“Our analysis shows that while Wii sales fell relative to Q109, its share in fact remained constant relative to Q409. The main movement in Q1 2010 was the growing share for Sony’s PS3, at the expense of Microsoft’s Xbox 360. “The PS3 continues to benefit from the price cut last September. This should help the PS3 maintain growth momentum throughout 2010. The introduction of the Natal technology should also help re-energize Microsoft’s Xbox 360 platform in the second half of the year.”I would definitely agree that a price cut to the PS3 helped it along the way. That and an increased library of quality and varied titles will also have helped shift units into consumers hands. After all, healthy competition is good competition and its better than one company having a monopoly on the console market. Consumers are always better of when they have choices in any entertainment medium and games are no exception.
"I'm extremely pleased to join THQ and launch THQ Partners. I'm looking forward to working with a select number of world-class developers and publishers to distribute their great games through our global network."The target will follow known premises, allowing smaller studios to benefit fully from the advantages of a big publisher behind them while remaining the IP rights for their own. Giving power to the developers is always a good sign...
“We’re very excited and proud to be adding The Witcher 2 to our line up for 2011. The team at CD Projekt RED is one of the most passionate and skilled in the world, and they are committed to delivering the best possible experience to their fans, which leads me to believe we will have an amazing game on our hands.”Adam Kiciński, CEO of CD Projekt RED, commented:
“I’m very happy that we can put the last piece of the worldwide puzzle in place by confirming Namco Bandai as our European distribution and marketing partner. We’ve already put a lot of sweat and love into the Witcher 2, which we think and hope will be one of the best ever RPGs, and we’re looking forward to sharing more details in the coming months.”Though details on the game splash slowly, it is set on a very promising premise, as well as being the 2nd part of an already good game. It is expected to release on Q1 2011.
"We are looking to extend distribution of Sky Player widely via partnerships with key players in key categories. Games consoles is obviously one of those key categories, so what you would expect is probably true. We are engaged in talks to explore opportunities, but we are very happy in our relationship with Microsoft."I would not be surprised if the Sky Player service comes to the other major machines sometime in the future as Sky, like any other business, wants to expand and increase in profits (I'd know as I work for them). As to when this will happy is still unknown but with this already being looked into and proving a success on the Xbox 360 I would expect to hear something by the end of the year at the latest.
"We are absolutely not finished with Xbox and aim to make the experience richer and richer and continue innovating. We have a relationship with PlayStation because we launched the PSP service (GoView) so I look at consoles, and there are a lot of them, and they are obviously connected to televisions and the internet."
"When I met with Microsoft in 2008 to look at Natal I asked, 'When will you integrate this into the 360?'"He seems sure that many will be put off with the lack of integration:
"Their response was, 'We're probably going to wait and see on that' to which I said: 'Then you're going to fail.'"
"Plays like this always fragment and the disincentive to developers is powerful. When I'm spending tens of millions on a game, the last thing I want to do is lose 90 per cent of my market."There is speculation that Natal will retail at £100, a fairly offensive price if true considering the components are relatively inexpensive.
"Next month we're launching a free ten game offer. And this isn't just older titles - we've worked with third parties and there's some really good core products.Sweet.
"We're using it as a method to drive the hardware as well by making the whole proposition much more appealing."
"If we've done our job right people will want to be connected while they're playing the single player campaign so they can stay connected to their friends and earn the achievements."The digital rights issue has caused a schism in the industry. Avalanche (Just Cause 2) told CVG recently that it felt Ubisoft’s approach punished legit gamers.
"The best approach from our perspective is to make sure that you've got a full-featured platform that people want to play on, where their friends are, where the community is."
"We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology."
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