Bloomberg guesstimates that Microsoft’s Xbox Live service “probably” surpassed $1 billion this past fiscal year. The financial outlet came to that conclusion using fancy mathematicals after Microsoft claimed that half of Xbox Live’s 25 million users paid the annual fee, and Xbox COO Dennis Durkin stated “in an email” that product sales on the service surpassed subscription revenue. Now, we all know there are ways around the $50 annual Xbox Live fee, but let’s surmise Bloomberg is right with its estimate of $600 million in revenue. That would mean the service generated $1.2 billion in sales last year.

Contacted for comment, Microsoft’s official statement read: “We do not have any more details to share. Microsoft does not break out Xbox LIVE earnings.” At the end of the company’s third quarter, it did say that Xbox Live was a major contributor to revenue for the division that houses the Xbox. The company will officially announce the results of its fiscal year, which ended June 30, on July 22.

Bloomberg: Xbox Live sales ‘probably’ topped $1 billion originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some of that growth is no doubt due to strong sales of new games. The retailer announced that new software sales increased 13.3 percent in the quarter — a trend that it should be happy to see, now that EA and THQ are taking aim at the used games business.

GameStop identified five games in particular that drove that growth: Battlefield Bad Company 2, God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and BioShock 2. We all love buying sequels at GameStop, apparently.

New game sales up in GameStop’s fiscal Q1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some of that growth is no doubt due to strong sales of new games. The retailer announced that new software sales increased 13.3 percent in the quarter — a trend that it should be happy to see, now that EA and THQ are taking aim at the used games business.

GameStop identified five games in particular that drove that growth: Battlefield Bad Company 2, God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and BioShock 2. We all love buying sequels at GameStop, apparently.

New game sales up in GameStop’s fiscal Q1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ubisoft today released its financial earnings report to investors for fiscal year 2009-10 (ending March 31), reporting sales of €871 million ($1.1 billion) with an operating loss of €60 million ($76.2 million). CEO Yves Guillemot softened investor reaction by saying: “The global economic crisis had a pronounced impact on the video game industry in 2009, which contracted by nearly 10 percent year-on-year. Ubisoft’s sales were hit particularly hard, falling 18 percent over the full year despite a stabilization in the second half of the year.”

Ubi’s Q4 sales were up 1.9 percent year-over-year to €210 million ($266.7 million), outpacing internal guidance by €10 million ($12.7 million). The company says the inflated numbers are due partially to “a strong increase in sales of Just Dance,” the “ongoing exceptional performance delivered by Assassin’s Creed 2 which sold-in nearly 9 million units during the year,” and higher-than-expected sales of both Red Steel 2 and Avatar.

And Guillemot predicts a sunnier 2010-11. “We forecast a return to profitable growth in 2010-11 with positive cash flow generation, driven by a games line-up that is more closely tailored to growth segments based on strong franchises.” He also notes his excitement for new technology driving increased sales, saying, “Lastly, the upcoming launches of new consoles, including Natal and Sony Move, should enable us to capitalize on the technology investments that we have undertaken in recent years and re-energize the casual games segment.”

Source — Ubisoft FY2009-10 Sales & Earnings Report (warning: PDF link)

Ubisoft reports $76.2 million operating loss in fiscal year 2009-10 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 May 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA has reported the results for its fiscal year 2010, which ran from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010, showing a downed revenue stream for the year and an improved loss. The company took in $3.654 billion (down from $4.212 billion in FY2009) and, measured against money spent, lost $677 million (an improvement from last year’s $1.088 billion in losses). Additionally, Q4 2010, running from January 1 – March 31, 2010, saw $979 million come in, compared with $860 million in Q4 the previous fiscal year and $1.243 billion last quarter — a profitable final quarter for the company, contrasting last year’s Q4 loss of $42 million with $30 million earned.

CFO Eric Brown said of the coming fiscal year, “We are affirming our FY11 and Q1 non-GAAP guidance and expect to grow profitably in the year ahead. Our digital businesses are expected to grow approximately 30 percent.” For all of you wondering what that means in human speak, he’s saying that, regardless of today’s announcement, he’s confident in what the company has predicted for the coming year (as you might imagine, EA predicts it’s going to do better than last year).

It also means that Brown and EA expect to see a lot more dollars coming in on the digital front in the coming year, a likely possibility given initiatives like Project Ten Dollar, the EA Sports Online Pass and the usual stream of DLC for new games.

