Sony’s Latin America Strategy

FEB. 23, 2009 • There’s been plenty of investment in Latin America market during the last few years by the big three video game console makers. With many similarities to the gamer demographic in Europe, the Latin countries in the Americas are an emerging market that also seems very familiar to established players in the industry. Microsoft Ent. proved to be extremely aggressive in the region at the beginning of the current generation, but Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Sony Computer Ent. have .....

XBL Gold Subs Top 50%

FEBRUARY 22, 2009 • The Seattle Post-Intelligencer obtained and verified an internal Microsoft Corp. financial document indicating that more than half of Xbox Live members are $49.99 Gold subscriptions. The document dates to February of 2008, and shows that 56% of Xbox Live members worldwide were .....

Nordic Region Report

FEB. 19, 2009 • The year 2008 saw ups and downs for the Scandinavian countries of Europe. In Sweden 2008 the game sales reached €285 million, which is an increase with 34.0 percent compared to 2007. The unit volume was the same year-on-year with 7.7 million games. The most likely culprit being the wider availability of m.....

Fun4All Label Comes to U.K.

FEB. 16, 2009 • The Fun4All label was launched in the U.K. by Activision Blizzard to better attract owners of the Nintendo Wii. The line debuted with six family titles, each featuring a selection of Nintendo-style social mini-games. The publisher launched a similar label called “Wee 1st”  in North Ameri.....

PSP Passes 50M Sold

FEB. 14, 2009 • Sony reported that total worldwide sales for the PlayStation Portable system surpassed 50 million during January. The PSP first went on sale in Japan in December 2004, and was rolled out worldwide during 2005. More than 200 million UMD software units have been shipped through December 2008. .....

MSFT Plans Retail Stores

FEB. 13, 2009 • Following in Sony’s and Apple Inc.’s footsteps, Microsoft Corp. has plans to open its own retail stores. A small number of locations are planned at first. The company has long maintained a strong merchandising support team that has a track record of fixtures design. Microsoft has hired David Porter, who comes with 25 years experience with Wal-Mart Stores, to oversee where and when the Microsoft stores will be opened. Computers running Microsoft software, Xbox 360.....

Blockbuster Revamps Rentals

FEB. 10, 2009 • During the second quarter Blockbuster Video will launch a major revamp to its game rental program. The pilot program will offer the retailer’s Total Access customers easy online access to games in the same way they can queue movies in one integrated subscription setting. Total Access plan cust.....

Nintendo’s New R&D Facility

FEB. 10, 2009 • Nintendo will build a new R&D facility near its headquarters in Kyoto. The gamemaker purchased the 40,000 square-meter lot last December for ¥12.8 billion ($138.7 million). New hardware and software will be developed at the site. In related news, GfK ChartTrack reported that Wii Fit has been N.....

End of content

End of content