as doing so has failed to grab me personally, just as an example) I don't really even want them focus too hard on it. Just my take on it, and of course there's no way violence is going to go away anytime soon anyway.
Most people like playing games that involve reaction times, aim, skill, speed etc (with the exception of sim games, puzzle games etc). There aren't many situations in real life that require such abilities that don't involve violence - except for Sports games, and those sell massively as well.
Platformers?
No no. Super Meat Boy involves violence!
...it makes me want to punch my screen.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
0
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Super meat boy isn't a game, it's a self-torture device.
Sega's latest earnings report reveals the company's packaged PC sales grew tremendously while packaged console game sales crashed. The company's digital sales are also almost equal to its packaged sales now, but all of these pale in comparison to Sega Sammy Holdings' pachinko business.
The company profited almost $50 million from its pachinko business in the nine months period the report covered. By comparison, Sega's "consumer business," which includes all console, handheld, and PC sales both digital and retail, made only $27 million.
Pachinko, in case you haven't heard of it, is a gambling machine akin to a slot machine thinly veiled as an arcade game. It looks like a vertical pinball table without flippers. You fire a ball into the machine and watch as it makes its way down to the bottom. If the ball goes into certain holes, you get more balls, which you can use to keep playing and ultimately trade in for prizes.
Sega's consumer business seems to be leaning towards digital and PC. It's revenues from packaged games now has only a slight edge on digital revenues, and packaged PC sales grew from 770,000 units last year to 2.27 million, while packaged console sales dropped from 2.73 million to just 1.2 million.
While Sega is probably best known for iconic characters like Sonic, PC games like Football Manager and the Total War series are becoming increasingly important to its bottom line.
Another article noted Sonic: Lost World sold 640,000 copies, which isn't bad considering the relatively small Wii U install base and the fact that the game kinda sucked.
Ah. Much less good, then. Especially after Colors did so well.
I'm intensely curious how the next Sonic game will do. So many X factors... whether or not the game will be good, whether the TV show will help, whether people will buy a game on a system relatively few people are buying, etc.
But the 3DS version reportedly sucked more than the WiiU version.
Well, here's what I see when I look at footage for that game. It basically looks like a Ratchet & Clank: All4One for the Sonic universe. Does... anyone really WANT that, because no one really wanted All4One when it came out. It really does look like a game you can play by yourself, but the gameplay is terrible unless you play co-op. How many want to play a co-op Sonic game?
It doesn't help the game that they chose the four characters in the universe with some of the least amount of, well... character.
So I guess we're all familiar with the iOS Dungeon Keeper, and how digging out a block of space takes a full day unless you fork over money (which the game pesters you to do constantly), and how it pesters you to give it a five-star rating.
I'm sure you're all thinking "what does Molyneux think of this?" He's happy to oblige.
EA's received hefty doses of criticism following the launch of its free-to-play mobile version of Dungeon Keeper, thanks in particular to the game's reliance on microtransactions. One person voicing displeasure with the game recently is Dungeon Keeper's original creator, Lionhead Studios co-founder and current 22 Cans head, Peter Molyneux.
"I felt myself turning round saying, 'What? This is ridiculous. I just want to make a dungeon. I don't want to schedule it on my alarm clock for six days to come back for a block to be chipped,'" Molyneux told the BBC. "I don't think they got it quite right, the balance between keeping it familiar to the fans that were out there but fresh enough and understandable enough for this much bigger mobile audience."
EA quietly safeguarded itself against poor reviews for Dungeon Keeper on Android in particular, as it was revealed last week that anything less than a five-star review was diverted to a feedback form within the app. Given Molyneux's penchant for the, shall we say, unconventional, if he's calling you 'ridiculous', something somewhere has gone terribly wrong.
I wouldn't mind if an app asked me to rate their product, but specifically begging for a 5 star rating is bullshit. Makes me want to give 1 star if I ever bothered to leave reviews at all.
So I guess we're all familiar with the iOS Dungeon Keeper, and how digging out a block of space takes a full day unless you fork over money (which the game pesters you to do constantly), and how it pesters you to give it a five-star rating.
I'm sure you're all thinking "what does Molyneux think of this?" He's happy to oblige.
