Hasta La Gadget!

Sony’s first-quarter figures for 2012 show that despite the company’s optimism three months ago, it’s made a net loss of $312 million. It pulled in a whopping $19.2 billion in sales for the three months ending June 30th, partly credited to bringing Sony Mobile fully into the family. However, the cost of restructuring the Mobile Products and Communications Division (of which Sony Mobile is a part) came to $143 million, wiping out the additional gains to record a loss of $356 million. Gaming-wise, the PlayStation maker suffered a $45 million loss as falling sales of the PSP and PS3 were only partially offset by the sales of the PS Vita. There was better news in its imaging division, while sales of compact cameras fell, DSLRs and “Professional” products took up the slack, resulting in a profit of $160 million.

In a trend we’ve seen across the Home Entertainment industry, sales of LCD televisions continued to fall, forcing the company to eat a loss of $126 million. Movie and TV recorded a loss of $62 million, although that’s primarily due to a dip in advertising sales in India and the cost of marketing (but not producing) The Amazing Spider-Man, the profits of which won’t be recognized until September. Finally, while it spent big to purchase EMI this quarter, big-ticket albums like Usher’s Looking 4 Myself and One Direction’s Up All Night helped the division make a profit of $92 million. While Sony’s treading water to execute Kaz Hirai’s “One” Strategy, it’s still got $8.4 billion stashed under the mattress, and in the face of lower sales, is hoping that reduced costs will help it make $1.6 billion in profit by the end of March 2013.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Digital Cameras, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs

Sony releases Q1 2012 financial results, eats $312 million loss originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite all of the whining we’ve been hearing about Battlefield Premium, the service is still proving to be quite popular with players. Electronic Arts announced today that Battlefield Premium has reached 1.3 million subscribers after only being available for about a month and a half. The service got an official reveal at E3 2012, with Electronic Arts launching it later that same month.

For those not in the know, Battlefield Premium allows players early and “free” access to all of Battlefield 3‘s DLC for an upfront payment of $50. Provided the user hasn’t purchased any Battlefield 3 DLC when they go to sign up for Premium, the service allows them to save $25 on the cost of all of the game’s currently available and planned DLC. This means that, for hardcore Battlefield fans at least, signing up for Premium isn’t a bad idea.

Of course, Battlefield Premium isn’t the first service to offer all of a game’s DLC for one bulk payment. Publishers have been doing that for quite some time with bundles dubbed “season passes,” and Activision offers a service similar to Premium called Call of Duty Elite, which launched (rather shakily) alongside November’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Both services offer more bonuses beyond early access to DLC, with Premium in particular offering extra cosmetic bonuses and double XP weekends that are exclusive to subscribers.

Battlefield Premium’s success has some implications for future EA games, as the publisher will likely pursue a subscription-based strategy with other games now that it knows the initiative worked with Battlefield 3. Depending on who you ask, this may or may not be a bad thing. If customers find that such offerings are a good value, then it can’t be all that bad, but EA may get a little bit too excited and overdo things, like it has done in the past (Mass Effect 3 DLC anyone?). Still, if nothing else, whatever EA is planning to do should be an interesting experiment in the realm of subscription-based gaming, so stay tuned for that.

Battlefield Premium hits 1.3 million subscribers is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Capcom is looking pretty good at the end of its first quarter for the year, thanks in no small part to the success of Dragon’s Dogma. We’ve known for a while that Dragon’s Dogma has passed 1 million units shipped, but today Capcom reiterated that figure – along with the intention of turning Dragon’s Dogma into a series – in its quarterly report. Total Dragon’s Dogma shipments currently sit at 1.05 million, with the game doing particularly well in Japan.

Overall, Capcom’s net sales increased 55.8% year-over-year, settling at ¥18.62 billion ($238 million). Operating income came in at ¥2.66 billion ($34.03 million) for the period ending June 30, climbing 244.4% year-over-year. Finally, net profits landed at ¥1.32 billion ($16.9 million), which is a whopping 290.2% increase over Q1 2011.

So Capcom is looking pretty good all around heading into its Q2, but strangely enough, some of thanks for the successful quarter belongs to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Despite leaving some critics underwhelmed, the game has managed to ship 450,000 copies so far, so it seems that fans don’t care all that much about poor review scores in this instance. Dragon’s Dogma and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City are the only titles listed as “major” releases for the 3-month period, so Capcom apparently made a significant portion of its revenue from just those two last quarter. Capcom also says its social efforts, such as The Smurfs’ Village and Snoopy’s Street Fair, brought in a steady stream of revenue throughout Q1.

We’re indifferent when it comes to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, but it’s good to see that Dragon’s Dogma is exceeding expectations (at least in Japan). It was a solid open-world RPG title that wasn’t without its flaws, but luckily it sold well enough to warrant a sequel, so Capcom will have a chance to fix those issues with upcoming titles in the series. It’ll be exciting to see where the franchise goes next, and it just goes to show that not all gamers are opposed to giving a new IP a go this late in the generation. Let’s hope that Capcom gives the franchise the attention it deserves and transforms it from something good into something excellent.

Capcom posts strong financial report for Q1 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Crytek and Electronic Arts have released a new Crysis 3 gameplay video, but this one isn’t like the run-of-the-mill gameplay trailers we’re used to. You see, not only is this trailer nearly 20 minutes long, but it’s also interactive. Truth be told, it’s more of a demo than it is a trailer, as it gives us a nice extended look at the multiple ways to play through Crysis 3.

Now, before you get too excited, we have to warn you that the video posted below isn’t “interactive” in the most exciting sense. At a couple of points throughout the video, you’re asked to choose between a stealth approach and a “kill everything very loudly” approach for Prophet, the game’s main character. So, since you’re being taken to different parts of the video, the demo isn’t truly 18 minutes and 52 seconds long, but watching the whole thing will let you see both the stealth and armor approaches to combat. Still, it’s a pretty cool video, so check it out below.

The gameplay itself looks pretty great, provided you were a fan of Crysis 2. There are indeed many similarities to be found between Crysis 2 and Crysis 3, but depending on who ask, that may not be a bad thing. If you’re looking forward to Crysis 3, we’re sorry to say that you’ve got quite a wait ahead of you, as EA and Crytek aren’t planning to launch this bad boy until February 2013. When it does arrive, it’ll be available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, just like its predecessor.

Crysis 3 gets 20 minute interactive gameplay video is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When it comes to more family-friendly games, the Nintendo Wii probably comes to mind since those games tend to take up less time and are easier to catch on. While there are family-friendly games on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the family-friendly image is probably one best associated with Nintendo. However Sony does not plan to take that lying down and has admitted that the PlayStation 3 has neglected family-friendly games. Worldwide Studios boss, Shuhei Yoshida spoke in an interview with Game Informer magazine (via Gaming Everything) and was quoted as saying:

“Our strategy for Christmas is to go big on family-friendly titles […] This is a neglected genre for the PlayStation 3, but as it matures, I think it’s really important to have these games on the platform.”

This was in response to a question as to the lack of “mega-blockbusters” for this holiday season. So far two family-friendly games have been planned for this holiday season, and this includes LittleBigPlanet Karting and J.K. Rowling’s Wonderbook.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony Gamescom press conference on August 14th, New PlayStation 3 (CECH-4000) model appears,