Biz

Take Two Interactive released their latest financial numbers, this for for their fiscal quarter that began May 1 and ended on July 31. As expected sales from their hit open world action game Grand Theft Auto IV on the PS3 and Xbox 360 helped the publisher get $433.8 million in revenue for the quarter, over double the $206.4 million amount it got in revenues for the same period a year ago. Take Two recorded a profit of $51.8 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $58.5 million for the same period a year ago. Those figures exceeded Take Two's previous predictions.

PC owners can expect just one game from Take 2 for the remainder of its 2008 fiscal year (it ends October 31) with the release of Civilization IV: Colonization. The 2009 fiscal year is expected to see the release of the PC port of GTA IV (most likely this November) with titles like BioShock 2, Borderlands, Champions Online and Mafia 2 expected to be released sometime in the 2009 calendar year.

We are still waiting for the next few weeks to generate any real change in the NPD Group's weekly list of the top 10 best selling PC games in retail stores in the US. The latest list for the week ending August 23 only has one minor change; the re-emergence of Valve's Orange Box collection. With that said here is the latest top 10 list:

1. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
4. Spore Creature Creator - Electronic Arts
5. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Blizzard
6. Diablo Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice - Her Interactive
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision
9. The Orange Box - Valve/Electronic Arts
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard

If you ask pretty much everyone, the 2008 edition of the invite-only E3 Media and Business Summit was a huge letdown. Many people have been wondering for years why the owners of E3, the Entertainment Software Association, don't make the show open to the public like the Tokyo Game Show does.

Well, Kotaku is reporting through unnamed sources that a proposal for a public E3 has now been put forward to the ESA's board for consideration. Of course, even if this is true it sounds like such an idea is in the very early stages and could be vetoed for another fomat. However if it goes though that would likely be the last we will hear of the E for All Expo (both E3 and E for All are organized by IDG World Expo). A public E3 could also affect both exhibitor and attendee interest in Penny Arcade Expo which has surged in attendance and importance in the game industry following the switch to an invite only E3 in 2006.

Update: Big Download contacted the ESA for comment and received this response from its senior VP Rich Taylor: "As we do every year, the ESA solicits feedback and direction from exhibitors and attendees on how best to adapt and evolve the E3 Media & Business Summit to ensure it meets their needs. Each element of the Summit is opened for discussion and that process is ongoing to execute a productive and efficient experience. Regarding today's published reports, the ESA does not comment on rumors and speculation and will make an announcement about the details and logistics of the 2009 E3 Media & Business Summit at the appropriate time."

Two of the biggest PC game releases in September both come from Electronic Arts; the Will Wright designed alien life simulation Spore and the Mythic Entertainment developed fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. Gamesindustry.biz has word that a financial analyst, Lazard Capital Markets senior VP Colin Sebastian, has given some predictions on how both games will do in the their launch month.

Sebastian has predicted that Spore will generate 2 million unit sales in the US this month (it's due to launch next week). That is a massive number for a PC game and it will be interesting to see if Spore can make those predictions. Sebastian has also stated that Warhammer Online could generate 650,000 subcriptions in its first month (it launches September 18). This would seem to be a solid number considering that the launch of Funcom's Age of Conan last May has similar sales success in its first month.

The folks at CD Projekt generated a lot of press and well wishes when they announced their plans for GOG.com earlier this summer. The web site is designed to allow folks to download classic PC games without DRM copy protection at cheap prices. Today CD Projekt sent over word that on Monday, September 8 the site will open up for anyone who has signed up for early access.

If you haven't signed up yet you still can still get access to the early launch by signing up at the web site by midnight ET on Sunday. Those that do will be able to purchase and download about 30 classic PC titles from Codemasters and Interplay with more to be gradually added in the weeks ahead. Anyone who buys a game during the Early Access period will get a special code they can use to download any one Interplay game they want from the site.

China is considered a growing territory for PC games, especially for the online variety and that's why more and more Western publishers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are making inroads into that country. Today THQ joined that list of game publishers by announcing the opening of their Shanghai office.

THQ will use their new office to launch new online and packages games made specifically for the Chinese market. The publisher is already working on Company of Heroes Online, an online-only RTS game based on the acclaimed title from developer Relic that is being made just for the Chinese market. That game is expected to be launched in that country during THQ's current fiscal year.

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 is now history and Big Download has learned exclusively that the fifth annual fan-oriented games convention brought in a whopping 58,500 attendees over the three day event, according to Penny Arcade biz guy Robert Khoo. This blows away both the 2007 attendance number of 37,000 and also was much higher than estimates before the show of between 45,000 and 50,000 attendees. Those numbers are now just a few thousand less than the attendance numbers of the old trade-show version of E3.

Big growth can also mean big growth pains and there were some reports of people complaining of overcrowding at the convention center in downtown Seattle. Some also complained that they waited in line to attend panels and game demos only to be turned away because the theaters were full.

When asked about this, Khoo told us, "Regarding the overcrowding, it was definitely a symptom of the popularity of the show, but not one that can't be overcome. At 2 or 3 of the main theatre events 3-4% of the line wasn't able to make it, but we hear those 3-4% loud and clear. We have a few ideas to manage that problem for 2009 including wristbands for popular events or just a straight-up hard count of people in line. The worst thing is if people line up for something and end up not getting in."

Activision Blizzard has now been fully formed but the newly combined game publisher is 54 percent owned by Vivendi. Today the French company announced its financial results for the first half of 2008 with revenue coming in at €667 million and profits of €92 million for the time period.

