News

Week of July 31- Ausust 6, 2000

S3 Bails on Graphics Board Business
S3 has announced that it will shut down its Diamond Multimedia-branded graphics board business and rebuild itself as a digital media and Internet appliance company. It will continue to supply and support its OEM customers, channel partners, and consumers of existing boards, but will cease development of additional products. The shutdown will not affect German-based FGL Graphics, the professional graphics division of S3, which will remain an independent division within the company. The announcement came in conjunction with S3's announcement that it is posting a second-quarter net loss of $36.3 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with a net income of $1.1 million, or 2 cents per share, for the same period last year.

PS2 European Delay Confirmed
Sony Corp. has confirmed rumors that Playstation 2 will launch later than originally promised, arriving in 17 European countries November 24, nearly a month after the U.S. launch on October 26, and even later than earlier speculation that the console would be delayed until November 17. Still, Sony Computer Entertainment said it expects to ship more units in its first shipment of Playstation 2s to Europe than the 600,000 units that shipped in the first three months of the original Playstation's launch. The console will sell for $299 in the U.S., but significantly more in Europe: 299 pounds ($447) in the U.K., 2,990 francs ($413) in France, and 869 marks ($403) in Germany.

Videogames Good Exercise for Wheelchair Users
University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed a system whereby wheelchair-bound people can experience the health benefits of exercise by playing a specially designed videogame system. The Gamewheels system, created by department of rehabilitation science and technology chairman Dr. Rory Cooper, has portable rollers upon which wheelchair users place their chairs, which send a computer data on speed and position of the wheelchair through the computer's mouse port. Doctoral candidate Thomas O'Connor collected data on oxygen consumption, heart rate, and respiratory rate of subjects using the Gamewheels system, which used a racing game to respond to how hard users pushed on their wheelchairs' wheels. "The wheelchair users reported that they were so involved with playing the videogame using Gamewheels, that they forgot they were exercising," O'Connor said. Some participants "wanted to buy the system right then," he continued, and all participants believed that the system "would motivate them to exercise on a regular basis." Any computer videogame can be used with the system, according to O'Connor. Currently, the researchers are investigating getting the Gamewheels system manufactured.

CDV Founds U.S. Subsidiary
German entertainment software publisher CDV, distributor of such titles overseas as Wacky Wheels -- Smile Edition and a Soldier of Fortune add-on pack called Lucky Soldier, is establishing a Los Angeles-based U.S. subsidiary in order to take advantage of the lucrative North American computer game market. CDV Software Entertainment U.S. Inc. will focus on building relationships with local partners for such tasks as localization, marketing, public relations, and sales, and its first major tasks will be publishing the real-time strategy title Sudden Strike and the building strategy game Cossacks -- European Wars. Keith Rieger, a former vice president of international sales and marketing for FormGen, will serve as president of the new operation.

[Thursday, August 3, 2000]

Activision Q1 Surprise
Activision has posted a first-quarter net loss of $5.2 million or 21 cents per share, beating Wall Street's estimated loss of 29 cents per share. In the same period last year, the company posted a net loss of $4.6 million or 19 cents per share. Revenues climbed to $84.5 million from $84.1 million, a feat which the company attributed in part to the success of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which has sold approximately 3 million units so far for Playstation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and Game Boy Color, and also to better-than-expected market conditions. Activision expects its second-quarter earnings to be about 10 cents per share, twice Wall Street's current consensus.

Napster-like Service Enables ROM Swapping
A group of programmers has launched a site called RomNet that will allow participants to exchange videogame ROM software much like Napster users swap MP3s. Unlike current sites where users download ROMs from a central server to play on their PCs via emulation software, RomNet enables people to browse other RomNet users' computers for games. Decentralizing the software distribution naturally makes it harder for game companies to combat piracy. RomNet's 17-year-old founder said of the piracy concern, "Sure, it is a concern that [game companies] may try to shut us down, despite the fact that we don't permit piracy, but I am confident in the law and believe we will prevail." Napster is currently mired in a lawsuit brought on by the Recording Industry Association of America over copyright infringement and its future remains uncertain.

[Wednesday, August 2, 2000]

Playstation 2 Hits 3 Million in Japan
Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi has announced that 3 million Playstation 2s have shipped in Japan as of August 1, less than five months after its March 4 launch. By comparison, the original Playstation took 19 months to achieve the same feat, and has moved over 77 million units worldwide to date. In other PS2 launch news, several U.S. retailers, including Babbages/Gamestop, Funcoland, Toys "R" Us, and Electronics Boutique have halted or scaled back preorders for the new console, anticipating that supply will not be able to match demand at the October 26 launch. Some of the retailers are still taking preorders through their online stores, while others have eliminated guarantees that preordered consoles will be shipped on the launch date. And finally, manufacturing delays have almost halved the number of PS2s that will be released in Europe at the console's launch. Europeans were initially slated to receive 200,000 units, now they may receive only about 100,000.

PS one to Go
Sony Corp. announced a partnership with NTT DoCoMo that will allow users to link Pocketstation games with Internet-enabled cell phones. DoCoMo is Japan's dominant mobile phone operator, whose I-mode allows cell phone users to access the Internet. Initially, the service will allow users to play games on their mobile phones and also play the same game on their Playstation. The partnership is also aimed at linking Playstations to the upcoming W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access) broadband technology, which will allow video images and other multimedia applications to be displayed on mobile devices. Details of such a service are still unclear, however. A SCE spokesperson said that its future depends largely on what kinds of software will be developed for it and consumer demand.

