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North America’s largest game-maker, Electronic Arts, announced today Q3 2010 financial earnings, posting a significant $82-million ($0.25 per share) loss. The loss compares to a $641-million loss in the same period last year.
The company missed Wall Street expectations by reporting total revenue for the quarter at $1.243-billion, compared to $1.654-billion in Q3 2009, a year ago.
After speaking with a lot of people, I find there is still much ambiguity over the features of Apple’s latest creation, the iPad, and what the device is and is not capable of doing.
The iPad is also missing a camera, multi-tasking support, Flash support in Safari, and unfortunately, it’s limitations don’t stop there.
People that have used the iPad to demo a movies (with the 4:3 viewing ratio) argue the iPad would have been better in widescreen, making watching movies more enjoyable. But Apple wants you to use the device in any orientation as you choose, so making it widescreen might have been prohibitive in that regard.
Despite Sony’s efforts to keep the PlayStation 3 system secure (and it seems until now that has been the case), after more than 3-years after the PS3 launch, hacker George Hotz has posted a blog post claiming he has been able to hack the PlayStation 3 system allowing him to have full read and write access to the system and the processor.
If the hack proves to work, users can potentially use homebrewed apps, similar to the Homebrew channel on Nintendo’s Wii system, and play backed up games.
Microsoft and Sony are set to add new features to their respective gaming consoles, the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.
On November 17, Microsoft will let users update their firmware via Xbox Live that will include many useful and much anticipated new features.
The most important Xbox updates include new Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm (with support for only the U.S. and the U.K. users for Last.fm) integration, on demand 1080p 5.1-channel HD video streaming via Zune Video, and a new News section that streams content from various content partners including MSNBC.
The popular video game maker, Electronic Arts (EA), has confirmed rumors that it would acquire the online game maker Playfish for a reported amount of up to $400 million.
Right now, EA is set to pay $275 million in cash for the company, in addition to $25 million in equity. EA has added performance covenants through December 31, 2011, were assuming Playfish continues to grow, EA will pay up to $400 million for the company.
The acquisition will help propel EA into the online social gaming realm.
If you’re in the market to buy a Nintendo Wii, you might want to hold off a bit longer.
According to a leaked ToysRUs flyer, the Nintendo Wii will now be priced at US $199.99, or $50 off the regular price, starting in the last week of September.
It is very likely the rumor is in fact true given falling demand for the Wii, and the recent launch of the PS3 Slim and price reduction of both the PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox.
Both companies will not confirm the apparent leak.
Sony has just unveiled the new PlayStation 3 Slim (PS3 Slim) at a press conference just now in Cologne, Germany.
The new model is also now more affordable as it’s priced at $299 – half of what the original PS3 debuted at.
The PlayStation 3 Slim includes WiFi and two USB connectors (no infrared). The hard drive has also been re-positioned to the front of the unit for more efficient access.
You can also position the unit vertically with a $24 stand that Sony will also be releasing.
The biggest US-based consumer electronics retailer, BestBuy, has begun rolling out a new program that could dramatically change the video game industry.
The company has launched a new initiative that now lets gamers trade in their used console games in return for in-store credits.
The company has started off the program with kiosks inside stores in a small beta market near Salt Lake City, Utah, but is expected to quickly expand the program starting in the US and later in Canada.
According to a new Nikkei report, Sony is planning to add cell phone functionality to its mobile gaming device the PSP (PlayStation Portable).
The strategic move comes from intensifying competition from the iPhone that is being pushed more and more as a gaming device.
In fact, companies such as Capcom who have traditionally developed console platform games have announced they would also release select versions for the iPhone platform.
The popular role-playing multiplayer game World of Warcraft (WoW) seems to have been ported to the iPhone. There have been rumors the game would be ported to the iPhone, but this is the first time we’re actually seeing the game in action. For the game to properly work, it is based on the VolleeX engine that works by streaming video of the game rather than rendering it on the iPhone itself. This could be an indication Blizzard, the company behind WoW, is in fact working on porting the game for the iPhone.
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