tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-108807882011-05-02T14:00:41.543+03:00Selected game industry news and analysis.mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.comBlogger771100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-6813169596445556432008-03-16T12:10:00.000+02:002008-03-16T12:12:14.880+02:00

LOOK IT'S YEAR 2008 AND EA IS BUYINGIt's yesteryear and more when I last updated this blog, but it sure looks like yesterday. Electronic Arts is at it again - buying smaller game industry rivals. Some might think that I have something personal against EA, why else this is the news that makes me write after such a long silence...WELL MANAGED COMPANYOn the contrary, I cannot but admire their

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1147031467562632612006-05-07T22:50:00.000+03:002006-05-07T22:51:07.580+03:00

Even Electronic Arts paid a big money to get Jamdat, they seem to have made a good deal. We all remember Jamdat from long and winding shopping spree, in which it kept acquiring smaller mobile game companies to gain that critical mass. That mass wasn’t enough to ward off from Electronic Arts, or could it be that this was exactly Jamdat’s planned exit strategy? Anyway, now Electronic Arts seems to

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1146769444748156082006-05-04T21:05:00.000+03:002006-05-04T22:04:04.790+03:00

Under is my post from my mobile phone games blog. Many have been asking why a relatively small publisher and distributor, PlayerX, got Miami Vice into their stables. Because they care their partners, that’s why. They offer excellent service that can overtake bigger competitors who have degenerated back to corporatism. Now all they need to do is to produce a great game, easier said than done...

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1146690868221241632006-05-04T00:13:00.000+03:002006-05-04T00:14:28.223+03:00

Does this mean that workers in every single U.S. game company will raise hell? How this will affect to game development investments? Asia is already strong contender in game development, and this sort of lawsuitism that is getting more common will trash the economics of U.S. game development.

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1146690516195266142006-05-04T00:07:00.000+03:002006-05-04T00:08:36.210+03:00

Sony’s division is also in trouble as similar class action lawsuit is sneaking on its doorsteps. Really troubling, I wonder how rigid this will turn game industry in general?

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1146599032189008242006-05-02T22:15:00.000+03:002006-05-02T22:43:52.213+03:00

Interesting news from Gameindustry.com they ran an article that among other things writes:Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, who has pinpointed the struggle between Toshiba and Sony in the high definition movie space as crucial to how the games market will move in the coming years.It all comes down to different DVD standards that the game consoles support. Far bigger customer to decide

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1146266880350137032006-04-29T02:27:00.000+03:002006-04-29T02:28:00.360+03:00

More names are associated with possible Empire buyout. SCi is emerging as the most likely candidate. Grabbing dominant market share by buying out competition is the oldest trick in the CEO book of “Ways to make money”. Let’s hope that further game industry consolidation in U.K. will eventually lead into continuous game industry evolution and not just inefficient monopoly stagnation.One more thing

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1145905978640568542006-04-24T22:11:00.000+03:002006-04-24T22:12:58.660+03:00

The other day I was minding my own business and shuffling through the pages of local newspaper. I haven’t been paying attention on games market for a while, as my day job has become an activity that incorporates most of my time. Anyway, it stroke me... game publishing is really a very centralized industry. On one page there were tens of different games on display but they were divided between

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1132090642376601302005-11-15T22:24:00.000+02:002005-11-15T23:37:22.413+02:00

Online game companies in China are yesterday’s news. Recent financials from Chinese online game companies show that the frenzy is over and seemingly endless growth has receded. The9 dropped 12 percents in Friday’s trading. Despite their massive marketing efforts and stellar game selection, they only managed moderate growth. They are the best on the market and if they produce just ok results, then

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1128849390171025222005-10-09T12:15:00.000+03:002005-10-09T12:16:30.170+03:00

This is yet another life for Cinemaware, a game company that did well during 80’s and closed down 1991. Lars Fuhrken-Batista bought Cinemaware assets and restarted the company in 2000, now he is selling present Cinemaware assets to eGames. Seems like the business logic runs to the direction in which eGames turns classic Cinemaware game assets into casual games. From Gamasutra.