In other cell-phone gaming news, Tokyo's Marvelous Entertainment has developed a rock-scissors-paper-style arcade game in which characters are controlled by radio waves from cellular phones. Up to 16 players can dial a certain number to participate in a game and control characters by pushing buttons on their phones.

Nvidia Developing Second Xbox Chip
Nvidia CEO Jen Hsun Huang revealed at a semiconductor conference that Nvidia is working on not one but two chips for Xbox. Up to this point, it was known that Intel would be providing the console's CPU and Nvidia the graphics processor, but this was the first that outsiders had heard of anyone developing a third chip for the console. Although Microsoft has revealed that the console will feature a custom 3D audio processor, no announcement of a supplier for that technology has yet been made, leading some to speculate that Nvidia may be dipping its feet in the audio chip market. Other speculation suggested that the second Nvidia chip would be handling more advanced video functions to complement its GPU. Microsoft did not comment.

[Tuesday, August 1, 2000]

Listing Changes
Acclaim is moving it listing to a new home. The company has lost it appeal to continue trading on Nasdaq's National market, where it failed to meet the exchange's net tangible assets listing criteria, and will begin trading on Nasdaq's Small Cap market. Acclaim has been hit hard in recent quarter by the next generation console transition, and is currently in the process of reworking it product line in an effort to return to profitability. The change is effective August 1.

DK 3 On Hold
Bullfrog is canning Dungeon Keeper 3. The company had announced a third installment of the Dungeon Keeper series last summer, but is now killing the project in order to apply more resources to next generation console games as well as the creation of new intellectual properties. Though the project is officially only on hold, a statement on Bullfrog's Website reports that there are no current plans to revive the franchise.

Triforge Becomes Arena.net
The company founded by three senior Blizzard defectors is getting a new name and a new strategy. The company formerly known as Triforge, headed up by Pat Wyatt, Mike O'Brien, and Jeff Strain, had been renamed Arena.net. The company also has a new vision to match the web-centric name; Arena.net will publish games exclusively over the Internet, employing a streaming system that will allow players to upgrade from a demo to the full version without having to leave the game. In addition to online publishing, the company is planning an online gaming site at Arena.net. "We've seen gamers build incredible online communities around their fan sites, and we'd like to extend their capabilities by providing them tools that link directly into the play experience," said O'Brien.

Naughty Mario
Nintendo is looking to stamp out the use of its characters in the promotion of adult Websites. The company has retained online intelligence firm Cyveilance to identify unwanted association between Nintendo's game properties and sexually explicit Websites. "The Nintendo brand is synonymous with high-quality entertainment, and we are very concerned about sites that are using our popular icons, such as Mario Bros. and Pokemon, to promote explicit adult content,'' said Nintendo of America General Counsel Richard Flamm.

PC Data Top Tens
PC Data has once again released the names of the top ten best selling console and PC video games, for the week of July 16 to 22, in the form of an easy to read list.

Console:
1. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, Nintendo 64
2. Jet Force Gemini, Nintendo 64
3. X-Men Mutant Academy, Playstation
4. World Series Baseball 2K1, Dreamcast
5. Kirby: The Crystal Shards, Nintendo 64
6. Knockout Kings 2000, Nintendo 64
7. Pokemon Yellow: Pikachu Edition, Game Boy
8. Pokemon Trading Card Game, Game Boy Color
9. Perfect Dark, Nintendo 64
10. Legend of Dragoon, Playstation

PC:
1. Diablo 2, Havas Interactive
2. The Sims, Electronic Arts
3. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2nd Edition, Disney
4. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon, Hasbro Interactive
5. Starcraft, Havas Interactive
6. Icewind Dale, Interplay
7. Sim City 3000 Unlimited, Electronic Arts
8. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon Corkscrew Follies, Hasbro Interactive
9. Microsoft Age Of Empires II: Age of Kings, Microsoft
10. Return Of Krondor, Havas Interactive

[Monday, July 31, 2000]

Infogrames SA Results
Paris-based Infogrames Entertainment is reporting a 33 percent jump in revenues in the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter revenues came in at $104.8 million this year versus last year's fourth quarter result of $78.6 million. On an annual basis, consolidated revenues for the year ended June 30 reached $488.1 million, an increase of 67 percent from last year's mark of $292.5 million. These numbers integrate revenues generated by GT Interactive, now known as Infogrames, Inc., consolidated over a seven-month period and accounting for 30 percent of global revenue.

Xbox Kits
Microsoft has announced shipment of its first Xbox development kits. The company is refraining from calling the kits SDK's, preferring the more clever name of XDK. The company is expecting to ship more than 1,000 kits to some 100 development houses in preparation for the fall 2001 Xbox launch. The XDK is being rolled out in three phases, starting with an upgradeable PC-based system and finishing with a customized console unit delivered in the first part of 2001. The currently shipping kits provide developers with early graphics hardware, a beta version of Direct X 8, and off the shelf game pads to simulate Xbox functionality.

Revenue Slide
A recent study suggests surging next generation console sales might be tempered by a slide in revenues. Market researcher International Data Corporation predicts that console hardware subsidizing to attract costumers will take a bite out the manufacturers bottom lines, with revenues slated to decline from $3.3 billion in 2001 to $2.3 billion in 2003.

Past News

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