The venture capital market is a tough business, with so many startup companies fighting over investment and funds, and game companies are among those. But according to VentureBeat, video game startup raised an impressive $1.05 billion in 2010, a new record.
A big chunk of that cash went to already established companies, like Zynga, which secured $150 million from SoftBank and $200 million from Google. Other funds include ZeniMax, owners of Bethesda and the Fallout franchise, who raised $150 million in funding earlier this year.
A few friends with a camera, some post production skills and lots of talent made an incredible live action Call of Duty video — in first person perspective, of course. Yep, even in real life, snipers are a pain in the ass, apparently.
Sony’s Kaz “Ridge Racer” Hirai recently spoke to Reuters Japan, where he slipped a bit of news on the Xbox Live competitor, the PlayStation Network. According to Hirai, the PSN is still not turning a profit, but is expected to do so next year.
Of course, it’s a lot harder to turn a profit on PSN since the service is free, while Microsoft charges anyone who wants to play online. Hirai said that sales on PSN topped 36 billion Yen this year, which translates to $430 million. In three years, Hirai expects PSN revenue to top 300 billion Yen.
Activision’s Call of Duty franchise is without a doubt one of the biggest first person shooter franchises on the market with sales numbers to prove it. While the latest iteration, Call of Duty: Black Ops, managed to sell like hot cakes, owners of the PS3 version are none too happy with what they’ve recieved. Not only are there issues with online multiplayer but stuttering frame rates and the like have made for an extremely unpleasent experience.
If you weren’t aware, gamers actually signed a petition for a full refund from Activision due to what they are calling an “inferior game”. While this may seem like a ridiculous claim, it seems to be perfectly legit. In fact, reports have just surfaced today that says over 7,000 gamers have signed the petition leaving some angry comments along the way.
Below is the petition statement:
Is it fair to charge Playstation 3 owners the same price for an inferior product, when both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 had the same amount of development time? Is it fair to charge Playstation 3 owners the same price for an inferior product, when the previous version (Modern Warfare 2) was equal on both systems but Black Ops is not? Is it fair to charge Playstation 3 owners the same price for an inferior product, when the previous version (Modern Warfare 2 on PS3) looked better than Black Ops looks now on PS3?
We are requesting a full refund for Call of Duty Black Ops! Or some type of compensation! Most PS3 users would even be grateful for free map pack!
Of all the video game franchises currently on the market there are some that really stand out above the rest. However, during the late 90′s and early 00′s, the Pokemon franchise showed us that even cute little monsters that live within tiny balls can become a worldwide phenomenon. Not only has the franchise spawned a card game, TV series, several movies and countless merchandise but it’s also created a whole slew of highly popular games.
Above the rest, the games destined for Nintendo’s portable consoles (Gameboy – Nintendo DS) are without a doubt the most popular. The next release is set to be Pokemon Black and White but we’ve yet to hear of an official release date.
Well if you’re a Pokemon fan you’ll be happy to hear that rumors have surfaced today that say the two titles will be coming out on April 17th, 2011 with the word coming from a “mysterious flier”. Unfortunately, we don’t have any official words to confirm this but once we get said words, we’ll pass them your way.
It’s that time of the year, the last week, Christmas and many other holidays depending on where you are in the world and what you celebrate. So we at DigitalBattle would like to wish all our readers out there Happy Holidays, and we hope you got some great gaming gifts this year. If not, go buy yourself something nice. You deserve it
EA CEO John Riccitiello recently spoke to Industry Gamers, where he laid out their plans for 2010, which included Battlefield 3. While there’s no official release date on BF3, Riccitiello had this to say:
“…and then our big focus is Battlefield 3 in the second half of the year. I’d be shocked if we didn’t take a notch out of [Activision].”
Riccitiello has lately been after Activision and their Call of Duty franchise, and it looks like EA is gearing up for a fierce battle in 2011, where Battlefield 3 will take on Modern Warfare 3.
We recently reported that Microsoft was rumored to be working on a new Kinect firmware which could quadruple the resolution of its motion tracking camera, but now Microsoft has come out and denied this — they’re not making any firmware. Microsoft told CVG:
“We’re constantly working to expand and improve on experiences for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE. However, this rumor is completely unsubstantiated.”
This doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually release firmware to improve Kinect, but maybe just not the quadrupling of resolution as rumored. Which did seem a bit too much, anyway.
Sony and Toshiba have been cooperating for the Cell processor, the brain of the PlayStation 3. Toshiba had plans of using the cell in some of its products, like TVs, computers and servers, but it never amounted to anything. Instead of trying to figure out what to use the Cell for, Toshiba has sold their Cell chip factory to Sony for 50 billion yen, or $600 million USD.
The factory has made over 30 million Cell chips to date, all used in PlayStation 3 consoles. Sony has said they’ll expand the factory to produce new chips for HD cameras and DSLRs.
According to market research firm Newzoo, a complete newcomer in the videogame analyst scene, consumer spending on video games topped $25 billion in 2010, beating out the movie industry and music industry, its main competitors. You can see the breakdown of the $25 billion on the pie chart above.
And as you can see, PC retail gaming is still in decline — 19% compared to last year, while console spending is down 29%. This is common when the consoles are going on their last few years, meaning that the next gen consoles should arrive soon and pick up the sales. When, we dunno. But we’re guessing 2012. You can check out the full report at Newzoo here, although it’ll cost you €990.
Sony and Toshiba have been cooperating for the Cell processor, the brain of the PlayStation 3. Toshiba had plans of using the cell in some of its products, like TVs, computers and servers, but it never amounted to anything. Instead of trying to figure out what to use the Cell for, Toshiba has sold their Cell chip factory to Sony for 50 billion yen, or $600 million USD. 