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1128849340843599382005-10-09T12:12:00.000+03:002005-10-09T12:15:40.860+03:00

Electronic Arts buried the hatchet and agreed to pay 15,6 million dollars in overtime dispute with workers. Furthermore company agreed to change terms for entry-level artists so that they are also eligible for overtime pay.I think that EA once again made best of poor situation and now they have black on white, in case there are further complaints form workers. It means peaceful working conditions

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1127063564147670182005-09-18T20:11:00.000+03:002005-09-18T20:12:44.153+03:00

SCI/Eidos is rumored to have halted the development of mega hit Carmageddon. Read more about the news over here.COMMENTARYI think that this puts the merger into rather dubious light, because major part of the logic was in the arrangement that Eidos gets some desperately needed extra funding to complete the development cycle of their hits like Lara Croft and Carmageddon. Now big part of that

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1126637096168905122005-09-13T21:44:00.000+03:002005-09-13T21:44:56.173+03:00

Vivendi is finally benefiting from the digital entertainment strategy that it chose under the command of Mr. Messier. Blizzard happens to be one of the best performing parts of Vivendi. Company is also making strides in the field of mobile music sharing. As a personal comment, they finally seem to get back into the ring after hanging in the ropes for quite a few years.

mobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927741674159241436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1117307395194432122005-05-28T21:24:00.000+03:002005-05-28T22:09:55.196+03:00

Ubisoft can't seem to be able to shed the image of being a game stock. Game stock in a sense that they are a catalyst in coming game industry reorganization. Electronic Arts has been mentioned more than once, because they own that strategic 20% of Ubisoft.Ubisoft itself hints that they would prefer some big media company as their partner in acquisition...The latest development in this industry

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1116774188220726992005-05-22T15:38:00.000+03:002005-05-22T18:03:08.243+03:00

It didn’t go exactly as the title says but it wasn’t far from it. Eidos shareholders sealed the fate of top management by voting in favor for the SCi offer. Board members made their own conclusions of the situation. It was out with the old in with the new. Now three persons from SCi govern Eidos. Another chapter has been written in British video game industry.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1116440553984350352005-05-18T19:52:00.000+03:002005-05-18T21:22:34.000+03:00

This twist has been widely distributed, La Tribune, Market Watch, GamesIndustry.biz, Ferrago etc. Yves Guillemot commented that it could be interesting to team up (merge or something like that) with sizeable media company (Walt Disney or Time Warner) or with an equal game company.To me it is quite strange how he wants to team up with big media company. Ubisoft would not be in balanced

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1116094095550312502005-05-14T20:44:00.000+03:002005-05-14T21:08:15.553+03:00

Shareholders of Eidos approved the offer of SCi to purchase the company. Now it seems like there is very little room for any competing offers. Eidos is a goner and SCi is the taker. Great move guys. I hope Brits manage to keep this industry alive as so many others have gone under or been sold.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1115757585203392192005-05-10T20:57:00.000+03:002005-05-10T23:39:45.253+03:00

Electronic Arts, Activision, and THQ have shaken investors expectations for the future. This shows in the stock price of above-mentioned companies. It is especially the short-term expectations, which are rather depressing.If the giants of the field are shaking, smaller competitors catch the cold in no time. No matter what is the situation of an individual game company, the valuation of these

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1115317433700569032005-05-05T21:21:00.000+03:002005-05-05T21:23:53.736+03:00

Lately we have been reading about the difficulties that Electronic Arts faces. Company seems to have taken the wrong off-ramp and is now stuck in competition and lack of demand for their games. Earnings have plummeted and there does not seem to be much to rave about in their present product slate. Shift to next generation video game consoles will just devour money and the company has also pushed

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1115307197371646872005-05-05T18:32:00.000+03:002005-05-05T18:33:17.376+03:00

Troy Wolverton wrote for TheStreet.com about advertising in video games industry and inside the games. He concluded that in-game advertising could bring extra one billion USD for the industry that now makes ten billion USD turnover per year.He goes on and writes about the difficulties the industry is facing with the introduction of next generation game consoles. With next generation comes

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1114259065575481292005-04-23T14:04:00.000+03:002005-04-23T15:24:25.576+03:00

Now it is official. Elevation Partners has step down from the race and Eidos is going for SCi. At the moment there are no other possible candidates for the take over race, so apparently it is now quite safe to say that we will have a new SCiEidos on the video game industry map.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1114025719704649252005-04-20T22:29:00.000+03:002005-04-20T22:35:49.210+03:00

I have been looking into this trackback thing for some weeks already. Finally I gave up and just used Haloscan's automatic service quick and easy. Ok, now I just have to write something worth tracking back. Like that will ever happen, eh?