World of Warcraft continues to be a huge revenue generator for Vivendi and the Blizzard created MMO will likely continue to be under the new Activision Blizzard reign. Vivendi reported that for the first half of 2008 Blizzard's revenue were €185 million, up 16 percent from the same period a year ago. Subcribers for World of Warcraft increased by 1.8 million for the time period for a worldwide total of 10.9 subscribers.

Electronic Arts announced plan to release a special limited edition Collector's version of their upcoming MMO Warhammer Online some time ago so it stands to reason people pre-ordered the special edition when it was first made available. But what if you ordered the edition and then found out you have to move from the location from where you first ordered the game?

According to an article in The Consumerist, the answer seems to be "tough luck." The article has correspondance between EA customer service and a person known only as "Micah" where he was told that even though he paid in full for the Collector's Edition, he wouldn't be able to get his copy even though the only thing he did was change his address. In fact it seems EA cancelled his order even though "Micah" told the EA customer rep that he wanted the game. So far there's been no official response from EA or Mythic Entertainment on this issue.

On Friday we reported that Penny Arcade Expo has settled on Boston as it's city to hold its first East Coast version of their fan-oriented video/PC games convention in 2010. Big Download now has more specific info from Penny Arcade's director of sales Mike Fehlauer about the event.

Fehlauer told us in a brief phone interview that after getting input from exhibitors about actual dates for PAX EC they have settled on a late March 2010 date to hold the event (they do not yet have any more specific dates). The actual venue has also been announced. PAX EC will be held at the John B Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. The venue has 193,000 square feet of exhibit space and is located in the Back Bay community of the city.

As previously reported, PAX have partnered with Reed Exhibitions to handle the grunt work of getting PAX EC on board when it launches. PAX will still control the booking of exhibitors, handle the events and the actual content while Reed Exhbititions will do things like work with labor unions, hotels and other local issues to get the event up and running. Reed Exhibitions runs, among other event, the hugely popular New York Comic Con and the New York Anime Festival.

Fehlauer told us that they are not planning to make PAX EC a huge event in terms of attendees at first. Like the growth of the original PAX, which began with just a few thousand people showing up, PAX EC is also planning to start out slow and grow. When asked about conflicts with the Game Developers Conference (which is usually also held in March) Fehlauer told us that they felt both events were very different; GDC is for game developers while PAX is for the game fan and consumer and there should be little overlap between the two.

We will have more info about PAX EC in the months leading to its March 2010 launch.

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 is underway in Seattle but the big news is what is to come for the growing fan oriented video game consumer show. Our sister site Joystiq is reporting that the first east coast version of PAX has finally settled on a location. It's Boston, home of the Red Sox, 2K Boston, Turbine, and many other game developers.

That's all we currently know about the new PAX EC. There's no word yet on an exact date other than the previously announced spring 2010. There's also no word about a venue yet although a big city like Boston won't lack for such locations. Hopefully we will know more about PAX EC in the near future.

Stardock and its CEO Brad Wardell have always been champions of PC gaming and the belief that the platform is as viable as the console industry. Today the publisher released what their are calling the "Gamer's Bill of Rights". They are 10 statements that they believe PC gaming consumers should get for their purchases. Stardock intends to follow its own statements; it has announced that anyone that can't run their recent strategy game The Political Machine 2008 on their PC can get their money back from Stardock if they purchased the game in retail stores.

Here is the full list:
1) Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
2) Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3) Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
4) Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
6) Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
7) Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8) Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9) Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10) Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

You can add Sims and Spore creator Will Wright to the growing number of game industry professionals who are critical of the current "invite only" version of E3. In fact Wright states in a chat for Gamesindustry.biz, "the real E3 died a couple of years ago" and adds, "It almost feels like a zombie at this point; it's the walking dead."

While E3 may not be trying to eat any brains yet, Wright does feel that, "Right now we're in this kind of dicey, do we have an event, what event is it, which one do we go to?" type of situation. He knows that the old E3 was getting too expensive but the invite only event doesn't seems to be any better. Wright feels E3 is currently "struggling for an identity".The event's organizers, the Entertainment Software Association, have announced that a 2009 event is coming but no dates, locations or format have been announced.

Atari has its first profitable quarter in some time a few weeks ago, even after being delisted from the NASDAQ stock market. Now yet another game publisher, Majesco Entertainment, is facing the same threat. The company announced late today that their stock has gone below $1 a share for the past 30 days in violation of NASDAQ rules. The stock market has given Majesco 180 days to comply with their minimal stock price.

Majesco used to be a busy PC publisher; a few years ago it released games like Psychonauts, Advent Rising and the Bloodrayne series. For the past few years Majesco has concentrated on releasing budget games mostly for the Wii and DS consoles.

How many times have we read a story about a murder or other crime out there that is blamed on the alledged criminal playing video games? From Doom to Mortal Kombat to the Grand Theft Auto titles, people and attorneys love that kind of blame game. In the real world we know crimes are committed for a ton of other real reasons but a attorney (not Jack Thompson) says that the 'blame games" defense can actually work in court.

In a story for the Palm Beach Post web site, llinois attorney James H. Waller states, "While I don't believe that violent video games tend to have any negative effects on otherwise healthy people, my job is to present ANY theory to a jury that would explain why my client did the things he did." He says placing blame on outside forces, including the playing of violent games, "humanizes the client and shifts the culpability." The defense works, he claims, mainly on "an unsophisticated, typically older, somewhat more rural jury pool or judge."

However, game publishers have to take a little responsiblity, according to Waller. "The manufacturers do everything they can to make sure that they are a household name, if not cartridge. Restricting supply to create buzz, sensationalizing their own violence to the media, doing idiotic things like leaving the "Hot Coffee" code in the game...the jury knows that a lot of kids today are playing this Grand Theft Auto game and that it's very violent or adult before we even walk into the courtroom."