The DICE unit, purchased by EA in the middle of the last decade, will be a key cog in the creation of a new series of “Star Wars” videogames. Walt Disney Co. announced last week that it enlisted EA to make “Star Wars” games weeks after closing its LucasArts games division.

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Netflix is adding “Jake and the Never Land Pirates” and “Tron: Uprising” today; later this month they will be joined by “Handy Manny,” “Special Agent Oso” and “JoJo’s Circus.” As with all of Netflix’s TV deals, this is a catalog pact, which means the service won’t get its hands on shows until after they’ve aired at least once on regular TV.

Netflix has had other deals with Disney for many years, and late last year announced its most significant one, which will bring the company’s most prominent movies, including its Pixar films and its “Star Wars” sequels, to the service. So there’s nothing dramatically different here.

What is of interest is the timing of the deal: It comes as Netflix’s current deal with Viacom, which provides the service with a ton of kids’ programming, is about to expire.

Netflix has already announced that it intends to let the Viacom deal lapse at the end of this month, and wants to replace it with deals for individual shows (just like the Disney deal). Neither company had any comment today on the status of those negotiations. But I’m guessing that Netflix thinks this deal strengthens its hand.

EA ended the quarter with earnings of 55 cents per share on revenue of $1.04 billion, coming in below analysts’ expectations of 58 cents per share but nailing the $1.04 billion consensus.

“As we enter a new fiscal year, EA is well-positioned for dynamic growth on next-generation consoles, PCs, and mobile platforms” EA executive chairman Larry Probst said in a canned statement. “With world-class games, a rapidly growing digital business, and top-notch creative talent, we are excited about EA’s strategy for FY 2014 and beyond.”

Despite the earnings miss, however, the Street reacted positively. Shares of EA were up about seven percent in after-hours trading at $19.70.

It could be the reminder that EA and Disney announced a multi-year agreement yesterday in which EA will develop Star Wars games across multiple platforms.

“Our agreement unlocks a whole new future of Star Wars games that will span consoles, PCs, tablets, mobile, and more,” EA President of Labels Frank Gibeau said in a statement.

Or perhaps it could be the strong performance in mobile markets — particularly with iOS devices, in which the company claims to be the top global publisher in 2013 thus far. The Simpsons: Tapped Out was the company’s strongest mobile performer, generating $50 million in revenue since the game’s launch last August.

Update: More subscriber details and information on titles published by EA.

Electronic Arts and The Walt Disney Corporation announced on Monday a new, multi-year licensing agreement, allowing EA to develop and globally publish games based on Star Wars, every nerd’s favorite franchise (Trekkies aside, that is).

“The magic of Star Wars is interwoven into the worlds, characters, planets and amazing battles. It is a universe that lends itself perfectly to gaming,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau in a blog post. “Our agreement unlocks a whole new future of Star Wars games that will span consoles, PCs, tablets, mobile and more.”

As you may remember, Disney acquired Lucasfilm last autumn for a whopping $4 billion, bringing into the fold all of the company’s properties — including LucasArts, the now-defunct gaming studio which Disney shut down a few months after acquiring Lucasfilm.

LucasArts was in the midst of developing a number of Star Wars titles when it was shuttered, including Star Wars 1313 — the Boba Fett-focused game currently in limbo — and Star Wars: First Assault. Disney said at the time it would instead be licensing the Star Wars properties out to other studios.

DICE and Visceral, two EA-operated studios, will begin to create new Star Wars games “spanning all interactive platforms,” while BioWare — the studio behind two of EA’s most popular Star Wars games — will also continue to develop games from the popular franchise.

Disney, the company said, will continue to hold certain rights for developing mobile, social and tablet-based Star Wars games.

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said John Pleasants, co-President of Disney Interactive, in a statement.

The holiday was first celebrated in 2011, but the phrase and the date itself has an interesting history — on May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher became England’s first woman prime minister, and the Conservative Party placed an ad in the London Evening News that read “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.”

The date is also shared by MCA Day, a celebration of the life of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, who died one year ago today, and by Free Comic Book Day. It is not, however, shared by Star Wars Day for the San Francisco Giants, George Lucas’s hometown team — that’s on September 8.