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1114025239314929062005-04-20T22:27:00.000+03:002005-04-20T22:27:19.313+03:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112955341154609812005-04-08T13:10:00.000+03:002005-04-08T16:38:41.260+03:00

Guardian and Financial Times informed us that Eidos is dropping the Elevation Partners offer and moving towards SCi. Like I said earlier, Elevation Partners is in the business of making money, not in the business of making video games. Let me tell you the secret of making money as an investment company. The secret is – buy cheap and sell expensive. Everything in between in just management

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112814702068196642005-04-06T22:10:00.000+03:002005-04-06T22:11:42.070+03:00

Another Gamesindustry.biz article. Apparently Nintendo has done well during the past year. Weak yen has done lot to realize the financial standing. They are planning to increase dividends, because owners have been complaining about measly dividends that they have given earlier. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t is so that Japanese companies tend to rely on bank loans more than their own capital

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112686239495229762005-04-05T10:26:00.000+03:002005-04-05T10:30:39.496+03:00

Did you notice that Eidos is again valued over 100 million pounds? Tomb Raider Chronicles had this piece of news. Strong showing, remember what I said about positive pricing cycle? If this positive cycle goes on, then it means that any further offer from Elevation Partners will even raise the tempo, because they just have to set their price so that it estimates even further price increases. For

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112684720673564142005-04-05T10:04:00.000+03:002005-04-05T10:31:09.393+03:00

I noticed yet another mainstream media article about IGE and the new and fascinating way of life as a virtual item seller. IGE estimates market size to be around 880 million dollars and bulk of this value comes from Korea and China. Brokers employ players from poor countries to create the supply. Some comments from Castronova, which makes the article bit more interesting.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112637646885021352005-04-04T20:59:00.000+03:002005-04-05T10:33:35.286+03:00

Gizmondo is reported to be selling well. Half a million pre-orders are in the bag. The Gameindustry.biz story doesn’t tell whether these orders that are now going to retail channels, have already found end user buyers or not. Ingredients are here for similar dud as what happened with N-Gage, nice amount of deliveries to stores but no buzz among the gamers.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112534522178579252005-04-03T16:21:00.000+03:002005-04-05T10:34:43.310+03:00

Telegraph was kind enough to notify of following: things are turning ugly at Eidos as shareholders are threatening to sack the whole board of the company less they manage to recommend owners to accept SCi’s offer. At the moment board is still on the side of Elevation Partners’ offer that stands 50 pence per share, however, the share is currently trading at 66p. Analysts believe that the Eidos

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112427255682825252005-04-02T10:29:00.000+03:002005-04-02T10:34:15.683+03:00

New Ratings.com notified that SCi has managed to secure the support of about 30% of Eidos owners. Markets seem to count possible purchase as good thing and this has been raising SCi stock price. As SCi offers all-stock purchase the terms for Eidos owners are improving constantly, hence there is a positive cycle that will probably tip the scale for SCi.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112356880145305302005-04-01T15:00:00.000+03:002005-04-05T10:35:24.910+03:00

Coola at XBOX365 wrote that rumours are running rampant and whisper that Ubisoft is going to purchase Rare from Microsoft. Rare is also European company and that is supposed to be the added benefit for Ubisoft. Deal is or is not made official at E3.In my opinion this will not happen. If Microsoft does this, they are going to loose lot of money. Ubisoft is in no condition to pay hefty sums of 350

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112352338121954062005-04-01T13:43:00.000+03:002005-04-01T13:45:38.123+03:00

What is it with these ever expanding Chinese companies? My favourite market research firm, covering Chinese markets, Pacific Epoch, is now going MMORPG. Game will be licensed from Korea but later hopes to develop their own games. Game designers should also be able to sub as market analysts. They claim that their office anyhow has free space and they need online game industry analysts. So,

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112246912779346402005-03-31T08:27:00.000+03:002005-03-31T08:28:32.780+03:00

SCi is tightening its grip over Eidos as it got Merrill Lynch and Gartmore Asset Management to support their bid. Now as SCi has over 25% backing, they can block the offer of Elevation Partners. There will be no lift off for Elevation unless they show much more money.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112243650342573122005-03-31T07:33:00.000+03:002005-03-31T07:34:10.343+03:00

It has been quite a rollercoaster what comes to its share price. Before Christmas and after, analysts from several companies raised their recommendations and lifted Electronic Arts as an industry performer. Now we see similar trend taking place, but only reversed. Jyske Bank is refreshingly different, because they have maintained reduce recommendation all this time. It is quite an accomplishment