EA posts $677 million loss in FY2010 alongside downed revenues originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 11 May 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Namco Bandai’s “Content” segment, which combines its video game software and arcade machine products, recorded ¥6.86 billion ($74.68 million) in operating losses for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010. The division proved the most costly for the company, which also runs a successful “Toys & Hobby” segment, in addition to several other businesses.

Overall, Namco Bandai suffered ¥29.08 billion ($317.28 million) in net losses for fiscal 2010, but the company forecasts a modest turnaround in net income of ¥4.5 billion ($49.1 million) for the current fiscal year. The games segment, which this fiscal year includes the previously separate “Visual and Music Content” division, is forecast to post ¥3.5 billion ($38.19 million) in operating income over the next four quarters; aided by an estimated 90 game releases, which are predicted to bring in ¥88 billion ($960 million) in sales.

In fiscal 2010, Namco Bandai software sales, which encompassed 86 titles (or 225, if you’re counting localized versions), totaled 22.737 million units and ¥77 billion ($840 million); with portable games accounting for a significant 9.701 million units sold. Multiplatform versions of Ben 10 Alien Force and its sequel, Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks, in the US and Europe during the fiscal year, combined to sell 1.89 million copies alone. The console version of Tekken 6 was the publisher’s only title to move more units than either of those two Ben 10 games. A third Ben 10 title, Protector of the Earth, added another 610,000 units sold in the fiscal year.

Across all Namco Bandai products, “Ben 10″ the franchise racked up ¥17.9 billion ($195.3 million) in sales. Not quite Mobile Suit Gundman numbers (¥34.6 billion), but still.

Head past the break for the complete list of Namco Bandai’s top-10 bestsellers and sales distribution by platform.

Continue reading Namco Bandai game segment records annual losses … but Ben 10 sales soar!

Namco Bandai game segment records annual losses … but Ben 10 sales soar! originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 07 May 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Capcom blamed the financial decline on the delays of Lost Planet 2, Super Street Fighter IV and Monster Hunter Tri to the current fiscal year, though the company previously took these delays into account in a revised earnings forecast last December. (On the bright side, actual nets sales did surpass the predicted figures by about ¥1.84 billion.) In addition to the delays, earnings suffered from sluggish sales of Dark Void, Bionic Commando and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, which all failed to meet Capcom’s expectations.

Capcom calls earnings ‘sluggish’ over last fiscal year originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 07 May 2010 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THQ lost $9.6 million in its 2010 fiscal year (ending March 31), but that’s nothing compared to the $431.1 million it lost the previous fiscal year. Yeah, we’d say this qualifies as a decent start in the company’s proposed turnaround. THQ’s software sales rose 8 percent this past fiscal year, which begin in April 2009, to $899.1 million, having established, as CEO Brian Farrell puts it, “three major core game franchises” in UFC, Darksiders and Red Faction.

In a conference call this afternoon, Farrell described fiscal 2010 as the company’s turnaround year. Fiscal 2011 will be its “rebuilding” year, according to the CEO, and then 2012 should see the establishment of the fully operational and financially profitable “New THQ.”

THQ records turnaround fiscal year, still loses $9m originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 05 May 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyst Yuta Sakurai thinks Nintendo is being too pessimistic (or just not optimistic enough, considering that the subject is enormous profit). “We are expecting the results to be better than the company forecasts for the Wii,” the Nomura Securities analyst said. “Christmas shopping was strong.” Nintendo did have an extraordinary December, with both the Wii and the DS breaking three million units each just in the US. It then went on to break sales records in the first two months of 2010. Perhaps Sakurai is correct, and Nintendo is just being modest about its profits. We’ll find out on Thursday when Nintendo releases its annual earnings.

[Via 1UP]

Nintendo expects falling profits for fiscal 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 04 May 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The soaring profits were a result of a record third-quarter revenue haul of $14.5 billion for Microsoft, with the E&D division accounting for $1.67 billion of that total. CFO Peter Klein cited Xbox Live as one of the factors responsible for the company’s growth. In fact, Xbox Live, and the reduced cost of Xbox 360 manufacturing, helped the E&D division profit despite console shipments falling year-over-year, from 1.7 million shipments in Q3 of fiscal 2009 to 1.5 million in 2010. Tacking on to the last reported figures, Xbox 360 shipments have now surpassed 40 million units worldwide.

With so many Xbox 360 units in the wild, Microsoft’s Q3 Form 10-Q document [.docx] brings up a very good point: “Our hardware products such as the Xbox 360 console are highly complex and can have defects in design, manufacture, or associated software.” You don’t say.

Xbox division posts $165 million profit in fiscal Q3 on strength of Xbox Live business originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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