EA's received hefty doses of criticism following the launch of its free-to-play mobile version of Dungeon Keeper, thanks in particular to the game's reliance on microtransactions. One person voicing displeasure with the game recently is Dungeon Keeper's original creator, Lionhead Studios co-founder and current 22 Cans head, Peter Molyneux.
"I felt myself turning round saying, 'What? This is ridiculous. I just want to make a dungeon. I don't want to schedule it on my alarm clock for six days to come back for a block to be chipped,'" Molyneux told the BBC. "I don't think they got it quite right, the balance between keeping it familiar to the fans that were out there but fresh enough and understandable enough for this much bigger mobile audience."
EA quietly safeguarded itself against poor reviews for Dungeon Keeper on Android in particular, as it was revealed last week that anything less than a five-star review was diverted to a feedback form within the app. Given Molyneux's penchant for the, shall we say, unconventional, if he's calling you 'ridiculous', something somewhere has gone terribly wrong.
Here's hoping this shames EA into making their microtransactions less asinine.
If they were going to feel any shame over it, they wouldn't have done it in the first place. If it's making them good money, I'm sure they could care less about a vocal minority of gamers raging against their practices.
1 million sell-in seems pretty good to me, but who knows what their expectations were. The game itself is absolutely fantastic -- it does an even better job of capitalizing on the flawed promise of Rocksmith 1 than AC2 did for AC1.
Posts
Dead Rising 3 only getting a million sales is kinda weird. I would've expected more from a launch title, especially for a console that isn't doing bad on the sales end. Maybe the series is petering out in appeal?
Isn't 1 million copies a third of the total Xbones sold? That's pretty good.
Half or a third. I mean yeah that's pretty good. I just realized I sound like Square. "NOT ENOUGH." A million is solid as far as raw numbers go, but these mega publishers expect more typically.
Published: January 28, 2014, 7:52 pm
Updated: 2 weeks ago
A A A
Have you got used to paying $59.99 for new video games in Canada? Well get ready to be disappointed.
Many Canadian retailers are reportedly raising the price of their games by between $5 and $10, due to the relatively weak Canadian dollar. Back in about 2008, it was customary for Canadians to spend about $10 more on new video games than their American counterparts, but for the last few years, due to the Canadian dollar’s relative parity with the U.S. dollar, the price disparity was non-existent.
Certain retailers like Amazon.ca, Future Shop and Best Buy are still holding to a $59.99 price point, at least for current titles. Some pre-order games, like South Park: The Stick of Truth, are priced at $64.99 on BestBuy.ca. Ebgames.ca is selling many of its titles, especially games available for pre-order at prices between $64.99 and $69.99.
While unconfirmed, some Neogaf users are reporting these price hikes will be making their way to all stores, online and retail, selling video games across Canada.
It’s also unclear if this price hike will affect digital downloadable copies of games.
And then there's this somewhat snide editorial by one of our local mobile developers on the topic.
Posted by Ryan Henson Creighton on Feb 7, 2014
i had to laugh when i read some articles warning that the price of "games" in Canada is set to rise. Self-appointed video game sage Michael Pachter predicts a return to a $69.99 price point for new-gen PS4 and Xbox One games following a low of $49.99 and $59.99 on their console predecessors. The faltering loonie has already made that prediction a reality here in Canada, with "game" prices for many titles hitting $69.99 at retailers like EB Games, Best Buy and Future Shop.
The report by Fansided clarified that these prices are for "standard games," and that the price hikes affect "Canadian gamers," adding that "it may be commonplace for $5 to be bumped for the majority of games going forward," citing Game Deals Canada.
The majority of games for Canadian gamers are priced at 70 bucks, are they? That assertion didn't smell right to me, so i decided to bust out the Stats Gun. According to the Entertainment Software Association Canada's annual study of the Canadian video game industry, more Canadians said they play games on computers and handheld systems than they do on consoles. While console game sales still account for well over half of video game revenues in Canada (likely owing to those $70-a-pop price tags), it's fallacious to suggest that the "majority" of games will ring up at such a high price.
i took a quick survey of the Steam storefront for Mac/PC/Linux, platforms on which 36% of Canadians said they play games, which enjoys a 95% penetration rate of ownership. At the time of writing, the average price of the games featured on Steam's prestigious front page was $17.48 (although, to be fair, the page included a number of sales on older titles). The average cost of the top 10 paid games on Apple's iPhone (which is among the mobile devices that 21% of Canadians use to play games), is $4.09. On the handheld front, where 44% of Canadians play, the PS Vita averaged $40.10 and the Nintendo 3DS rang it at $38.32 average per game.
