Gadgets and Video Games

In a new interview with Industry Gamers , SCEA’s senior vice president of publisher relations, Rob Dyer, shared a candid view on platform-exclusive titles — particularly when they’re on that other platform. “Look, we’re not going to get the exclusive games,” he said. “The Mass Effects, Gears of Wars and Left 4 Deads aren’t going to happen nearly as often. But we have our own first-party development and exclusives like Final Fantasy XIV and Agent . Exclusives just aren’t as commonplace as they were during the PS2 days

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Sony’s Dyer emphasizes first-party PS3 strength over third-party exclusives

With Activision’s holiday fiscal report expected to release this week, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is predicting that the Call of Duty profit machine may not repeat its fantastic 2009 performance this year. As reported by IndustryGamers , Pachter believes the Call of Duty franchise will generate “sharply lower revenue,” in 2010, to the tune of a $250 million decline. Not to worry, though, as he notes that Activision is likely to more than make up for that amount thanks to Blizzard’s impending releases (hello, StarCraft II ). Aside from that, of course, it’s important to remember that we’re talking about a $250 million decrease on almost a billion dollars, so it’s not like Pachter expects Call of Duty to wind up in the toilet. It’s worth noting that the previous Call of Duty title, World at War , initially outsold Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , though Modern Warfare remained on top after the dust settled

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Pachter: Call of Duty to decline $250 million in 2010

Netflix may not have a home on the PS3’s XMB, but that hasn’t hindered Netflix’s success on Sony’s console. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter told Industry Gamers that “the recent PS3 partnership is driving significant subscriber growth” to Netflix’s subscription services. Netflix will likely benefit even further when the service becomes a standalone app on the OS. Pachter reiterated that the Netflix disc will no longer be necessary by the end of this year . “Netflix’s exclusive relationship with Microsoft on the Xbox 360 will end in November (after two years), allowing the service to be accessed via the PS3 dashboard later this year.” Twelve million members currently use Netflix, and the service is likely to expand even more once it transitions to the Wii .

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Pachter: Netflix on PS3 provided ’significant’ membership growth

We frequently see the words produced by gaming industry superanalyst Michael Pachter — however, a new piece of programming on GameTrailers gives us the rare opportunity to hear them straight from the man himself. Yes, a new video segment titled “Pach-Attack” gives the technoprophet his own soapbox from which he can voice his opinions and say his sooths , all presented in crystal-clear HD video.

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Michael Pachter gets his own show, unbuttons his shirt

We frequently see the words produced by gaming industry superanalyst Michael Pachter — however, a new piece of programming on GameTrailers gives us the rare opportunity to hear them straight from the man himself. Yes, a new video segment titled “Pach-Attack” gives the technoprophet his own soapbox from which he can voice his opinions and say his sooths , all presented in crystal-clear HD video.

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Michael Pachter gets his own show, unbuttons his shirt

We know, we know — you’ve been sitting around all day worried sick about GameStop . Ever since the recent announcement of a cut profit forecast and the resultant drop in share prices , we’ve been in exactly the same boat. Good thing then that the company has announced plans to repurchase $300 million in stock from investors as part of its 2010 ” Capital Allocation Strategy ,” with intentions to increase earnings per share by 10 percent

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GameStop reveals 2010 capital allocation program

Following yesterday’s lowered profit forecast announcement from GameStop, the company’s stock took a 15 percent dive as of last night. According to GamesInudstry.biz , stocks opened yesterday “sharply down” due to the release of lowered profit expectations, but rose again before ending the day at $20.46. We might not know what the future holds for GameStop, but Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter returned from the future for just long enough to say he believes “industry sales will rebound in 2010 and that GameStop is well-positioned to gain share [over] the first half of the year.” It certainly doesn’t hurt the retailer that 2010 is chock full of delayed 2009 releases , we imagine

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GameStop shares drop 15% following holiday sales info release

According to a scan of the “Rumour Machine” section of the latest UK Official PlayStation Magazine found on Playstation Lifestyle , Tecmo’s flagship fighting franchise, Dead or Alive , could be set for a return for the first time since Tomonobu Itagaki’s departure — and this time, it’ll be on PS3. The magazine, which also rehashes some old rumors , claims that Dead or Alive 5 is “in production for PS3,” something that doesn’t necessarily rule out an Xbox 360 release (a PlayStation magazine would simply have no reason to mention that). It seems does likely that Team Ninja would want to develop a new DOA . After all, that’s the perfect showcase for the studio’s latest Jiggle Tech (R) — now in triple-D. The most recent Dead or Alive game to be announced will also be on a Sony platform: the beach minigame collection, DOA Paradise , which is coming to PSP this spring.

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Rumor: Dead or Alive 5 in the works for PS3

If you read the first installment in the latest installment of ” Pachter Predixx, ” you already know that the analyst’s new report praises the PS3 for its resilience during these troubled times. According to the report, the PS3 saw an 85-percent year-over-year sales increase in November, while the Wii and Xbox 360 suffered sales declines. This reversal in fortune leads Pachter and his Wedbush associates to a surprising conclusion: “We think that the PS3 will again outsell the Xbox 360 in November and December, prompting a price cut some time early next year.” Pachter adds that while Microsoft “has the ability to lower price yet again,” it probably won’t do so until “it begins to lose significant market share to Sony.” As with all conjecture — even when delivered by professional conjecture conjurers — we suggest considering Pachter’s educated guess as just that: a guess . Pachter predicts another Xbox 360 price cut in 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

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Pachter predicts another Xbox 360 price cut in 2010

It’s been about a month since we’ve done one of these, but we thought it would be worth bringing WIAN out of retirement for one of the biggest developers on the planet. Here’s the (astoundingly dry) story behind Blizzard’s name: Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce: You know, it is a complicated process. You look through the dictionary and make a list of big long words, and you start narrowing it down. [Laughs.] You get feedback from the people working at the organization, and then you get feedback from the legal department after they have done some trademark searches. And after that big extensive process, “Blizzard” is where we landed

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What’s In A Name: Blizzard Entertainment