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The PS3 and Blu Ray may be Sony’s bigger bets but camera’s and consumer electronics are increasingly proving to be their steady hand. When earnings were announced today, it was the strength of camera’s and televisions that carried them. Net profit for September was in at $646.7m. That was largely thanks to strong electronics sales (which account for 2/3rds of annual sales). On the quarter Sony hit their highest earnings results in three quarters. They also adjusted forecasts upwards for the fiscal year (which ends March 2008).

Despite keeping on track for their 5% operating margin goal, however, gaming remains the leading story. The beleaguered game division returned the 7th consecutive losing quarter. And the losses are only getting worse. This quarter was a negative hit of $848m, nearly double the loss for the same quarter last year.

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It’s game time for MySpace.  Already solidly established as a music and video destination for their users, the social networking giant announced Tuesday they will add casual games to the mix.

Through a deal with New York based game maker and publisher Oberon, MySpace will launch a game destination on their site in January.  The section will be host to as many as hundreds of easy to play, easy to learn games. Puzzles and word games, variations on standbys like chess and checkers, should figure prominently. The idea is similar to Yahoo Games, Pogo and other sites, but will also include social networking functionality.

Casual games aren’t usually big money earners.  They account for a small fraction of overall gaming industry income but the games are increasingly popular with web hosts as ways to keep their audiences entertained with quick burst of activity.  Click to Read More

Electronic Arts, again under John Riccitiello, is a different animal than they were before he left in 2004.  As a company, they’re now getting more streamlined, more efficient. They’re increasing their focus on alternative revenue streams (casual gaming, dynamic games, online gaming).   They’re also increasingly breaking out a pen to sign a partnership or opening the checkbook to acquire assets. 

Not even a weeks ago, EA bought SCI – bringing technology tools for online gaming.  Now they’re acquiring content assets with the purchase of VG Holdings Corp. (“VGH”) – the owner of game studios Bioware and Pandemic.

Announced Thursday afternoon, EA will pay up to $620m in cash plus allocate  up to $155m in equity for delivery subject to performance milestones.   EA will also loan VG Holding Corp up to $35m through closing. 

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Some analysts are forecasting the gaming industry will grow 9% per year to $47b by 2009. The fledgling In-Game advertising industry earned a meager $55m last year but riding on the backs of the gaming world’s growth, it too is expected to explode; reaching upwards of $2b by 2012. With that scale and growth it’s only natural to see the 800lb gorillas of gaming and advertising getting involved.

Today, Sony (Corp of America “SCEA”) took the plunge and announced they too were getting involved. To plot strategy and explore the space, Sony created a unique division. Darlene Kindler, who was an early executive at Nintendo and recently the VP of Publishing at Google acquired in-game advertising Adscape Media, will helm the unit.

In-Game advertising has been profiled before on Metue. Click to Read More

The video game Halo 3 earned $300m at the cash registers during its first week of release.  It earned more than $170m in its first day.  That easily trounced the all time best opening day box office returns for the movie industry (Spider-Man 3 earned $59.8m (source: Box Office Mojo)).  That makes Microsoft’s announcement today to spin off Halo’s creator, Bungie Studios, seem curious at first glance.  On a second look, it’s not actually that surprising.

Game Development is a little bit like movie production and venture capital.  For every hit, there are dozens of failures.  Companies spend extreme sums of time and money developing projects all the while knowing full well that many of the efforts will ultimately have to be supported by a few leaders in the portfolio.   Click to Read More

Earlier this week, Metue reported on a rumor that Sony would soon revisit its failed market segmentation efforts with the introduction of a new lower priced PS3 console.  The speculation was for a 40GB hard drive and an Xbox 360 comparable price of $399.

Now the first definitive proof such a console is in the works has been found. Click to Read More

Is someone at Sony throwing darts and hoping something will stick? It’s starting to look that way with the PS3.  From the beginning the company’s sent mixed messages and the practice is continuing.

When Sony first began selling PlayStation 3 consoles in November 2006 they chose to offer two models. A $100 price difference and 40GB’s of hard drive capacity separated the two.  It was a decision that left consumers scratching their heads instead of opening their wallets. 

By April, when Sony corrected its mistake and discontinued the smaller model, it had been outsold by its sibling 10:1.  

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