Gadgets and Video Games

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

Though the November NPD sales report won’t be released until later this week, gaming industry analyst (and possible soothsayer) Michael Pachter has predicted November’s biggest players in the gaming hardware and software markets. Unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the highlighted title in his report — not only does the report claim the game sold around 6 million units last month in the U.S. (for about $350 million), it credits the game with pulling the industry out of a downward spiral that it’s followed for seven of the past eight months

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Pachter: Modern Warfare 2 sold 6m units in Nov.; PS3 hardware sales skyrocketed

Normally when Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter whips out his crystal ball and starts getting the vapors, he doesn’t have time to turn on his minirecorder and take down the futurespeak channeled through his body. Luckily for us (and you!), he not only recorded it this time, but also wrote it down in the form of the 2009 Interactive Industry Report! We delved through the beast of a document this afternoon and found an interesting segment regarding the Nintendo Wii relying on “slower adoption rates of current generation technology” (read as: high-def displays) to help boost sales. Pachter writes on page nine of the report, “The global recession served to benefit Nintendo at its competitors’ expense,” referencing Microsoft and Sony as having slower console sales this generation due to HDTV functionality built into the systems. He argues that consumers who might purchase the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 are more likely to buy the Wii not only because of the lower price point, but because of the subsequent HDTV purchase price. “Expect most consumers to defer purchasing a PS3 or an Xbox 360 until they have purchased an HD monitor,” Pachter explains.

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Pachter: Nintendo is benefiting from global recession side effects

Some people in the video game industry predict the mobile games business could eventually grow to topple the handheld gaming market, Wedbush Morgan disagrees. In its July industry report, analyst Michael Pachter estimates the mobile games industry is currently closer to $2 billion and, even with expected growth, the market may only expand to $4-6 billion in the next three to five years. In a section titled “Mobile Phone Games are a Fad,” Pachter explains that, while 1 billion iPhone applications have been downloaded across 31 million Apple products sold, “it is not evident that more than 20% of these downloads are games.” Suggesting the iTunes App Store has generated “under $400 million in game downloads” in its first year. Pachter does predict the mobile game industry will grow at 25% per year for a few years, but will eventually fall as competing devices enter the market. The report also calls Electronic Arts’ emphasis on mobile games “misplaced.” EA Mobile has grown steadily over the last few years, but the report estimates the mobile games division is — along with that of competitors Gameloft and GLU Mobile — “barely profitable.” According to the report, finger pointing in Apple’s camp should directed toward the “open forum” structure of the store and Apple’s business model

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Pachter: Mobile games are a fad, EA’s emphasis on sector ‘misplaced’

Wedbush Morgan Securities’ 2009 industry report includes a list of the top thirty brands of 2008. The report notes that of the companies whose brands appear on the list, Nintendo, EA , and Activision were the only three with more than one brand to generate over $100 million at retail in the US last year. And boy , did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero — perhaps you’ve heard of it — was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros.

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Top brands of 2008 owned by Nintendo, EA, Activision, and not Sony

click to PROBE THE INSIDIOUS DEPTHS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS (ie: peep the gallery) What is Dreamkiller ? It’s like Psychonauts and Painkiller had a baby, and that baby has grown into an angry teenager who then scratched the design doc for the game on the outside of his notebook. Mindware Studios – the developers behind Painkiller Overdose – are back to “probe the insidious depths of the subconscious” with Dreamkiller for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms, available this fall

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Dreamkiller: It’s like Psychonauts and Painkiller had a baby

Despite the fact that the PS2 saw a sizable price cut just three months ago , Michael Pachter is claiming that the system is nearing the point of complete insignificance. In Wedbush’s “2009 Interactive Industry Report,” Pachter explains that he expects “PS2 software sales to decline sufficiently (around 64%) to be almost irrelevant to overall software sales growth, with PS2 software comprising less than 4% of overall software sales in 2009.” Sony’s probably not ready to give up on its most cost-efficient console, but as history has proven, nothing gold can stay in the fast-paced, constantly evolving world of video gaming hardware. Pachter: PS2 software sales to become ‘almost irrelevant’ in 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

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Pachter: PS2 software sales to become ‘almost irrelevant’ in 2009

Update: Electronic Arts has contacted us to let us know that the outfits will be free. Multiplayer has updated its own story, noting that the prices mentioned were seen on the Battlefield Heroes test servers.

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Michael Jackson honored in Battlefield Heroes, kind of [update: Costumes will be free]

Yesterday, Zip.ca announced a partnership with Sonic Solutions to become the first online streaming film and TV show rental service in Canada. Speaking with Joystiq, Zip.ca CEO Curt Millar said his company “would love” to bring the service to Canadian video game consoles — similar to the Netflix streaming service currently available on Xbox 360’s in the United States — but no agreements are in place with any of the three game console manufacturers. “Our whole strategy on this is to be available on every platform that we can be available on,” Millar said.

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Zip.ca CEO ‘would love’ to bring new streaming service to Canadian console owners

Anatomy of confusion: At E3 earlier this month, Atlus announces that they’ll be publishing Frozenbyte’s very impressive co-op platformer Trine on Xbox Live Arcade. Primotech is purportedly told by an Atlus representative at E3 that the Xbox Live Arcade release will feature online co-op as well as offline. Neither the PC nor PSN versions, both of which are being released much sooner than the XBLA version, will feature online co-op. Shacknews links Primotech’s assertion, and Joystiq in turn links that.

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Saywhut? Trine dev says XBLA release is ’speculation’