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It’s been a tough week for the gaming industry. NPD reported a 17 percent decline in console video game sales for March, and the “Grand Theft Auto IV: Chinatown Wars” debut was not so grand. Activision’s upcoming “DJ Hero” stirred up legal issues, while “Fallout” developer Bethesda Softworks got busy with a new addition to the franchise.
It’s been another busy week in the gaming world. Topping the news was the announcement that game designer Will Wright is leaving Electronic Arts to head up his entertainment think tank, Stupid Fun Club, full-time. Elsewhere, Take-Two may have another hit on its hands — this time in downloadable form.
Nintendo made headlines in the gaming industry this week with the U.S. release of a new device, the highly anticipated Nintendo DSi portable gaming system. The third iteration of the top-selling on-the-go video game machine features two built-in cameras and recorded sounds that users can alter.
It’s been nearly a decade since the Internet bubble burst in 2001, and the intervening years have seen the rise of powerhouse companies such as Google, MySpace and Facebook, which have helped broaden the scope of what was once referred to as the “Information Superhighway.” The Internet was once limited primarily to email communication, file transfers and other rather mundane purposes.
As the ongoing global economic crisis continues to impact the technology sector, many employees who once thought their jobs were secure are being given pink slips and shown the door. Giants like Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems have cut tens of thousands of jobs in just the first quarter of 2009, according to a recent report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement firm.
Even as the recession grinds on, the gaming industry continues to draw in consumers’ entertainment dollars. Nintendo hit a console shipping milestone last week with the Wii, while retailer GameStop announced a monster of a sales quarter, and Sony made a price cut that may have some players scratching their heads.
Layoffs are an unfortunate but predictable byproduct of an economy in decline. As the global economic crisis stretches into yet another month, companies in nearly all industries continue the painful process of purging employees in an effort to reduce costs. After the automotive and manufacturing sectors, one of the hardest hit areas of the economy has been the IT sector.
It’s Game Developers Conference time, and that means plenty of news — some good; some great. Thus far, the most eye-catching announcements out of GDC ‘09 have come from two upstart hardware makers — one trying to bring console gaming to users around the globe, the other aiming to take the console out of the gaming equation altogether.
This week, the gaming industry saw a challenger in the portable gaming market grow more powerful, and its name is iPhone. The platform’s upcoming 3.0 software, which Apple previewed, includes new ways for game makers to make money, which may attract even more developers with even more serious offerings.
This week, Nintendo once again topped the news in the world of video games, taking a risk with the exclusive release of a violent, Mature-rated game for the Wii, a console that generally supports wares of a more family-friendly variety. Meanwhile, Take-Two announced a big loss for the first quarter of 2009, while Amazon, apparently eager to recession-proof its business, announced a new game trade-in program.
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