A HUGE ROAR has erupted from the wibbly web this weekend, as Blizzard lifted the lid on what will surely become another massive multi-million seller for the company best know for producing World Of Warcraft.
[Starcraft 2]
some were expecting another MMORPG with a Starcraft-themed backing. Fortunately, a good old RTS is in the offering, and we can finally get back to one of the finest top-down resource-gathering games in history, brought up to speed for gaming rigs of 2007.
Sales figures from the console world were as interesting as ever this month, as the latest NPD sales numbers were released for April 2007.
The Playstation 2 continues to conquer all, with 194,000 sold, but April was not kind to big brother Playstation 3. Sony's newest console moved only 82,000, nearly a 50,000 drop from March's 130,000.
Elsewhere, Microsoft may have doubled PS3 at 174,000, but experienced a dip from March's 199,000. In fact, Nintendo was the only company to experience an increase, with 360,000 units in April, compared to March's 259,000.
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PS3/PSP
It's been another bad week for Sony PR, with news of poor sales, poor profit figures, and a number of software studios complaining about the price of the PS3.
Sony has announced that the launch of the Playstation 3 has contributed to a 68 per cent drop in operating profits to JPY 71.8 billion (EUR 438.3 million) for the year ended March 31, compared to 226.42 billion (EUR 1.38 bn) a year earlier.
"In the Game segment, there was a significant operating loss as a result of the sale of PS3 at strategic price points lower than its production cost during the introductory period," said the company in its annual report.
Sony seemed to blame the available software for the poor performance of the PS3 in the charts.
"PS3 did see a dip in sales in April that we attribute mostly to a lack of new software in the market," said Dave Karraker, Sony Computer Entertainment America's Sr. Director of Corporate Communications, pointing to games like Heavenly Sword and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as heavy hitters meant to spur sales in 2007. "We feel strongly that this robust library will help drive hardware sales in the upcoming months."
As 1up points out, if April was tough, May looks bleaker. Karraker wouldn't speculate on sales, but outside of MLB 07: The Show's release at the end of April, there are no first-party releases coming to PS3 in May - in fact there are only two May PS3 games: Surf's Up and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, both of which are multi-platform releases.
Others have been keen to point the blame squarely at Sony.
Yves Guillemot, president and CEO of Ubisoft, told Reuters that Sony will "for sure" have a "lower" market share than before due to the Playstation 3's cost. Guillemot, who declined to elaborate, lays it out with this simple quote, "They have to decrease the price quite significantly." Ah this is the kind of in-depth analytical information we pay these head-honchos for...
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in an interview at the Nordic Game conference Nana On-Sha boss Masaya Matsuura of Parappa fame, observed that the PS3 is "currently" lagging behind but added, "of course they have a chance to recover over time".
He also said he believes the reason the Wii is outdoing PS3 in the sales stakes is because Sony's next-gen console is "too big" for Japanese consumer tastes.
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