The objection that would erupt from any self-proclaimed "gamer" at this point would be that Fansided was talking about "games." You know—GAMES? Stuff like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, The Last of Us. GAAAAMES!! Not Flappy Bird. That's not what we mean when we say "games." i mean, Flappy Bird is a game, technically. But this report is talking about gaaames played by gaaamers. REAL games. GUY games. Like, actual REAL games on REAL consoles, where you can shoot hookers in the face and chainsaw aliens in half and cool stuff like that. Gaaames.
Incidentally, the ESAC's report also states that 58% of Canadians self-identify as gamers , that nearly half of those gamers are female, and the average age of gamers in Canada is 31 years old. i'm confident that those resourceful grown-ups, many of whom understand the value of a buck, can find ways to get their kicks at under $70 per title.
Avoiding his ranting on "real games vs. Flappy Bird" (which I find amusing as a bona fide lady who plays both console and Steamy games and knows full well why people write articles about console game price shifts), the growing digital marketplace makes this new era of price differentials interesting. Most of them charge in USD and let the credit card companies sort the currency conversion out, making digital purchase prices a lot more flexible and quicker to change that the retail stores... but also making it difficult to tell whether you're winning or losing when you buy online, since you often won't see what you were actually charged by the credit card company until you get your statement. I think Nintendo charges CAD prices so that it can scrupulously collect regional sales taxes, so maybe that'll be the first store to watch in order to see if prices go up digitally rather than just at brick 'n' mortar.
Fun with currency!
It's a temporary, artificial low largely caused by Harper because he somehow thinks it will help the economy. Retailers could at least wait a damn month before making such a dickish change in their policies.
She-zen-ick?
Or She-zez-nik?
TUUUUUUUUUUUUROOOOOOOOOOOOOK!
Platformers?
Hooking things to your tv? Not needed.
What exactly do you think the computers in "smart tvs" are?
Samsung can make Galaxy S2/S3 parts for next to nothing now, and slap them in the back of a big screen LED tv to give it "smart" capabilities, and that is actually exactly what they've been doing.
No no. Super Meat Boy involves violence!
...it makes me want to punch my screen.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-sells-more-pc-than-console-games-but-pachinko-machines-eclipse-both/1100-6417618/
Pachinko!
Another article noted Sonic: Lost World sold 640,000 copies, which isn't bad considering the relatively small Wii U install base and the fact that the game kinda sucked.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/07/sonic-lost-world-ships-640000-sega-profits-down
I'm intensely curious how the next Sonic game will do. So many X factors... whether or not the game will be good, whether the TV show will help, whether people will buy a game on a system relatively few people are buying, etc.
Well, here's what I see when I look at footage for that game. It basically looks like a Ratchet & Clank: All4One for the Sonic universe. Does... anyone really WANT that, because no one really wanted All4One when it came out. It really does look like a game you can play by yourself, but the gameplay is terrible unless you play co-op. How many want to play a co-op Sonic game?
It doesn't help the game that they chose the four characters in the universe with some of the least amount of, well... character.
I'm sure you're all thinking "what does Molyneux think of this?" He's happy to oblige.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/10/molyneux-on-new-dungeon-keeper-this-is-ridiculous/
Here's hoping this shames EA into making their microtransactions less asinine.
He got to share in the profits of Godus, which by most accounts kinda sucks.
The prize was a feeling of shame for ever spending all that time tapping your cell screen.
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If they were going to feel any shame over it, they wouldn't have done it in the first place. If it's making them good money, I'm sure they could care less about a vocal minority of gamers raging against their practices.
*Just not anytime soon. PS3/PS4/PC/XBO/360 version is "Q1 2014". WiiU is "at a later date".
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Anything in that ubi report about how well their $15 game initiative went?
I really hope this doesn't spell the doom of the Rocksmith franchise. One of the best purchases I made last year.
But they expect the South Park game to sell, what was it, three million? Who knows.
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From a consumer's perspective: Q1 means January -> March, but that isn't true for businesses.