UBS analyst Ben Schachter was none too impressed with PS3 this holiday. He thinks third-party support could even become a problem for Sony.
UBS analyst Ben Schachter has issued his post-NPD sales report. He noted that although December got off to a slow start, its final two weeks were very strong and made up for it. Also, while there has been talk of softness in the music game category, Schachter said that "the music genre, led by Guitar Hero, significantly reaccelerated y/y growth in December vs. November – driven by higher ASP's of the full band kits," adding that "concerns around Guitar Hero were overblown."
Schachter was particularly disappointed by Sony. While the PS3's unit sales were up sequentially from November (to be expected), they were down 10 percent year-over-year. Microsoft's Xbox 360 managed to double the sales of the PS3, and Schachter said Sony's PS3 performance highlights "our growing fears about the viability of third-party support for the platform."
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.
"He thinks third-party support could even become a problem for Sony".
So your telling me that 20 million potential customers AND GROWING is a problem?
Well what do you expect, with all of the positive PS3 and Blu Ray news, and the amazing Killzone 2 coverage there has to be some negative news otherwise its just not fair right? :)
N4G really needs to start blacklisting sites. Gamedaily is one of the worst offenders of poor journalism and skewed biased.
"they were down 10 percent year-over-year. "
Maybe for that specific month, but OVERALL they were up 40% YOY.
Anybody want to read some "PS3 Doomed" articles? :)
Why don't these guys actually write something productive for once.
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