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112206757554649452005-03-30T21:18:00.000+03:002005-03-30T21:19:17.553+03:00

DigiTimes had a story about possible revival of Taiwanese online game industry. According to the article, Internet cafes in Taiwan have had troubled time for past few years. Regulations and home electronics have eaten the markets. Now there is a chance for growth again. New online games are bound to increase the demand for Internet cafes, because it is more fun to play games with friends than

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112157887803604092005-03-30T07:44:00.000+03:002005-03-30T07:44:47.803+03:00

In Eidos quarrel, the scale is tipping for SCi, which has already managed to secure about 26% of the ownership of Eidos. SCi is also softening up the management at Eidos as they met to discuss the situation. Elevation Partners must show lot more money to turn the heads of Eidos team.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112079568375046002005-03-29T09:59:00.000+03:002005-03-29T09:59:28.376+03:00

Electronic Arts found out that shareholders do not have such patience as their game development workers. I took this quote from PR Newswire:“A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of all securities purchasers of Electronic Arts Inc. between January 25, and March 21, 2005, inclusive.”The complaint goes on and lists

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112015106840000742005-03-28T15:59:00.000+03:002005-03-28T16:05:06.843+03:00

Game industry is enjoying lot of interest outside its borders. Namely media companies are looking into expanding their reach into games. This will increase the prices of all game companies, because bigger companies are complete and easy to manage and small game companies, because they are the fuel for bigger companies to grow even bigger.WHY BUY?Game development is slow and there is always danger

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1112010627152034202005-03-28T14:50:00.000+03:002005-03-28T14:50:27.153+03:00

The Washington Post has great article called “Media firms piece together new strategies” about media companies. In the article they go through different strategies that media companies are using to adapt present conditions. They shed light on following companies’ plans: Time Warner, Viacom, General Electric, Walt Disney, Sony and Comcast. I found the article from Florida Today some other sources

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1111911593137502602005-03-27T11:19:00.000+03:002005-03-27T11:19:53.136+03:00

According to Pacific Epoch, possibility that Kingsoft is mulling a listing to overseas stock market is growing. They are said to be negotiating with several investment banks. They aim to get 240 million USD from going to public. There have been rumors about this all winter and spring and these rumors just won’t die, I guess there is something in the air.I wonder, how much money States has for

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1111573209598938442005-03-23T12:19:00.000+02:002005-03-23T12:20:09.600+02:00

Surprise, surprice, SCi decided to get into the bidding game in the end. Damian Reece from The Independent wrote a story covering the new development. Some general themes form the article:Eidos owner Schroders is backing SCi’s offer and that has caused some tension between Eidos management and ownership. Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey expressed his concern over SCi’s ability to manage such a large

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1111495158489608862005-03-22T13:42:00.000+02:002005-03-22T14:39:18.490+02:00

A venture capital company, Elevation Partners, was the company to finally buy out Eidos. I didn’t speculate with this option, but it was in the end what happened. This means that the case of Eidos is not over yet. Venture companies are in the business of making money not in the business of creating games. Now what happens is that we will probably see that Eidos will focus on its best selling game

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1111472720580565312005-03-22T08:24:00.000+02:002005-03-22T08:25:20.580+02:00

Lots of news came out today. In Bloomberg News, Jonathan Thaw wrote about sudden fall of revenue estimates in Electronic Arts. The game industry giant is not able to meet its projections. Reason behind this shortfall is the lackluster sales of their key titles, which were published for the Christmas season. Looks like the gaming engine ran out of gas before reaching the next quarterly checkpoint.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1111382078593493732005-03-21T07:14:00.000+02:002005-03-21T07:14:38.593+02:00

We are finally getting more news on possible Eidos bid, Bloomberg ran a story about new developments. This time the paper claim that it is SCi Entertainment Group, Eidos’s British competitor.At last we have news that sound solid, with simple reasoning, this is the most natural way to integrate the game business on the isles. Most of us know what happened to British car industry, the British

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1111054387553774042005-03-17T12:11:00.000+02:002005-03-17T12:13:07.556+02:00

According to Chief Executive Officer Robert Kotick, Activision is mulling price increase for next generation console games. Kotick used movie industry analogy to make his point in interview with Investor’s Business Daily. Matt Saunderson was kind enough to post this news at Advancedmn. Movies still run the standard two hours but ticket prices have been increasing steadily, while the game industry

