NYC Eyeballs Growing Games Industry

New York City's Center For an Urban Future released an in-depth report on the state of the city's game industry, with the aim of encouraging city government to become more involved. Given the overall health of the industry, NYC joins a number of cities around the world looking for ways to attract game development; recently, we reported on a 20 percent tax credit granted to developers who create their projects there.

The report found that the city has more incentive to focus on the game industry than it's been given credit for:

According to local industry experts, the number of game development companies in New York City could be counted on one hand as recently as five years ago. But today, the city is home to more than 30 game development companies and another 55 firms involved in some aspect of games, from sound effects to distribution. Only a handful of other cities in North America have as many gaming firms.

Examining Quality Of Life In The Games Biz

Obvious sentence of the day: It takes atomic tons of effort and man (or woman)-hours to build a game. The game industry may have a bit of a checkered history with the "QoL" or "Quality of Life" issue, but since the infamous ea_spouse dished on her husband's seemingly-endless eighty-five hour work weeks in 2004, the industry seems to have been taking a closer look at its practices.

A new Gamasutra feature on games industry quality of life asks, "Does Anyone Still Give a Damn?" On hand to answer the question is Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the workers' organization that followed up the ea_spouse scandal with a QoL survey in an attempt to improve the landscape.

Four years later, what's the state of things now?

Ubisoft Leads Casual Games To The Slaughter

What better time to appoint a new head to your company's casual gaming division than casual Friday? Ubisoft reiterates their dedication to the casual gaming space by creating the position of group brand manager for the casual gaming division and filling it with cool, refreshing, former Coca-Cola marketeer Mark Slaughter, not to be confused with the lead singer of heavy metal band Slaughter. Mark will be controlling things from the UK, reporting directly to Ubi's marketing director John Rosenblatt.

Mark will be in charge of all things casual and Ubisoft, from the My Coach line of games to the Petz series. Not sure how comfortable I feel having a man named Slaughter in charge of Petz, but any executive move that has me pondering the headline "Ubisoft Slaughters Petz" can't be all that bad.

Ubisoft appoints new head of casual [Casual Game News]

Video Game Industry: Made Of Money?

A comprehensive article at SeekingAlpha by Bruce Everiss, who was part of both Imagine and Codemasters in their start-up days, calls the video game industry "one of the most attractive areas to invest," a worthy commendation given the arguably challenging state of the U.S. market. Everiss says that even in tough times, the game industry is set to keep growing:

And the industry is still at its very beginning, it will grow to be bigger than movies and TV combined as it leverages its key advantages of interactivity, connectivity and non linearity.

Notably, he also opines that from a market perspective, both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are "both a fair way from peaking in their product cycles" - but at the same time, he also states the Wii is "not worth developing for," and "near the end of its lifecycle." Ouch.

Video Game Industry: One of the Most Attractive Areas to Invest [SeekingAlpha]

NCsoft Profits Fall 43 Percent On Blackstar Costs

NCsoft reported a 43 percent year-over year drop in profits to $7.7 million, a decrease was due to a write-off expense for costs associated with The Blackstar Chronicles. The futuristic MMO, in development by Spacetime Studios, was ultimately dropped from NCsoft's lineup, and Spacetime will be pursuing the project on its own.

If not for the write-off, NCsoft stood to gain in profit 48 percent on the quarter and 8 percent on the year. The publisher's sales increased 4 percent to $84.3 million on the popularity of the Lineage series in Asia and strong performance for Guild Wars and City of Heroes in North America and Europe.

Breaking: CBS Snags GameSpot In $1.8 Billion CNET Acquisition

CBS Corporation just announced an agreement to buy CNET for $1.8 billion dollars. Through the deal, all of CNET's network sites, including GameSpot, TV.com mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic all become property of CBS.

CBS' existing online network already includes CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, MaxPreps.com, CBSNews.com, last.fm, Wallstrip, MobLogic, and the CBS Radio and CBS Television Stations digital media
platforms. CBS says its distribution net, the Audience Network, comprises 300 partner sites and reaches 82% of U.S. web users.

"CNET Networks operates some of the most important premium online brands, serving the most sought after online audiences," said CNET CEO Neil Ashe. "Today's announcement brings together two organizations that complement each other and working with Leslie, Quincy and the talented people at CBS, we look forward to taking our business and our brands to the next level."

Full announcement follows the jump.

Waitin' Until Friday: Where Things Stand On EA-T2

The deadline for Electronic Arts' bid to acquire Take-Two is this Friday, May 16th, so we thought it'd be a good time to review what we've learned so far to see where things currently stand.