Below, some of the best memes of the day, plus a Star Wars Day attack ad, paid for by the Emperor’s Committee to Destroy May the Fourth:

Photo courtesy NeuroGaming Conference & Expo

In San Francisco this week, a nonprofit group dedicated to neurogaming — the intersection of brain science and videogame playing — is taking its turn at bat in predicting the next wave of game-changing technology.

The conclusion of the NeuroGaming Conference and Expo’s organizers, unsurprisingly, is that hardware and software that monitor and respond to your body’s electrical and chemical signals will do for games what synchronized sound did for movies. Zack Lynch, CEO of the neurotech industry’s trade group, said the end goal is to create a new, deeper category of games.

Speakers and expositioners all had their own takes on how to reach that goal, including (just to name a few):

• “Mind-reading” headsets with sensors that attach to the ear and forehead
• Smooth, unassuming touchscreens that provide haptic (touch) feedback
• Headphones that convert low-frequency bass sounds — think explosions in an action game — into physical vibrations
• Neurotech integrations with much-discussed emerging wearable technologies like Google Glass and the Oculus Rift
• Experimental sensors that could estimate a player’s emotional state by, for instance, calculating the pH of their sweat.

But questions about the technology’s future abounded throughout the first day of the conference on Wednesday. At the root of all their caveats was a single point of potential failure: those pesky consumers.

“Most consumers are not going to put down their hard-earned money” for experimental one-time-use gadgets, NeuroSky CEO Stanley Yang said. “There has to be lasting value.”

(Yang should know: his company’s first consumer product, the Star Wars Force Trainer, was a $130 ping pong ball-levitating device … batteries not included.)

Photo courtesy NeuroGaming Conference & Expo

“Regardless of how we define it, keep the consumers in mind,” Petrovic said in a venture capital-focused panel about investing in the technology. “Don’t call this ‘the next great neurogaming platform’ or ‘neurogaming device,’ because it won’t sell.”

Those terms, he explained, connote an invasion of one’s body and may seem scary to those unfamiliar with the technology — that is, almost everyone.

A few of the speakers and numerous attendees (Lynch said about 300 registered for the conference online) suggested that the best immediate hope for brain-powered technology is not consumer gaming at all, but rather improvements in the places where it has already succeeded, like clinical therapy for those with limited mobility or as a teaching aide for children with mental disorders like ADHD.

The problem is that most brain-training games are just, well, boring, said Petrovic’s fellow panelist Roger Quy, a general partner at Technology Partners. A popular refrain throughout the day was that without great content, all attempts at neurogaming would be doomed to the same fate as 3-D TV, which fizzled despite enormous hype and investment.

Union Square associate Nate Hennings added that games targeted at a niche of enthusiasts may prove to be a testing ground for the mass viability of neurotech, just as the Tesla Roadster laid the groundwork for cheaper versions of the electric cars.

The dream, though, is that one of the companies represented at the conference will come up with a device that immediately “clicks” with consumers, as the Wiimote did starting back in 2006. To that end, perhaps the most important axiom to measure future brain gaming products’ success came out of Yang’s appearance earlier in the day.

“What happens to the consumer when they open up the box?” Yang asked. “Are they able to plug it in and start having fun instantly? If you can’t deliver that, nobody will jump in.”

Here’s a brilliant segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live when Harrison Ford, who will be forever known as “Star Wars’” Han Solo, said he did not want to answer questions about the iconic, fan-addled movie.

That did not stop a great set-up with non-“Star Wars” audience questions coming from a man dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi, another dude as Princess Leia and yet another in full Wookiee costume as Solo’s sidekick Chewbacca, which did not end so well.

Enjoy:

It was fine before the Internet. But now with the Internet, it’s gotten very vicious and very personal. You just say, ‘Why do I need to do this?’

– George Lucas, still wincing from the reaction to the new “Star Wars” movies, in Bloomberg Businessweek’s story on a $4 billion Lucasfilm/Disney deal

And certainly, more than a few projects live up to that dream, a notable recent example being the super-cool 3-D printing pen 3Doodler, which AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes wrote about earlier this week.

But as in the real world, democracy doesn’t guarantee success to those who seemingly deserve it — it only guarantees the opportunity of success. And in the gaming world, innovation doesn’t come easy, as Throw Trucks With Your Mind is learning.