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110732204642145562005-03-13T18:42:00.000+02:002005-03-13T18:43:24.643+02:00

Thursday BBC ran a story about the latest blight of Eidos. Share price plummets and deadline to satisfy the loan conditions is speeding closer. RBS bank wants to see an acquisition offer on a table by 25th of March. If Eidos passes this deadline without having a legitimate offer, the bank can force Eidos to start selling their property, in order to recover their loan. This is a binge in which I

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110454620222423302005-03-10T13:35:00.000+02:002005-03-10T13:37:00.223+02:00

Electronic Arts is planning to change its compensation policies so that it starts to pay overtime salary for some workers. However, Electronic Arts says that in the future those workers will not be eligible for bonuses or stock options. Compliance is a smart move, but then again, Electronic Arts is know of its excellent track record of smart moves.This decision will fundamentally strengthen EA’s

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110308528813433492005-03-08T21:01:00.000+02:002005-03-08T21:02:08.813+02:00

Yahoo makes a push for mobile game industry by acquiring Stadeon a company that has the technology to turn internet-connected phones into game clients. People could be playing against other people connected to internet no matter mobile or fixed line.Convergence is the everlasting rumor in the ranks of mobile devices. This plays straight into that pocket. Yahoo is already strong in internet

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110197635768416092005-03-07T14:13:00.000+02:002005-03-07T14:13:55.770+02:00

Taiwanese game company Soft World announced today that it had stroke up a deal with Blizzard to publish the World of Warcraft in Taiwan. Blizzard is blowing over all continents, is it the climate change or something?

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110194695338838502005-03-07T13:20:00.000+02:002005-03-07T13:24:55.340+02:00

Pacific Epoch is such a great source for news on Chinese online games. My Chinese is bit rusty (honestly I can speak and read it), so the fact that they have most of their content in Chinese and give out translated versions for fee is bit of a downer. Anyway, they once again delivered a sound article about online games in China. This time they talked with 64 Chinese gamers in Shanghai to get some

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110141609551258522005-03-06T22:37:00.000+02:002005-03-06T22:40:09.553+02:00

JoongAng Daily, Cho Young-tak and Koo Won-mo as the writers, had a wonderful story about the deal between We Made Entertainment and Shanda. The story is called “China proves both profitable, perilous”, Google it while it still is available in the net.Anyhow, these companies got together in July 2001 and in the beginning, everything went fine. What the deal was all about was that We Made

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1110104556987352612005-03-06T11:36:00.000+02:002005-03-06T12:22:36.986+02:00

Pacific Epoch has put together a database of online games in China. All sorts of information and it goes with relatively affordable price, especially if you happen to be an analyst - 500 bucks for initial piece and from then on 100 bucks for monthly update.This seems to be quite extensive and easy access to Chinese online game industry, so check it out. One thing that is especially interesting is

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109933834163068532005-03-04T12:55:00.000+02:002005-03-04T12:57:14.163+02:00

Take-Two Interactive had a windfall with the continuing success of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. According to the first quarter numbers, publishing increased its share as revenue bringer, compared to distribution. GTA is so hot that Take-Two Interactive suddenly has its pockets full of money, apparently not knowing what to do with it. Sure, they say that they are broadening their product

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109878337360121212005-03-03T21:30:00.000+02:002005-03-03T21:32:17.360+02:00

I already wrote about Nexon, the South Korean online game company that is overshadowed by rival NCsoft. I took a note that Kart Rider is one of their strong titles. I went to their homepage and tried to gather some info from those Korean pages. Googling was tiresome and as I didn’t get lucky, I just gave up and concluded that Kart Rider must be pretty decent title.Now, thanks to the IOL.co.za, I

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109859273826595202005-03-03T16:01:00.000+02:002005-03-03T16:14:33.826+02:00

I did say that Ubisoft needs to roll out news and announcements, in order to convince the investors that they still are a valid investment. But boy, is this getting ridiculous or what? Ubisoft has been pushing out something new every week, purchase this, acquire that, license something else. This time they announced that they are acquiring MC2-Microids' Canadian operations. I think that they just

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109837108562238182005-03-03T10:04:00.000+02:002005-03-03T10:05:08.566+02:00

