Tech Culture

Nintendo's profit plunges on weak Wii sales

Sinking sales and a price cut for the Wii knocked Nintendo's first-half earnings by 52 percent.

On Thursday, the game maker reported a profit of 69.5 billion yen ($767.8 million) for the six-month period ended September 30, compared with 144.83 billion yen for the same period last year.

Sales for the period also tumbled, falling 34 percent to 548 billion yen.

Nintendo blamed the shortfall on weak sales of its Wii combined with its recent price cut for the game console. In September, the company trimmed the cost of the Wii in the U.S. by $… Read more

DSi LL: Nintendo supersizes its gaming handheld

Update (October 30, 2009, 10:45am PT): For updated information and more photos of this product, check out our DSi XL/LL mini-FAQ.

Nintendo has taken the wraps off a new version of the DSi handheld that sports larger 4.25-inch dual screens. The portable gaming unit will be considerably bigger than current and previous DS and DSi models. It will be dubbed the DSi LL in Japan where it goes on sale on November 21 for 20,000 yen (about $220). In Europe, the unit will be known as the DSi XL when it appears on store shelves in … Read more

Virtual-goods resellers on the rise

Gamers are not just making purchases to enhance their gaming experience but also selling virtual assets to other players, according to new research from video game market research firm VGMarket.

Sales of virtual goods are expected to reach $1 billion this year and already generate near $4 billion annually in China. But there are some challenges, primarily the fact that once you convert your real money to virtual cash you can't readily get the dough back out.

The research revealed that in-game currency is the most frequently sold digital good from player to player and that two out of three sellers sold in-game currency in the last 12 months, earning a median of $22. PlaySpan, a provider of monetization and payment solutions for games and virtual worlds and sponsor of the research, considers that to be good news as its platform enables game developers to provide player to player marketplaces for their players. In addition, the PlaySpan Marketplace currently provides a secondary market for IMVU players to buy and sell goods as well.

One out of two sellers made a sale in a social network game over the last 12 months and earned a median of $50, while one out of four sellers made a sale in a free-to-play game over the last 12 months, with their median earning being $98, or nearly double that on social networks.

Eric Hartness, chief marketing officer at PlaySpan, told me that the secondary market is a boon for games, adding value, real and perceived, to all players by associating a real world dollar value on their playing time, game accounts, and digital items. … Read more

GoldenEye 007 coming to the Wii in 2010?

This is nothing more than a huge rumor at this point, but gaming-industry site Superannuation is reporting that it has found a resume posted by a video game animator claiming to have worked on an unannounced GoldenEye 007 game for the Nintendo Wii.

According to the report, the animator worked for Eurocom Entertainment Software, a company that has worked on several versions of James Bond titles, including Quantum of Solace and James Bond 007: Nightfire, between July and September.

The job listing said the person worked on "GoldenEye 2010 (Wii)." According to Destructoid, which also viewed the resume, … Read more

Amazon, Netflix earnings soar

You wouldn't know there's been a slowdown in consumer spending by looking at Amazon.com and Netflix.

Both companies have continued to grab customers at a record pace, leading to higher earnings and sales for their third quarters.

Net income for Amazon jumped 68 percent to $199 million, or 45 cents a share, in the quarter that ended September 30, compared with $118 million, or 27 cents a share, in the prior year's quarter.

Sales rose 28 percent to $5.45 billion versus $4.26 billion in 2008's third quarter, the company said Thursday.

Amazon's … Read more

Sid Meier bringing Civilization to Facebook

Famed video game developer Sid Meier, best known for the Civilization franchise, announced on a Civilization Facebook page Thursday that a new title called Civilization Network is on its way to the social network.

According to Meier, he has been "looking at ways of expanding the Civilization gameplay experience to include solo, competitive, and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks." Civilization Network will allow users to join with friends to "create the world's most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization," Meier said.

Like so many of its predecessors, … Read more

250GB PS3 Slim coming in November for $350

Sony Computer Entertainment America on Thursday announced that a new 250GB variation of the PlayStation 3 Slim will be available beginning November 3 for $349.99. The PS3 hardware will otherwise remain the same as the 120GB flavor of the Slim, which costs $50 less. The console maker will also continue to sell the physically larger, previous model of the PS3 which comes with either an 80GB or 160GB hard drive.

The extra 130GB of storage in the 250GB model gives PS3 owners more room for downloaded movies, game installs/saves, music, and photos. According to Sony, "more than … Read more

Hands-on: Social networking on Xbox 360

Microsoft was expected to release Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm apps for the Xbox 360 as part of a system software update that went out back in August. It was decided that the apps should be delayed for a fall release, but CNET got a sneak peek of the apps on Wednesday from Ron Pessner, Microsoft's general manager of games for Windows Live.

The company is still mum on an exact release, despite marketing materials on the U.K. Xbox.com site briefly pointing to a November 17 debut. Pessner confirmed that the new apps were indeed set for November release, but he could not provide a hard date. In the meantime the company is releasing a public preview ahead of time for a select group of users who sign up to be a part of the beta test (you can sign up here).

What we saw of the three apps was impressive but in many ways extremely limited compared with their desktop counterparts. Microsoft has had to shoehorn the three Web apps into a system with a control scheme that does not implement a mouse, keyboard, or Web browser. Instead, all three make use of the Xbox 360 controller and the on-screen keyboard, or an attached USB keyboard (or Microsoft Chat Pad accessory which you can buy for $30).

This lack of the usual top-to-bottom controls found on each service's Web sites changes each experience considerably from what users are familiar with on their computers and mobile devices. This is made even more noticeable by the fact that the Xbox 360 still does not have a built-in Web browser. Never before has this been an issue, but stop and think for a second: are Twitter and Facebook as useful, or as interesting if you can't click on any of the links? We don't think so.

That said, there are some definite things to look forward to when the software update drops next month. Read our early impressions after the jump.… Read more

China's online game revenue surpasses $900 million

China's online game market grew 39.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to $906 million (6.18 billion yuan), according to newly released data from Analysys International.

Online gaming, like many other markets tends to have a few big winners, in the case of China's major game sites, three companies enjoy up more than 50 percent of the market share.

Tencent Holdings--20.2 percent of the market and 1.24 billion yuan ($181 million) in revenue Shanda Games--20 percent of the market and 1.23 billion yuan ($180 million) in revenue NetEase.com--12.7 percent of … Read more