How The Video Games Industry is Faring
A look at results from selected companies in the video games business:
Jan. 9: GameStop Corp., the world's largest video game retailer, reports nearly flat sales for a nine-week holiday period that ended on Dec. 31. Sales of game software rose but sales of game consoles and other hardware slid. The company backed its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings guidance.
Jan. 19: Microsoft Corp. says revenue from Xbox 360 products and services grew 9 percent to $322 million, led by increases in consoles sold and higher revenue from the Xbox Live service. That was partly offset by reductions in sales of standalone Kinect sensors. Microsoft says it shipped 8.2 million Xbox 360 consoles during the latest quarter, up from 6.3 million a year earlier.
Thursday: Nintendo Co. reports a loss during the last nine months of 2011 (it didn't break out quarterly figures). Factors included a price cut for its 3DS handheld, a strong yen that erodes overseas earnings and competition from mobile devices such as the iPhone, which offer games-on-the-go. Nintendo lowers its forecast for 3DS unit sales, despite a price cut in August. It says it will have Wii U, the successor to the Wii, ready in time for the year-end holiday season. No prices were announced.
Friday: Nintendo vows the company will be better prepared when it introduces the Wii U during the 2012 year-end shopping season. Without giving specifics, the company says the Wii U will come with a strong game lineup at the launch as well as secure and safe Internet services that will offer players individual accounts. The 3DS has lacked a strong lineup of attractive software games.
Source: Agence France Presse
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