Blitz2006: Run on the Banks

[AniAko]

Courtesy of 1up.com (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3145567) : Midway reports $30 million loss this quarter.

This isn't the first time a company has suffered in the video entertainment industry, but Midway has reported $30 million loss as of this past quarter.

Just goes to show how cut-throat and aggressive this industry really is.

[bapenguin]

It's more copies than that, Blitz was $39.99...hell, i got mine for $29.99 after a rebate.

[Ludoc]

Courtesy of 1up.com (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3145567) : Midway reports $30 million loss this quarter.

This isn't the first time a company has suffered in the video entertainment industry, but Midway has reported $30 million loss as of this past quarter. Do the math.

$30,000,000 / $50.00 = 600,000 copies short of breaking even.

Consider 600,000 copies of a single game for let's say the almost 60 million PS2s world wide, means Midway failed to connect with 1% of it's target audience on that particular console if it were to put all its blame in one basket.

That incredibly small margin just goes to show how cut-throat and aggressive this industry really is.


That's assuming 100% of the game's price goes to Midway.

[AntB]

That's also assuming that every person that owns a PS2 buys games for it consistantly. I know plenty of people who have consoles sitting there collecting dust.

[Kelegacy]

The industry is basically this: The rich companies are the ones that make licensed bullsiht. They are the companies that hype turds. They are the companies that put out stuff like Enter the Matrix.

It doesnt matter if your game is better than someone else's. Consumers are stupid and are easily hypnotized. The best and most innovative games get looked over in favor of recycled garbage that gets pumped out in less than 6 months.

Does anyone know where I can find the sales figures for recent weeks, or weekly sales charts? I wonder how Shadow of the Colossus and a few other new games did.

[fitbabits]

Does anyone know where I can find the sales figures for recent weeks, or weekly sales charts? I wonder how Shadow of the Colossus and a few other new games did.
Japanese chart (http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm).
Can't seem to find anything for the USA.

[bean19]

Inevitable Winter - You really should speculate a lot less in news posts. . . or at least do the research on the speculation and then put it in an opinion italics at the end of the post.

First, developers, publishers, and retailers all get a portion of the money from a videogame title. Additionally, the quarterly loss could be attributed to other things, like maybe they just opened a new studio, or bought the property they used to lease, etc. Also, titles generally sell about 50% of what they will eventually sell within the first month of their release, but Blitz might sell more than that portion due to the fact that the holiday months are upcoming. Also, I'm not sure when the quarters begin and end, but they may have not even had any of the funds from the sale of Blitz incoming to them yet. It is possible that the publisher pays them quarterly, and that would mean that all of their money-makers this year (MK: Shaolin Monks, Suffering: The Ties that Bind, and Blitz: The League) combine as a payment at beggining of the next quarter.

[Kelegacy]

Japanese chart (http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm).
Can't seem to find anything for the USA.

So SotC came out at the same time here as it did in Japan? At least it was the number one seller over there. I'm a bit happy now, but what I care about is Western gamers and how/if they warmed up to it.

[Neosho]

Inevitable Winter - You really should speculate a lot less in news posts. . . or at least do the research on the speculation and then put it in an opinion italics at the end of the post.


Agreed............

[InstaPete]

Also, agreed. This news post really makes no sense.

[AniAko]

Here's Midway's Q3 report for 2005 (http://biz.yahoo.com/e/051107/mwy10-q.html) , if your interested, there's a breakdown of the finances.

Three-Months Ended September 30,
2005 2004
Net revenues $ 29,527 100.0 % $ 16,951 100.0 %
Cost of sales:
Product costs and distribution 11,470 38.9 % 9,268 54.6 %
Royalties and product development 20,469 69.3 % 7,098 41.9 %

Total cost of sales 31,939 108.2 % 16,366 96.5 %

Gross profit (loss) (2,412 ) (8.2 )% 585 3.5 %
Research and development expense 8,756 29.6 % 6,071 35.8 %
Selling and marketing expense 12,538 42.5 % 6,321 37.3 %
Administrative expense 4,475 15.2 % 2,142 12.7 %

Operating loss (28,181 ) (95.5 )% (13,949 ) (82.3 )%
Interest income 436 1.5 % 407 2.4 %
Interest expense (595 ) (2.0 )% (338 ) (2.0 )%
Other income and (expense), net (292 ) (1.0 )% 299 1.8 %

Loss before income taxes (28,632 ) (97.0 )% (13,581 ) (80.1 )%
Provision for income taxes 297 1.0 % 329 2.0 %

Net loss (28,929 ) (98.0 )% (13,910 ) (82.1 )%
Preferred stock dividends:
Distributed 151 0.5 % 441 2.6 %
Imputed 3 0.0 % 1,771 10.4 %

Loss applicable to common stock $ (29,083 ) (98.5 )% $ (16,122 ) (95.1 )%


My comments weren't meant to be taken as speculation, mearly an exercise of the mind. My point was to bring the shear magnitude of the business side of the industry to attention. I apologize if anyone thought otherwise.
...just goes to show how cut-throat and aggressive this industry really is. <---- this was my point.

The report states a lot of the money in research and development has been dumped into next-generation consoles, and have claimed the transition in consoles to be the reason for such a loss.

[Citizen Philip]

Thanks for ^

[mos]

That's also assuming that every person that owns a PS2 buys games for it consistantly. I know plenty of people who have consoles sitting there collecting dust.
/me raises his hand

I haven't turned on my PS2 since I beat FFX.

[danhoo]

So SotC came out at the same time here as it did in Japan? At least it was the number one seller over there. I'm a bit happy now, but what I care about is Western gamers and how/if they warmed up to it.

Yeah, there's those "TRYST" (or TRUST, or something) numbers that get compiled from all the US sales numbers, but you usually need to either pay, or be a game publisher to get this info. Anyone got access to these that they'd be willing to share?