Like the film “Snakes on a Plane,” Throw Trucks With Your Mind is exactly what it says on the can: Players wear a NeuroSky headset (pictured, left) that translates the brain’s electrical signals into commands for a multiplayer telekinetic battle.

Instead of guns, brain-powered modes like “throw,” “pull” and “high jump” are all players have to attack and defend themselves, and depending on how they either focus or relax their minds, those modes become faster and more powerful.

So, with a little bit of concentration, a player can lift a light barrel, but with concerted focus, it’s possible to stand on top of a heavy vehicle and levitate it off the ground. The titular trucks are extremely difficult to move, but guaranteed to kill targets in one hit.

VentureBeat’s Rus McLaughlin has written a much lengthier account (with some NSFW language) of his hands-on experience with the game. But I can say from having tried a limited demo of Throw Trucks With Your Mind last weekend that it is, indeed, a thrilling glimpse of what being a Jedi must be like.

In a more grounded sense, the game is proof positive that both wearable technology and novel game mechanics could underpin whatever the future of non-mobile games will be. In that way, it’s like the extremely well-funded Kickstarter project Oculus Rift, which Peter Kafka recently demoed live onstage at D: Dive Into Media.

But with less than two weeks left in its campaign, Throw Trucks With Your Mind is just barely over the halfway mark to its goal. If it’s so great, then why is it not blowing up on Kickstarter? A few reasons:

• The video: Kickstarter loves, loves, loves a good video, and Throw Trucks With Your Mind has a perfectly fine one (embedded below). But the difference between watching people play the game and actually playing it is like comparing apples and watermelons. And unlike other, simpler games, no one will be able to play a demo of the game unless they already have access to one of NeuroSky’s $80 MindWave headsets. Which takes us to …
• The price: $80 is already far more than you would pay for a game from an established, reliable series like Halo or Call of Duty. But here, that only gets you the hardware. The lowest tier for Kickstarter backers that nets them a copy of the game is the $25 level. Unlike the Oculus Rift campaign, rewards for cheapskate backers — like t-shirts and posters — are nowhere to be found.
• The headset: To put it bluntly, the MindWave is not a gaming device. At least, not without this game, it isn’t. NeuroSky’s online application store offers nearly 50 games, but they mostly seem to be crude ports or imitations of existing games, with some brain control tacked on. Throw Trucks With Your Mind’s creator, Lat Ware, readily admits that brain-controlled devices have earned a “bad reputation … over the years” with products like the Star Wars Force Trainer.
• Kickstarter itself: When it works, it’s great. But by design, Kickstarter’s powers to endorse specific projects are limited. The site’s editors named his game a “Staff Pick,” but Ware said it “hasn’t really provided much support beyond that.” Save for those few that explode into Internet phenomena, most crowdfunded projects are all about the people you know in meatspace and the ones you can reach online via social media.

On top of all that, browsing the rosters of successfully funded Kickstarter games suggests that backers are more readily drawn to nostalgic titles that revive game mechanics the big AAA publishers have long since left for dead. Point-and-click adventures, 2D RPGs and side-scrollers abound.

Of course, there’s still time for TTWYM to meet its minimum $40,000 goal. But at the time of this writing, it seems very unlikely that it will reach its “stretch goals” that include (at $100,000) Oculus Rift support.

Ware compares the whole process to a panic attack that lasts 30 days rather than a few minutes. And if it fails, he has already made up his mind: “I will have proven that there is not enough demand for it,” Ware said. “I will start work on something else.”

Here’s the video introducing the project:

Update 3/11/13: Throw Trucks With Your Mind has passed its $40,000 minimum goal. But, as noted above, its stretch goals of $60,000, $80,000 and $100,000, each of which would have offered more robust features, seem to be out of reach.

Separately, Disney is developing films based on “Star Wars” characters, Chief Executive Robert Iger said Tuesday, in addition to the three sequels the company has already said it would make.

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In an official response to the petition, which has so far gathered more than 34,000 signatures, the White House said that while the creation of a Death Star would likely spur job growth and bolster national defense, it’s generally a bad idea.

“The Administration does not support blowing up planets,” Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote — tongue firmly in cheek. “Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”

Indeed. Probably would have been better off starting out small and asking for a Millennium Falcon …

Here’s Shawcross’s reply in full:

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country’s future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

On the game’s first day, it achieved $500 million in sales, setting a new record for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based game publisher.

