As promised, I’ve followed up on my most anticipated games of E3 with an actual list of the top ten games of the show. I spent four days checking out games and interviewing executives at the Los Angeles media and game business summit. Clearly, I didn’t see everything. I didn’t even get to some of [...]
Posts by Dean Takahashi
Microsoft misses earnings targets: Microsoft narrowly missed its targets for earnings as it reported results for the fourth-fiscal quarter ended June 30. Windows Vista has sold more than 180 million copies since its launch, but other parts of the business, such as online ads, are weak. The company said that high-cost enterprise consulting services and [...]
As the E3 video game industry media show comes to a close today, the game industry got some very good news. In spite of the recession, video game sales are still roaring.
June sales of video game hardware, software and accessories grew 53 percent to $1.69 billion, according to market researcher NPD Group. Hardware sales grew [...]
Microsoft’s video game and entertainment business was profitable for the first time in its history for the fiscal year ended June 30, the company said today.
The Entertainment & Devices Division reported an operating profit of $426 million for the fiscal year, compared to a loss of $1.9 billion a year earlier. The year ago results [...]
LOS ANGELES — I just came back from the “Rock Band 2″ party at the E3 video game show. Inside the Orpheum theater, The Who belted out 40-year-old songs to the delight of the crowd of game executives and journalists. The event was the most exciting so far in a dull conference that has proved, [...]
updated
It’s time to clarify a few points from the Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo E3 press conferences over the last couple of days.
First up, Sony’s supposed price cut
Yesterday I wrote about how Sony finally got serious about the console war by cutting its price by $100. Well, as several readers pointed out and Sony [...]
Updated twice: Finally, we’ve got ourselves a console war. Sony has been stuck in third place for a while. But today at its E3 press conference in Los Angeles, the company said it would shave $100 off the cost of its most expensive PlayStation 3 model.
The move goes further than Microsoft’s $50 price cut on [...]
While Microsoft and Sony bash each other over hardcore gamers, Nintendo remains fixated on winning over nongamers. Satoru Iwata, chief executive of Nintendo, speaking at the E3 conference in Los Angeles today, said the company is trying to break down the psychological barriers between gamers and nongamers through more accessible games and more intuitive game [...]
John Riccitiello, chief executive of Electronic Arts, took the stage for the first time at an E3 press conference. Then he did something unusual. He relinquished the stage to his game developers, who proceeded to talk about their titles. Sitting just behind me was Mike Gallagher, the head of the Entertainment Software Association. Gallagher was [...]
[updated]
Here’s an updated view of the Microsoft press conference. Summary: Microsoft made progress tearing down the old Sony hegemony, but it’s not chipping away much at Nintendo’s newfound dominance.
The Final Fantasy series (except for 11) was a Sony exclusive for many years. Now Microsoft has knocked that out, to some degree, by winning over Square [...]
Gaia Online has raised $11 million in a third round of funding to complete its massively multiplayer online game as a supplement to its “hangout” site for teens and young adults.
Institutional Venture Partners led the round. In the past five years, the San Jose, Calif., company has built one of the largest worlds where teens [...]
I’m in Los Angeles for the E3 Media and Business Summit where all of the hot new video games will be shown off to thousands of media attendees.
It’s going to be a hellish week for game news, from Monday through Thursday.
It’s not the gigantic E3 show of years past. But I’ll have a blast writing [...]
Microsoft came through tonight with a press release announcing its $50 price cut for the Xbox 360 Pro (with a 20 gigabyte hard drive) model, which drops from $349 to $299 in the U.S. and Canada. It is pretty much on par with what everybody predicted, including us. But it’s not as exciting as some [...]
If there’s a place video game developers show up to show off their wares, it’s the annual “E3” summit.
It runs Monday through Thursday at the Los Angeles Convention Center (it’s not open to the public).
At the head of it all is Mike Gallagher, the new Mr. E3.
He runs the Entertainment Software Association, responsible for [...]
For the first time in a few years, I’m not one of the E3 judges who evaluate the best games of the video game industry for GameCriticsAwards.com. Not to worry. I’ve filled up my schedule and I won’t have to try to see every single big game. But I’m a game fan at heart and [...]
updated
Apple criminal backdating probes dropped: It’s a happy day for Apple, and not just because of the iPhone 3G launch. The criminal backdating probe of Steve Jobs and other Apple executives has been dropped, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Attorneys involved in defending various participants said the Justice Department concluded no charges should [...]
Double Fusion will provide the technology for inserting ads into games for Sony’s PlayStation 3. The deal, coupled with its announcement today to do in-game ads for Yahoo Games, is an important victory for Double Fusion and the fledgling in-game ad industry.
Both Sony’s U.S. and European game divisions will use Double Fusion to insert ads [...]
Inspired by the Nintendo Wii’s clever wand-like game controller, gesture-recognition start-ups are coming out of the woodwork. Israel’s 3DV Systems is one of the contenders and it is showing more of its cards.
The Yokne’am, Israel company said it plans to launch a low-cost gesture-recognition camera for game purposes in 2009. And it has hired a [...]
Venture capitalists tend to stay away from funding game developers because games are considered a hit or miss business. But Riot Games has convinced some VCs it has some hits on the way. The company has raised a $7 million round of funding from Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital.
The money will go to complete the [...]
Yahoo Games is the giant of online game portals with 18 million unique visitors a month. But the company is shaking things up as it announces today that it is shifting to a new business model based on free ad-supported games for many of its pay-only titles.
Kyle Laughlin, head of games at Yahoo, said in [...]
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