console

Zynga’s Stock Is Up — And Why Every Other Game Company Stock Is Down

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 13 at 1:44 pm PT

Zynga is bucking market trends today and is trading higher despite a report that came out yesterday suggesting that December sales were extremely weak across the industry.

News Byte

The Nintendo Wii Still Managed to Outsell the 3DS in 2011

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 3 at 8:27 am PT

Nintendo released sales figures for 2011 today, reporting that its hot seller continued to be the Wii. The Wii sold 4.5 million units, and in close second was the new portable game unit, the Nintendo 3DS, which sold four million units. In last place was the older Nintendo DS family, which sold more than 3.4 million units. Hardware sales were fueled by Nintendo’s own first-party software titles, like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii, which have all sold more than one million titles.

What Connects a PlayStation Vita to a Walkman? A Designer.

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 23, 2011 at 12:57 pm PT

Sony’s upcoming handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, was developed in part by one of the original creators of one of the most successful consumer electronics devices of all time.

Nintendo’s President Expecting a Strong Holiday and Says What He Really Thinks of Zynga

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 22, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

Nintendo is seeing some of its biggest consumer demand this year in the weeks leading up to the holiday, resulting in record sales of its Wii, the 3DS and games, too.

OnLive Streams Xbox-Quality Games Like L.A. Noire to the iPad

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 8, 2011 at 1:06 am PT

OnLive, a Pandora-like service for videogames, has figured out a way to bring console-quality games to the iPad and Android tablets.

News Byte

Delays Force Microsoft to Roll Out Major Xbox Update in Phases

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 6, 2011 at 5:08 pm PT

Microsoft’s major software update for the Xbox continues to face delays. In a statement late this afternoon, Microsoft apologized and said that “within a few hours the first customers will begin to receive the update.” It’s unclear who will get the update because it is not based on geography. The new dashboard, which was supposed to launch this morning, will add both voice control and new content to the gaming console.

Here’s How Microsoft Is Adding Voice Control and Gestures to the Xbox (Video)

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 4, 2011 at 9:00 pm PT

Michael Suraci, Xbox’s director of marketing, demonstrates the new features, which will roll out in a massive free software update, available Tuesday.

Nintendo Records Lifetime DS Sales of 50 Million in the U.S.

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on October 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm PT

Nintendo’s latest sales update reveals that it has sold 50 million portable gaming systems over the lifetime of the system in the U.S. But is it enough?

Idle Games Raises $10 Million to Support Higher Quality Social Games

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on October 13, 2011 at 10:46 am PT

Idle Games has spent two years developing its first Facebook game in the belief that social games will require console-quality production. Of course, higher quality means more capital, too.

News Byte

Netflix Officially Launches in Latin America

Kara Swisher in Media on September 5, 2011 at 2:35 pm PT

As has been expected, Netflix has officially launched its online video streaming service in Latin America. In a blog post today, the company said: “By September 12, people throughout the Americas will be able to instantly watch a broad selection of movies and TV shows streaming from Netflix on computers, game consoles like the WII and PS3, and Smart TVs.”