Tagged: business
Analyst: GTA 5 to sell 14 million copies, bring in $700 million for publisher
We have seen nothing of GTA 5, bar the announcement trailer, but that hasn’t stopped analysts from predicting the game will sell at least 14 million copies.
This comes from Sterne Agee’s Arvind Bhatia, who also expects the game to debut in the first third of 2013. He noted that it will bring about $700 million revenue for Take-Two.
The above numbers don’t seem too far-fetched once you take into account GTA 4’s sales: 20 million over two years. In fact, it shipped 13 million in its first year alone.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is expected to be unveiled at E3 next month.
Square Enix boss: Activision must have been crazy to let Sleeping Dogs go
Activision’s loss is Square Enix’s gain. The latter picked up True Crime: Hong Kong from the former last summer, and is gearing up to release it later this year as Sleeping Dogs. The game has picked up steam in the past few weeks through good press and a constant supply of hype and media.
“The game was, in a sense, discovered,” said Mike Fischer, Square Enix president. “The minute they showed it to us, we really felt like we had found a diamond in the rough.”
He went on to say that Activision must have been “crazy” to let go of the project, which he believes is “fantastic”.
“There’s clearly a lot of inspiration from The Departed and Infernal Affairs. You play an undercover cop who starts to feel mixed loyalties. But the open world feels like Arkham City, the combat feels as good as a fighting game, the driving is as good as a Need for Speed, and the story is every bit as rich as compelling as a Mass Effect. [It’s an] all in one game.”
Sleeping Dogs is due out in August on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Check out the latest trailer and screenshots.
Capcom Blames Rising Fuel Costs for Ailing Arcade Business
Capcom, one of the last remaining developers still making games for arcades, has blamed the declining Japanese arcade market on the rising cost of fuel, among other things.
Their latest earnings report shows “sluggish growth” in the ailing arcade market, even though the company opened up nine new arcade plazas across the country last year.
“There were several factors that negatively affected performance: the dissemination of home video game machines, intensified competition, declining popularity of card dispensing games for children, and the decrease of visitors to those arcades located in suburban shopping malls due to rising gasoline/petrol prices,” Capcom said.
The company notes that its arcade operating income took a huge dip in 2007 versus the previous year, leading to a nearly 10% drop in Capcom’s net profit for its arcade business.
Square Enix Looking to Invest in Rivals
Following the trend of acquisitions in the gaming industry set by the mergers between Activision and Vivendi, as well as EA’s attempted takeover of Take-Two, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has announced plans to invest in rival publishers and developers to combat rising competition from both new and established companies.
“Economies of scale and breadth of scope is getting important. It may be a business alliance or it may be us taking a stake in others, but we need to go beyond traditional Square Enix,” Wada said. “We face competition not only from Japanese videogame companies but from game companies worldwide. We also see some new players from outside the videogame industry coming in.”
No specific companies were mentioned.
Ubi's Sales Beat Expectations
GI.biz reports that Ubisoft’s sales for the first quarter of 2007-08 have gone up 90.5 percent from the same period last year and has raked in 134 million Euro sales, exceeding the forecast of approximately 120 million Euros.
“Ubisoft has made a solid start to the year, and continued to win market share,” said CEO Yves Guillemot. “Momentum was particularly strong during the period for European sales, which climbed 109 per cent thanks to the ramp-up of new-generation consoles and the impact of PS3 game sales, including Rainbow Six Vegas and Oblivion.”
The company hopes to keep sales stable for the second quarter. Ubi has two huge games coming in the fourth quarter – Far Cry 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction.
BDGamers 