Taipei Game Show has passed, but was a huge success. As ever, the show was packed with enthusiastic gamers and game companies. Taipei Times run an article, written by Gavin Phipps, on the show and I also checked some information from other sources, including the show’s homepage (outdated by the way). This game industry trade show is especially close to my heart because I have attended it twice.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109804037578007332005-03-03T00:53:00.000+02:002005-03-03T00:53:57.580+02:00

It is an awful feeling to be wrong! I just got off from writing about some innovative distribution methods of independent game developers and used Laser Squad Nemesis from Codo Technologies as an example. Little did I know that Got Game Entertainment had already announced that they are going to co-publish the game with Merscom. What I can say, but smart move from Gollop brothers. They are going

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109713215439551482005-03-01T23:19:00.000+02:002005-03-01T23:40:15.440+02:00

Troy Wolverton from TheStreet.com wrote an excellent piece, covering the slight setbacks that Electronic Arts has had lately – Ubisoft was one of those companies stirring the boardroom of EA. Ubisoft has signed a deal with Vijay Singh and is obviously laying plans to battle EA’s Tiger Woods franchise. Ubisoft also bought source code to NFL Fever from Microsoft. This is very innovative move from

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109711575621837172005-03-01T23:12:00.000+02:002005-03-01T23:12:55.623+02:00

Square Enix president Youichi Wada spoke about online game market in Asia. GameSpot run an article about it. It was interesting to notice that actual market values are pretty even among the three big areas – China, Japan and South Korea. Therefore the enthusiasm towards China is, as always, because of the huge market potential, well at least that is my observation. Mr. Wada also talked about

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109700505619637932005-03-01T20:07:00.000+02:002005-03-01T20:08:25.620+02:00

It is a great feeling to be correct on something. Just the other day, I speculated that Shanda might have some troubles ahead while trying to integrate all those soon-to-come acquisitions in the areas outside online gaming.According to the Pacific Epoch, top officers from Shanda subsidiaries – QiDian, Digital Red and Holdfast – told to the press that there are some serious hurdles on the way to

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109364511651606352005-02-25T22:47:00.000+02:002005-02-25T22:48:31.653+02:00

In-game dynamic advertising also comes to massively multiplayer online game Anarchy Online. Massive Incorporated will introduce their game advertising solution to Funcom’s online game in the form of dynamically changing billboard ads.I recently wrote about the possibility that in-game ads might be disrupting the feeling of a fantasy game, and that could lead into situation where the share of

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109354483340064112005-02-25T16:29:00.000+02:002005-02-25T20:01:23.340+02:00

Spokesperson for News Corporation ended the speculation about possible Eidos acquisition. For the time being, News Corporation is not in talks with the game publisher and game developer Eidos.It seems hard to catch ones breath. If the rumours of possible acquisition preparations still are correct, who on earth is the buyer?

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109341747505531492005-02-25T16:28:00.000+02:002005-02-25T16:29:07.506+02:00

NCSoft was proud to announce impressive financial results for the fourth quarter and year 2004 in general – Yonhap News reported the numbers. Net profit for the year 2004 increased almost 2,5 times from year 2003 and reached nearly 78 billion won. Company is getting more profitable, good news for the investors. For the year 2005, NCSoft expects to reach 305 billion won turnover. In euros this

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109253304406319132005-02-24T15:25:00.000+02:002005-02-24T15:55:04.406+02:00

TheStreet.com had interesting article about Activision. They have announced a 4-to-3 stock split. Furthermore, they are calling a special shareholder meeting, in which they propose doubling the authorized share amount. This move, if accepted, will increase the amount of authorized shares from 225 million to 450 million. According to the article such a move typically points to the direction of

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109251174826780172005-02-24T15:15:00.000+02:002005-02-24T15:19:34.826+02:00

Traditionally the Chinese way of doing business has involved lot of background checking, before any actions have been made. One had to check up if all the interest groups are ok with the plans. Seems like the culture of making business has changed in China. I personally thought that if Shanda is making such a purchase, they must have, on some level, negotiated with Sina and reached to some sort

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109247960294621962005-02-24T14:14:00.000+02:002005-02-24T14:26:00.296+02:00

They did it again. This time NCSoft has chosen that part of male demographics that is interested in cars. I can tell you that this segment is huge. I personally know several car game enthusiast, who will like the concept of demolishing cars in post-apocalyptic future. This reads Mad Max all over, just that they did not pay a dime for any licensing rights. According to the website of the game,

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109183871217099782005-02-23T15:34:00.000+02:002005-02-23T20:37:51.220+02:00