First off, there's no shame in being the type whose eyes glaze over every time you hear something to do with "the market" or "analysts" or "diluted shares," and since this ongoing saga contains these phrases at several junctions, you may want to start with the easy, albeit detailed, summary of the whole works we recently wrote for you.

Still with me? Hit the jump for your handy roundup of our recent coverage:

Kojima: Western Devs "Have Surpassed Us"

EA Makes Three-Year Growth Plan, Quits Quarterly Guidance

During its call to investors, Electronic Arts said that it will no longer provide quarterly estimates of its financial guidance. Why?

The company said that in the event it has to delay titles to benefit their long-term quality, it'd take a big hit on the quarter that wouldn't necessarily be indicative of an annual loss. Moving away from a quarterly guidance model is a method by which companies can keep their stock from slumping on short-term problems.

The decision's likely due to some volatility EA saw during the year thanks to delays such as Mass Effect PC's push-back that don't actually indicate financial losses — it just means the company makes money in a different quarter than it may have planned. Shifting to an annual guidance model may allow the company more flexibility as risk levels rise in the burgeoning video game industry.

EA did not, however, note any specific plans to delay any upcoming titles. Executives explained their decision:

EA's Riccitiello Still Sees PC Opportunities

On EA's financial call to investors, CEO John Riccitiello said the company's still bullish on opportunities in the PC gaming market—the publisher said it plans to ship 30 PC platform titles in fiscal 09, the same number it has scheduled for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 during the period.

"Were it not for The Sims and the WoW box sales, it'd be a pretty dismal sector," said Riccitiello, responding to an investor who inquired about "soft" PC retail sales. "The fastest growing [sector] is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC. One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years... it's categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation."

EA's Riccitiello Talks "Holographic" Madden Interface, No Need For Take-Two

On Electronic Arts' call to investors, CEO John Riccitiello promised "a great year" to come for EA Sports — and referred to a "new holographic interface" for Madden's 20th anniversary incarnation.

Holographic... interface?

Riccitiello also promised that the next NBA Live would take "a huge step up," with new features set to be unveiled at E3.

EA seems enthusiastic about its sports franchises, and Riccitiello says he expects EA Sports will help drive the company to an additional $1 billion in revenue and an 100 percent increase in operating income. Riccitiello was optimistic about the company's studio structure in general, also listing big things ahead for the Sims Studio: Two sequels for MySims, a new SimAnimals title, and the launch of The Sims 3.

"Our fiscal 09 operating plan keeps us on track to achieve our fiscal year target - even without Take Two," Riccitiello said.

New Sega Title Begins Testing in China

EA Takes Out $1 Billion Loan For Take-Two Acquisition

SEC filings have revealed that Electronic Arts borrowed $1 billion from Morgan Stanley and other lenders to help finance a possible acquisition of Take-Two.

"There's no news here," said EA VP of communications Jeff Brown. "This is just a process point on something we announced in February."

With $2.3 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, EA already has the funds available to do the deal as it currently stands. With the deal not contingent on financing, why borrow more money?

"It helps us maintain maximum flexibility for any opportunities," said Brown.

Take-Two had no comment as of press time.

Atari Officially Delisted From Nasdaq

In an SEC filing, Atari reported that its delisting from the Nasdaq is official. Trading of the company's shares was suspended this morning at market open.

The company said it will appeal the decision, bringing it before Nasdaq's Listing and Hearing Review Council. At the same time, Atari is going ahead with previously-announced plans to merge with Infogrames, its majority shareholder, who is also loaning the company $20 million in required capital.

The company received a notice in December 2007 that it had to maintain a market value of $15 million or more for at least 10 business days, which it was unable to do. On March 24th, 2008, the Nasdaq notified Atari that it would be delisted unless it requested a hearing - it did, and that hearing, held on May 1st, failed to swing things Atari's way, and the Nasdaq ruled to proceed with the delisting process.

Full announcement follows the jump.

Activision Announces Record Billion-Dollar Growth In "Breakthrough" Fiscal 08

Activision saw a record $2.90 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2008, the publisher announced today - $602.5 million was in the fourth quarter alone, as compared to $312.5 million during the same period last year.

Strong worldwide sales for Call of Duty 4, Guitar Hero III and Spider-Man 3 drove the considerable growth, supported by Transformers: The Game and Shrek The Third. NPD data also shows that GHIII was the year's best-selling game in the U.S. and Europe in dollars during the year, while CoD4 was the number two worldwide best-seller in Europe, and the number one highest-earning PC title worldwide. Both franchises have surpassed a billion dollars in sales since launch.

It was the most profitable fourth quarter ever for Activision, even though the publisher did not release any new titles during that period. With its overall growth outpacing the rest of the market by more than four times, the company is now the number one console and handheld software publisher in dollars, according to NPD Group data.