Comparing the Big Boys of the Electronic Gaming Business

It's not just a matter of who is number one (Sony in hardward and EA in software), but who comes in number two or three in numbers, both units sold, and in cold, hard cash...

My plan is to regularly post interesting facts and figures. Stay tuned!

June 8, 2004: Screen Digest research (www.screendigest.com) reports that "casual" online games will generate 1.5 times more revenue than hardcore massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Pay-per-play games like poker and solitaire reached $137 million in 2003.
www.gamasutra.com

June 8, 2004: Take Two posted a quarterly loss with net sales for the second quarter at $153.4 million, compared to $193.0 at the same time last year. Net loss for the quarter was $14.6 million, compared to a net income of $14.6 million a year ago... In related news, Take Two signed an agreement with Sega to co-publish and exclusively distribute all Sega ESPN video game titles, including ESPN NFL Football, ESPN NHL Hockey, ESPN NBA Basketball, ESPN College Hoops and ESPN Major League Baseball, probably because of strong competition from EA Sports.
www.gamasutra.com
www.gamasutra.com

May 27, 2004: Nintendo profits, for the fiscal year ending March 31, fall half from last year. 2003 Gross Sales: US$4.65 billion (up 2% from 2002) 2003 Net Profit: US$299 million (down from US$607 million in 2002) www.gamasutra.com

May 27, 2004: Atari, formerly Infogrames, announced fewer losses for the fiscal year ended March 31. 2003 Gross Sales: US$859 million (down 22% from 2002) 2003 Net Loss: US$38 million (US$135 million in 2002) www.gamasutra.com

May 21, 2004: Japanese publisher Namco recorded operating profit of 15.4 billion Yen (114 million Euro), up 63 per cent on the previous year's figure, on sales of 172.6 billion Yen (1.3 billion Euro), up 11.5 per cent. 2003 Gross Sales: US$1.56 billion 2003 Net Profit: US$91 million www.gamesindustry.biz

May 21, 2004: Square Enix have released the company’s full year fiscal results, revealing a ?0.99 billion ($98.1m) profit and sales of ?3.2 billion ($563.9m)... more than 5.85 million units sold in North America, 4.93 million in Japan, 2.74 million in Europe and 100,000 in Asia... next fiscal year the company expects to ship 12.1 million units of software world-wide, with sales of ?6 billion ($678.4m) and a profit of ?1.5 billion ($102.7m). www.gamasutra.com

May 19, 2004: PlayStation 2 has shipped more than 70 million consoles and 572 million games, which puts it ahead of the first PlayStation at the same stage in its life. By comparison the Xbox has sold 14 million units world-wide and the GameCube 14.8 million.
www.gamasutra.com

May 18, 2004 - Interview with EA's chief executive Larry Probst: Electronic Arts will top $3 billion in revenue next year ("We'd better, or I'm going to be fired," comments Probst wryly), making it more than twice the size of its nearest competitor in the western publishing market - but the firm has its sights set much, much higher than that, Probst reveals... "If you take a look at our world wide market share - people think of us as this 800 pound gorilla, but on a global basis our market share is only 20 per cent..."
www.gamesindustry.biz

May 18, 2004 - TOKYO: Sega Corp., the video-game maker famous for Sonic the Hedgehog, and pinball-equipment maker Sammy Corp. said Tuesday they will integrate their operations under a new holding company that will become Japan’s biggest video game software company... combined group annual sales are about 440 billion yen ($3.89 billion) will exceed those of the current largest Japanese game software firm, Konami Corp.
www.msnbc.msn.com

January 6, 2004 on gamasutra.com: Report Values Online Gaming At $1.4 Billion. The Themis Group has today released its latest report on online gaming, estimating that world-wide online gaming revenues for 2004 will be $1.4 billion, up from $766 million in 2002 and $960 million in 2003. Estimated world-wide revenues for 2008 are put at $4.10 billion.
www.gamasutra.com
www.themis-group.com