Square Enix's overall sales are down in Q1 of this fiscal year, but that doesn't mean the company is losing money. As a matter of fact, it's gaining more profits compared to the same period last year.
Overall revenues fell 9.3 percent to US 275.3 million. Profits, however, jumped up to US 26.7 from the previous fiscal cycle's US 25.3, but the Japanese publisher did not explain why.
Regional sales were down in
Europe and
Asia, but the North American market is still responding well, posting a slight increase from US$23.8 million last year to US 24.4 million this year.
From a sectoral standpoint, Square Enix's sales are down in both online and offline portfolios. Similar slight falls were also noted for the company's mobile and amusement businesses.
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While most publishers in the video game industry are reporting decent to good earnings in Q1 of 2008, the story is a bit different for
THQ as it dipped well into the red zone with triple the losses it incurred in the same period last year.
THQ finished the quarter with US 137.6 million, US 33.1 million better than last year's total. A lot of this can be credited to multiplatform hit
WALL-E which was developed in cooperation with
Pixar. The IP sold over a million copies despite lukewarm critical reactions.
As good as the
WALL-E efforts went, development costs sapped up the earnings and gave THQ a staggering US 27.2 million in deficits. This is triple of last year's losses, but THQ isn't fazed just yet.
CEO
Brian Farrell said in a statement that THQ is still well on track to post earnings this year with a good number of their products still to come. Flagship franchises such as
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 and
Saints Row 2 are waiting on the wings, and games like
Red Faction Guerrilla, Darksiders: Wrath of War, and
Legends of Wrestlemania are expected to do well.
THQ stands firm on its projection of US$1.15 billion to US$1.175 billion in revenues by the end of the fiscal year. We'll see if that statement can vindicate the game maker when the dust settles.
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Defend Your Castle comes to WiiWare down under.
Tyrian, a classic and well loved shooter game that has already been ported to a number of other platforms, has now been introduced to the Wii thanks to the efforts of Wiibrew developer
nuvalo. OpenTyrianWii is still in its test version, so there is no support for the
nunchuk or classic controller as of yet, but the dev said support will be added in future versions.
The game
does, however,
support the
GameCube controller, USB mice and keyboards, and of course, the
Wiimote. Here are the developer's notes and known issues on the game. Please read the documentation included in the download for more information.
Note: - Pay attention when the program asks you to press 1 2 buttons, to connect it to the wiimote. You only have 5 seconds
- Use the wiimote in horizontal position
- In 576i mode (pal 50Hz) the screen is draw in 640x480, so you will see it enlarged.
- Couldn t test how it works in cable component mode, but spect to have weird colours.
Known Issues:- Network play is not yet implemented.
- 2 player mode buttons are not mapped (might work, i diddnt tried it)
- The default SaveGame works, but the "Select new savegame" option doesn t work,
- as you cant type the name of the new gamesave. It works if you use a keyboard
- The analog gamecube pad joystick does not work properly, use the Digital joy instead.
- Problems using TV in 480p or rgb components
Download:
OpenTyrianWii (310708)
Related Homebrew:
All-time great NFL running back takes exception to games having historical Cleveland Browns teams with number 32 at running back.
Check out the HOT new trailer for NBA Live 09!
AnyTitle Deleter is a new Wiibrew program from developer
tona. Similar to
Redbird's Title_Uninstaller, this program will allow you to delete almost any title from your Wii, including previously un-deletable ones, such as IOS, MIOS, and some system channels.
Of course, having that much control over your Wii could be dangerous as you could delete some highly sensitive stuff. Tona took that into consideration and has included extensive anti-brick measures, so you can't delete any of the more sensitive titles. Here are the program's listed features from tona:
- Deletes previously "Non-Removable" titles, such as IOS, MIOS, some system channels, etc.
- Contains extensive brick protection--You cannot delete your System Menu, it's IOS, or some other necessary titles.
- Lists all titles installed on the system in both hex and ASCII format in a series of nice (but console-based) menus.
- Attempts un-installation of titles the "safe" way, and if it fails, will do a more manual "delete" upon request.
Download:
AnyTitle Deleter
Related Wiibrew Programs:
Fresh from releasing his
Custom Firmware Wiibrew programs, developer
waninkoko has released another useful new program, Wii Region Changer, which does exactly what it says. Now you can play games and download from the Wii Shop Channel without concerning yourself with regional restrictions.
Note that you will need waninkoko's Custom IOS37 rev 03 installed for this. If you are having problems with the region switch, you may also find his firmware
downgrader useful. You can find both programs in the related articles section below.
It seems that this program also drove
a wedge between waninkoko and Team Twiizers. Marcan and the rest of
Team Twiizers have deemed waninkoko's programs dangerous (including this one), and have decided not to share any more information with him.
Nevertheless, numerous reports have come in that the Wii Region Changer is effective. Please keep in mind though, that there may still be a danger of it bricking the Wii. Here's a video of the Wii Region Changer, courtesy of linkinworm (a hearty thanks to you!).
Thanks to linkinworm for giving the heads up in the forums!Download:
Wii Region Changer v1.0Visit:
QJ.NET Wii Forums, Wii Region Changer Thread
Related Wiibrew Programs:
Guitar Hero On Tour publisher April-June earnings top $654 million as profits double; former Vivendi properties take in around $347 million; World of Warcraft now boasts 10.9 million subscribers.
