Digital Trends
Media analysis firm NPD has released its figures for video game hardware and software sales for the month of July 2009…and thoughts of the video game industry somehow being “recession-proof” are being set aside as the industry marks a 29 percent year-on-year decline in sales to $848.9 million for the month. Taken on their own, hardware sales suffered an even steeper decline: 37 percent compared to July of 2008. Software sales were down 26 percent and accessories sales down 12 percent.
It took two years to lay, stretches 17,500 kilometers, and cost $650. But the fiber optic cable operated by Seacom has brought high speed Internet access to East Africa, connecting South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia, the BBC reports.
Due to be launched last month, but delayed by the activity of Somalian pirates, the services were officially unveiled in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. In Tanzania, the national electricity company, Tanesco, communications company TTCL, Tanzania Railways and the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Dodoma are already benefiting from the improved speeds.
When the E3 Expo happens next month in Los Angeles, a lot of eyes will be on the Microsoft stand. Why? Because there’s industry speculation that the company is set to release a new controller for the Xbox 360.
Two years ago the company filed a patent application for a motion controller device called the Magic Wand, according to the BBC, which would interact with "a collection of sensors." The application also described the device as having "biometric sensors" to examine "fingerprint, hand geometry, hand vein pattern, palm pattern, and grip configuration" as well as "facial thermogram, a facial feature, a retinal feature, or an iris feature."
Maybe the video game industry isn’t as recession-proof as everyone thought: market research firm NPD has released its sales figures for 2009, and finds that U.S. sales of video games dropped 17 percent in April 2009 compared to the same month in 2008. Total revenue for the month was $1.03 billion across the industry—$510.7 million of that being games, with the rest being hardware and accessories.—and the numbers mark the second steep month of decline in a row.
Virgin Mobile has joined the ranks of mobile opertors offering $50/month unlimited calling plans, ratcheting up competition amongst mobile operators as cash-strapped consumers look to cut back on their mobile bills. Virgin Mobile new Totally Unlimited Calling plan comes in at $49.99 a month, and offer unlimited voice minute throughout the United States with no roaming charges; customers can add unlimited text and messaging for another $10 a month, and the company is also promising an even cheaper $39.99/month plan that offers unlimited calling after 7 PM and on weekends.
New video game sales figures from the NPD Group show that sales of video games and gear during October 2008 were 18 percent higher than they were during the same month a year ago, giving game developers and publishers reason to hope the 2008 holiday season might be lucrative for them despite the current dour economic climate.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning may still be a ways from the 10-million subscriber mark World of Warcraft hit back in January, but in less than a month since its release, the game has seen its fanbase mushroom. Publisher Electronic Arts announced on Friday that the game had finally reached 750,000 registered players.
“Thanks to our players, the war between the Realms continues to escalate at an incredible pace,” said Mark Jacobs, co-founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment, in a statement. “The battlefields are alive with three quarters of a million players fighting for the forces of Order and Destruction in truly epic and unparalleled Realm vs. Realm battles!”
Research firm NPD has released its figures for U.S. video game sales during the month of August, finding that game sales grew by 9 percent compared to August of 2007 to a total of $1.08 billion for the month. That’s the good news: the perhaps not-so-good news is that means August of 2008 marked the smallest monthly increase in U.S. video game sales in over two years.
While other U.S. industries have been hit by hard times and falling numbers recently, last month’s figures from NPD Group show that the video games industry has largely been immune, continuing to surge ahead. Industry sales jumped 28 percent from June, and 17 percent from July of last year.
The position of the respective consoles hasn’t changed much from last month. The Wii reigned supreme by selling 608,400 units, the PlayStation 3 lagged behind as a distant second with 224,000 systems sold, and barely edged out the older Microsoft Xbox 360, which hit 204,000 systems sold.
Pandora misses Europe. The online music service has to close off its operations outside the US earlier in 2008 after it couldn’t reach an agreement on royalty rates with two major labels, but it still hopes things can be resolved and it can be heard in the old countries.
The company is hoping that a deal with US labels could set a precedent to make that possible, although company head Tim Westergren told Vnunet that he finds the current situation in Europe “frustrating,” and that the overall Internet radio situation is bleak, saying “there’s no business to be had there.”
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