|
 News
Week
of August 14- August 20, 2000
[Friday,
August 18, 2000]
Thrushwave
Publisher
2000 Independent Games Festival finalist The Rift has found a publisher.
The Thrushwave Technology developed game, now know as Far Gate,
has been picked up by French publisher Microids. "We are very pleased
to have Microids publishing Far Gate world-wide," said Far Gate
Producer James Thrush, "we're all very excited about the potential
of this game." The game is expected to ship worldwide later this
year.
Dance
Dance Suit
Konami is facing a patent suit related to its Dance Dance Revolution
game. Re Play magazine is reporting that the Los Angels office of Korean
game maker Andamiro has filed a complaint in federal court accusing Konami
of violating a patent on dance simulation games that Andamiro obtained
while developing it rhythm action title Pump It Up. Konami hasn't
commented on the matter. Andamiro is seeking an injunction as well as
damages.
[Thursday, August
17, 2000]
Barnes
and Noble Loss
Weak sales in its videogame division pushed Barnes and Noble to a second
quarter loss. The company lost $8.6 million in the second quarter of this
year, a sharp decline from last year's second quarter earnings of $23
million. Much of the loss is attributed to weaker than expect performance
from Barnes and Noble's Babbage's and Funco videogame stores. Though games
sales were higher than expected, reaching $127 million, poor hardware
and accessory sales drove down gross margins.
EB
Report
Electronic Boutique's revenues increased to $125.8 in the second quarter.
The revenue boost, an increase of 11.2 percent from the same period last
year, was attributed to a three percent increase in same store sales as
well as the addition of 81 new stores. Videogame sale remained strong,
with Diablo II leading the PC category while better than expected N64
and Dreamcast sales offset slowing Playstation sales. Overall, the company
posted a net loss of $2.0 million for the quarter versus last year's second
quarter profit of $0.5 million. EBWorld.com continues to be a bright spot
for the company, with sales of $4.1 million for the second quarter coming
in four times better than in the same period last year.
Thief
Team
Warren Spector is busy rebuilding the Thief III team. A slew of ex-Looking
Glass employees are making their way from Boston to restart the project
with Ion Storm Austin. Thief III project lead and lead designer Randy
Smith and senior designer Emil Pagliarulo are both on board, as is associate
producer Lulu Lamer. Siege engine programmers Chris Carollo and Alex Duran
are also joining Ion Storm Austin, though on a different project. Discussions
are underway to add more former Looking Glass team members to the team.
Starbreeze
Acquired
O3 Games is acquiring fellow Swedish developers Starbreeze Studios. Starbreeze,
though relocating to O3's Uppsala, Sweden, headquarter, will continue
development on their upcoming FPS Enclave while also serving as
O3 internal research and development department. O3 acquired Starbreeze
for 3,250 share of O3.
[Tuesday, August
15, 2000]
Game
Growth
A new study projects next-generation console sales will top 50 million
units by 2004. The 700-page DFC Intelligence report, title "The U.S.
Market for Videogames and Interactive Entertainment," forecasts U.S.
revenues for interactive entertainment will exceed $11 billion by 2002.
"We believe that over the next few years consumers will be spending
a great deal of money on video and computer games. However, there is still
a great deal of uncertainty about exactly which game systems will do well,"
said DFC President David Cole.
Nex
Gen IP
Sega.com is announcing a worldwide license for Nex Gen Software's Nex
Gen IP. The license, acquired by Sega of Europe, will allow Dreamcast
developers worldwide to use Nex Gen's embedded TCP/IP stack to design
online games for the Dreamcast. "We're pleased with Nex Gen Software's
compact, efficient and flexible software architecture," said Visual
Concept's Greg Thomas, "Unlike most TCP/IP stacks, Nex Gen IP is
written with the high-performance requirements of real-time online gaming
in mind."
Acclaim
CFO
Acclaim has appointed Gerald Agoglia to the position of chief financial
officer. Agoglia has over 20 years of corporate financial management experience,
most of it in securing public and private financing and overseeing mergers
and acquisitions.
Giga
Sega
Sega.com Asia and Giga Media are joining forces for a co-branded online
gaming service. The service will include a subscription based online gaming
and Internet access service through the Dreamcast console or PC. Under
the agreement, Sega.com Asia will deliver multiplayer online game assets
while Giga Media will leverage its existing nationwide IP infrastructure
to provide online gaming services to more than 3.8 million households
in Taiwan.
[Monday, August
14, 2000]
Interplay
Keeps Listing
Interplay will continue to trade its stock on the Nasdaq's National Market.
The company had faced the possibility of losing it Nation Market listing
because of its failure to meet all of the market's listing requirements,
but an appeal to the Listing Qualifications Panel came down in Interplay's
favor. The panel decided that Interplay has demonstrated compliance with
Nasdaq's net tangible assets criteria and may keeps its listing as long
as the company's assets do not fall below $8.3 million in its third quarter.
Interplay must also provide documentation of compliance with Nasdaq'a
voting requirements by August 21. "We presented our case to a Nasdaq
Listing Qualifications Panel, and are pleased that we were successful
in demonstrating compliance with the listing requirements,'' said Interplay's
Brian Fargo.
EA
Stock Split
Electronic Arts is instituting a 2 for 1 stock split. The company's board
of directors decided on Monday to a two-for-one stock split of its Class
A common stock. The split will become payable on September 8 as a stock
dividend to shareholders of record on August 25.
Activision
Appeal
Activision will appeal a British Columbia decision to give Soldier
of Fortune an X rating. Activision announced that it will appeal the
decision by the province's film classification board that restricts anyone
under 18 from buying or renting the game. The game's Canadian distributor,
Beamscope Canada, has also filed a similar appeal. Both companies contend
that the B.C. Film Commission doesn't have the jurisdiction to rate and
classify games.
Sony
Bonds
Sony Corporation of Japan is planning a bond issue. The company has called
a meeting with investor for later this month, presumably to discuss the
bond issue. Sony recently unveiled a 125 billion yen plan to boost Playstation
2 chip production, and has filed with Japan's Finance Ministry to issue
up to 300 billion yen in debt.
Past
News
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