Nintendo and Sony have both seen their stock prices rise following today’s Xbox One announcement from Microsoft. Nintendo saw a rise of around 2.2 percent, while Sony saw a rise of 9.3 percent. We should remember that Nintendo’s shares also rose when Sony hosted the PlayStation 4 presentation in February. On February 22nd Sony’s U.S shares were down 2.7 percent to $14.08 by midday, with Nintendo’s shares up 2 percent to $11.79
Former Grand Theft Auto producer at Rockstar, Jeremy Pope, has told Games Industry that he can’t see there being three consoles in the next, next generation. Pope says it will be extremely challenging for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, and says that it is hard to fathom that we are going to have these three big players in the console market in the future. Pope wouldn’t be drawn into who he thought might leave the home console market, but he did say that several companies have stopped developing console games because it’s become so expensive and time-consuming. Here’s what Pope had to say.
“It’s going to be very challenging for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see by the next generation some consolidation of some sort — it seems hard to fathom that we’re going to have these three big players again and again with the way everything is shaking out.”
The Nintendo 3DS has reclaimed the top spot in the Japanese hardware charts after a huge sales boost for the PlayStation Vita. The PlayStation Vita was the best-selling format last week due to a well needed price cut. The Nintendo 3DS sold 69,439 units this week, compared to the PlayStation Vita which sold 36,028 units. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.
The NPD group has released hardware and software sales figures for the month of February in the United States. Microsoft once again sold the most hardware with the Xbox 360 selling an impressive 302,000 units. Nintendo wouldn’t disclose their figures, but information given to Venture Beat states that the Wii U sold an estimated 55,000 units in January. The console saw a 40 percent increase in February which would put it in the 80,000 range. Nintendo sold 445,000 Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and Wii U consoles combined. Nintendo has yet to issue a press release detailing their figures. Here’s the top ten best-selling software in the United States during the month of February.
1. Dead Space 3 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, Wii U PC) Activision Blizzard
3. Crysis 3 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
4. NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) Take-Two Interactive
5. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3, 360) Konami
6. Aliens: Colonial Marines 2013 (360, PS3, PC) Sega
7. Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, PS3, Wii U) Ubisoft
8. Far Cry 3 (360, PS3, PC) Ubisoft
9. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3, PSV) Sony
10. Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U) Electronic Arts
Nintendo has been told to pay a former Sony employee a whopping $30.2 million in damages due to an infringement over glasses-free 3D technology by a New York federal jury. Seijiro Tomita, who had previously spent 30 years at Sony, sued Nintendo in 2011 for infringing his glasses-free 3D tech. Tomita told the jury that he had met Nintendo back in 2003 to discuss the technology. The jury found Nintendo in the wrong and dished out the $30.2 million to Tomita as compensatory damages.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in.
Nintendo shares have risen after Sony revealed its long-awaited PlayStation 4 console on Wednesday. Sony’s U.S shares were down 2.7% to $14.08 by midday, with Nintendo’s shares up 2% to $11.79. Trade on the Japanese market were similar as Sony slipped about 1.8% by the close of that session, and Nintendo Japan gaining about 1.3%. There isn’t any real explanation as to why Sony shares dropped and Nintendo’s rose, but it’s good news for the Kyoto based company.
Sony is holding a meeting this Wednesday, February 20th, to discuss the future of PlayStation. The company is expected to reveal a new console, also known as the successor to the PlayStation 3, which was released in 2006. To promote the upcoming meeting, Sony is supposedly attacking its rival Nintendo via placing ads around the web. In one particular ad, spotted by a NeoGAF member, which can be viewed above, Sony seems to be mocking Nintendo’s number one mascot, Mario.
Mario Wynands, a Sidhe dev, believes that one of more of the big three will end up dropping out of the console market by the end of the next-generation. Wynands previously stated that the Wii U is in serious trouble and that next-gen will fail. He followed this up by telling Now Gamer that the market can not sustain three dedicated game consoles. Wynands says that the video game industry is hostile enough to the traditional console and so he thinks that one or more of the big three will drop out completely. Here’s his thoughts on the video game industry.
“In my opinion, the market is now unsustainable for 3 dedicated game consoles, much less the myriad of new players jumping in. Indeed, it might not be sustainable for any dedicated consoles.”
“The environment is hostile enough to the traditional console that I think one or more of the big 3 will drop out completely, but I’m expecting all 3 to make losses without radical change to their business models (hence my calls for revamping of their digital offerings).”
“This new generation is arriving with all the challenges of the last generation unresolved in terms of low margins on hardware, high development budgets, limited shelf space, used commercial game sales, piracy etc.”
“On top of that they arrive facing increased competition for consumer attention via smartphones, tablets, and a resurgence in PC gaming.”
In an interview with Polygon, thatgamecompany‘s Jenova Chen said that his latest game, Journey, which is exclusive to the PlayStation 3, didn’t sell as well as he had hoped. Because the game was released on a single platform, Chen says he feels that limiting Journey to the PlayStation 3 prevented it from achieving a broader success. To date, thatgamecompany developed three, award-winning games – Flow, Flower and Journey – all of which were released exclusively for the PlayStation 3.
“I wouldn’t say that the development of Journey was a successful example of game development. We bankrupted the company.”
“I think to have a financial success, that is going to change everyone, it has to be much bigger than a game on the Playstation platform.”
-Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany
Veteran Rare developer George Andreas who helped develop critically acclaimed games such as Donkey Kong 64 and GoldenEye 64 has announced that he is leaving Microsoft and has joined Sony this month as creative director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Andreas also helped develop Kinect, Kinect Sports 1 and Kinect Sports: Season 2 as well as Xbox 360 launch games Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero.