Ancient enemy is raising its head again. Well, not really, it is only Rubert Murdoch’s News Corporation that it once again in the nexus of game industry speculation. Both Pocket-lint.co.uk and Gameindustry.biz wrote about growing speculation over possible Eidos deal. Buyer could be, as earlier mentioned, News Corporation.This is no surprise, in my earlier analysis of this situation I set a

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109160133959681482005-02-23T14:01:00.000+02:002005-02-23T14:02:13.960+02:00

I promised an article about a game company that is pushing the envelope. Paul Hyman wrote the original long article, which was called “Startups experiment with online distribution”, I am just going to mention few pointers. This company is called Telltale Games. They believe that in coming years, games will increasingly take the place of TV as a family or friends gather together to play and

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109156473333363112005-02-23T13:00:00.000+02:002005-02-23T13:01:13.336+02:00

Kim So-young interviewed Suh Won-il, CEO of Nexon for The Korea Herald. It is very informative article, in which they go through Suh’s past but focus more on Nexon’s business.In the article, they discuss the phenomenal growth that Nexon has achieved with their popular game titles such as KartRider, Maple Story and Mabinogi. The other contributing factor for financial success, according to 27-

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109106726078047382005-02-22T23:11:00.000+02:002005-02-22T23:12:06.080+02:00

Small game development companies are trying to find ways to cut down the cost of producing games. One popular method is direct online sales, right from the company’s website. This approach is somewhat limited by the modest visibility of the game. As a result, company has much higher margin from direct sales, the sales volume fall far behind typical retail sales distribution.As I see it, there are

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1109012804809180062005-02-21T21:06:00.000+02:002005-02-21T21:06:44.810+02:00

Pacific Epoch run stories about connection between Sina and Shanda Paul Waide was the person who posted the news. Last Friday, Shanda Interactive had filed documents with US SEC, saying that Shanda and Skyline Media Limited, which is Shanda’s CEO Chen’s investment company, had bought 19,5% of Sina, between January 12 and February 10. In other Epoch news it was stated that Sina is not planning to

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1108994587956281072005-02-21T16:01:00.000+02:002005-02-21T16:03:07.960+02:00

This article that I am referring to was in Gameindustry.biz a while back, but I only now got the time to mention it. Good old Rob Fahey was behind it. Anyway, according to the article, new production model aims to lower the costs of concept development. Game Republic is behind the enterprise.Basic idea here is that developers have their development plans Okayed in the early stages of the process.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1108981037119033072005-02-21T12:16:00.000+02:002005-02-21T12:17:17.123+02:00

Chris Morris wrote and interesting article for CNN Money about online game advertising. In the article he lines out some plans that major game companies have in the arena of online game advertising. I recommend you to look it up, good stuff. It got me thinking few ideas like:Nothing will get your fantasy immersion down like an ad for snack bar while playing some fantasy game. Therefore ads can be

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1108972163975940752005-02-21T09:47:00.000+02:002005-02-21T09:49:23.976+02:00

There are some clouds gathering over the sky of the Electronic Arts. Mark Schwanhausser at Mercury News wrote in an article about another worker of EA, who had filed class-action lawsuit against his employer, seeking overtime compensation.This opens interesting opportunities for game industry workers. It is not only one person against big company anymore. Now there is the possibility that workers

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1108740219977447562005-02-18T17:22:00.000+02:002005-02-18T17:23:39.980+02:00

I am broadening up my narrow point of view starting to get to know game companies in a bit more organized manner. Majesco is the first on the list. Compact little company that has profiled itself especially as a maker of GBA content, but they also have products on other platforms. For me, this company appears to have potential as a take over target, because of their relatively understandable

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1108675320586627872005-02-17T20:16:00.000+02:002005-02-17T23:22:00.590+02:00

According to Wall Street Journal and Reuters, Electronic Arts and UbiSoft are in preliminary talks or as they say “I would not say there's negotiations taking place, but we are having the kind of dialogue that you would expect of a large shareholder with the company". It is not clear what these talks concern, but I could make some wild guesses:Firstly, they will test the waters on some ownership

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10880788.post-1108583572031233682005-02-16T21:50:00.000+02:002005-02-16T21:52:52.033+02:00

I thought that I wanted to write about mobile phone games, but it turned out that I mostly wrote about game industry in general and especially those trendy massively multiplayer online games. This new title should fit better for the content.

Jarkkonoreply@blogger.com0