News

Week of November 22-28, 1999

[Wednesday, November 24, 1999]

Nintendo Reports Reduced Profit
Despite the ongoing Pokemon craze, Nintendo Co Ltd. has reported that its parent company only profits are down nearly 70 percent in the half year to September 30. Parent-only current profit fell to 20.2 billion yen ($193.3 million) from over 63 billion ($658.8 million.) yen for the same period last year despite a mere five percent dip in sales. Nintendo attributes much of the reduction to currency exchange losses caused by a strong yen. Projections for the full year look for overseas Pokemon sales to drive parent-only profits to 100 billion yen, 26 percent below last years 135.4 billion.

Eidos Losses
Eidos reports that while revenues were up slightly in its second quarter, increasing to 27.3 million pounds from 21.8 million pounds in the second quarter last year, losses increased to 12.8 million pounds from last year's loss of 8.8 million pounds. Eidos attributes the numbers to fewer new releases in the quarter coupled with numerous acquisitions and strategic investments on the corporate level. "The year to date has been dominated by a number of strategic investments for Eidos, including equity stakes in Pyro Studios, Proein, Elixir Studios and Timeline Studios [and] a 51% holding in the Dallas based developer, Ion Storm," explained Eidos chairman Ian Livingstone, "Eidos' core business remains strong despite only releasing five titles in the first six months compared to seven last year."

More Mattel Class Action
Mattel is facing another class action lawsuit in relation to its acquisition of The Learning Company. This suit, brought by the firm of Stull, Stull & Brody is on behalf of the shareholders of Broderbund Software who received common shares of The Learning Company in exchange for Broderbund stock. The complaint charges that Mattel made false and misleading statements, causing shareholders to approve the merger. Mattel also faces an earlier suit brought by the firm of Kaplan, Kilsheimer & Fox on behalf of Mattel shareholders.

[Tuesday, November 23, 1999]

3dfx Names New CEO
The president and CEO position at 3dfx, made by available by Greg Ballard's departure in October, has been filled. The 3dfx board of directors has named Dr. Alex Luepp as the company's new president and CEO. Luepp is a 25 year veteran of the semiconductor industry and has served as a member of the 3dfx board since October of last year. "Dr. Leupp has been a valuable resource in guiding 3dfx over the past year, as a director on the company's board," said Gordon Campbell, 3dfx's chairman of the board, "The board feels his technology expertise, leadership abilities and strong understanding of the semiconductor industry will be a great asset." Prior to joining 3dfx, Luepp had been with Chip Express Corporation and had spent 12 years with Siemens Microelectronics, including six as chairman and CEO.

PC Data Hits List of Top-Selling Software Week of November 7-13
1. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon, Hasbro Interactive
2. Microsoft Age of Empires II: Age Of Kings, Microsoft
3. Deer Hunter III, GT Interactive
4. Delta Force 2, Nova Logic
5. Cabela's Big Game Hunter 3, Activision
6. Sim Theme Park, Electronic Arts
7. Pokemon Studio Blue, Mattel Interactive
8. Pokemon Studio Red, Mattel Interactive
9. Starcraft, Havas Interactive
10. Tonka Construction 2, Hasbro Interactive

Take Two Get Duke Nukem PS2 Rights
3D Realms yesterday granted Take Two Interactive and Rockstar Games the right to take the multi-million selling Duke Nukem franchise to Sony's next generation console. Duke Nuken: Time to Kill developer n-Space has signed on to work on the future Playstation 2 project. "Rockstar, like us, wants to break the rules and make a Duke console game that's as successful and innovative as the Duke PC titles. This takes real talent and commitment, and between Rockstar, Take Two and n-Space I have no doubts about it happening," said Scott Miller, head of Apogee, 3D Realms parent company.

[Monday, November 22, 1999]

EA Partners with AOL
Electronic Arts has entered into a five-year agreement to be the exclusive provider of games content on AOL's Games Channel as well as providing game content for additional AOL properties including AOL.com, Netcenter, and Compuserve. Electronic Arts will create all new games exclusively for the America Online Games Channel as well as using AOL's highly trafficked venue to showcase existing EA titles. AOL's Games Channel will be relaunched in the summer of 2000 with new content ranging from card games to massively multiplayer online worlds. "In addition to our own web site at EA.com, our strategic relationship with AOL will enable us to reach millions of new consumers," said EA president and COO John Riccitiello.

EA.com
Electronic Arts has created a new division to handle the company's increasing internet operations. The new division will answer to EA president and COO John Riccitiello and will be based out of EA's Redwood City offices. The division will be responsible for publishing content for the internet as well as operating a series of online gaming sites including AOL's Game Channel. Pending shareholder and Securities and Exchange Commission approval, Electronic Arts plans to issue a new class of shares, Electronic Arts B Common, tied to the performance of the internet division and intends to file for an IPO at a later date. Electronic Arts and its employees will hold the majority of the new shares, but ten percent of the shares and warrants for an additional five percent will go to AOL as part of their new strategic relationship with EA.

EA Acquires Kesmai
EA further bolstered its internet intentions by acquiring Charlottesville, Virginia, based developer Kesmai Corporation. Kesmai, which had been a unit of News Corporation, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of EA's new internet business division. In addition, News Corporation and EA entered into a non-exclusive deal to distribute Fox Interactive online games through EA's expanding network. "We're confident the development strengths of Kesmai will greatly contribute to EA's future as a leader in the online entertainment market," said James Murdoch, executive vice president of News Corporation. The Kesmai acquisition builds on EA's other moves into the online games market in the past few months, including the acquisition of Playnation and a minority investment in Bottle Rocket.

NVIDIA Posts Record Earnings
NVIDIA Corporation announced record revenues and record earning in its third quarter this year. Revenues increased to $97 million dollars in the third quarter, compared to $52.3 million in the same period last year, and pushed income to $10.6 million dollars. Last year's third quarter income totaled $7.1 million dollars. The third quarter saw NVIDIA launch the GeForce and Quadro graphics processors as well as entering into a partnership will Acer Labs to create an TNT2 integrated graphics chipset.

Previous Weeks :
Week of November 8-14, 1999
Week of November 15-21, 1999

join | contact us | advertise | write | my profile
home | news | features | jobs | buyers guide | discussions | store