Last year, it took 16 days for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to hit $1 billion. Both games achieved those stratospheric numbers faster than the movie “Avatar,” which took 17 days to hit $1 billion at the box office.

The other big shooter released this season, Halo 4, which is only available on the Xbox, sold $220 million in its first day on sale.

The sales figures are according to internal company estimates and Chart-Track, which keeps tabs on retail customer sell-through information. The game, while rated “M” for “mature” because of the intense violence and strong language, reaches an enormously broad audience for a first-person videogame that takes hours to master.

In a release, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick said, “Since Call of Duty was launched, cumulative franchise revenues from players around the world are greater than current worldwide box office receipts to date for the top-10 grossing films of 2012 combined. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star Wars,’ the two most successful movie franchises of all time.”

Many say the comparisons to movies are not fair, since a trip to the theater costs roughly $10 apiece, while Call of Duty costs $60 to own. However, a movie takes about two hours to watch, whereas the game can be enjoyed for weeks. For example, since the game’s launch, more than 150 million hours have been logged online playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

That all depends, of course, on whether people want to see the next three “Star Wars” movies Disney says it is lining up.

It’s a tricky bit of guesstimating, because the people who were young enough to be wowed by Lucas’ first installment when it debuted in 1977, are now oldsters who are 40 and much older.

And many of those same people (cough) despise the last three movies he put out. But if a new generation of kids like this stuff, then Disney is in good shape.

Bernstein’s Todd Juenger breaks it down in a note today. For starters, he figures Lucasfilm does $860 million in revenue a year right now (see table below).

Next you have to guess what kind of performance Disney will get from the new movies. If each of the next three three movies does “Avengers”-like numbers, they’ll generate $1.5 billion at the box office, $2.8 billion overall, and generate $1 billion each in profits, and the deal works out for Bob Iger and his successor.

Is all that doable? Yes, he says: “Not heroic, given the ‘Star Wars’ brand and Disney’s unparalleled global consumer products network.”

Here’s the math:

Set to arrive Nov. 8, Angry Birds Star Wars will feature traditional Birds game play with the characters and settings from the Lucasfilm movie franchise.

The move will also give the companies the opportunity to sell merchandise, with tons of “Star Wars” and Angry Birds-themed gear slated to go on sale starting Oct. 28. Clothing, costumes and action figures are all on tap.

It’s part of Rovio’s strategy to continue tapping the popularity of the birds, while also branching out into all-new titles like Amazing Alex and spinoffs like the recently released Bad Piggies.

Bad Piggies has shot to the top of the sales charts, but whether it will be a long-term hit remains to be seen. Amazing Alex had a big launch, but has fallen out of the Top 100 titles.

In a good sign for Microsoft, the game will be available for Windows Phone and Windows 8, in addition to Macs, standard PCs, Kindle Fires and, of course, iOS and Android devices.

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• Rovio Shows Off Angry Birds Space — From Space
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• How the Angry Birds Almost Died Before the First Level

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20121008/rovio-hopes-to-use-the-force-as-it-pairs-angry-birds-and-star-wars/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120824/how-a-digitally-savvy-cmo-can-increase-shareholder-value/ http://allthingsd.com/20120824/how-a-digitally-savvy-cmo-can-increase-shareholder-value/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:00:04 +0000 Russell Glass http://allthingsd.com/?p=244563 Chief Executive Officers of large companies may be in the shareholder spotlight, but Chief Marketing Officers are increasingly having as substantial an impact on their companies’ market performance, bottom line and shareholder value. CMOs don’t just create a company’s ephemeral sense of “brand,” their marketing strategies also directly influence sales. A company that is great at marketing is also usually great at raking in sales.

But do companies with super-smart, digitally-savvy CMOs really outperform their market peers?

Take a look at the share-price growth over the past year of three public companies with cutting-edge CMOs — Volkswagen, UPS and Comcast — and then compare this growth to the industry benchmark in their respective categories.

In the last six months, Volkswagen consistently outperformed Ford, GM, Fiat, Volvo, and other competitors. Although it’s impossible to pinpoint just how much CMO Tim Mahoney has contributed to that market success since he joined as CMO one year ago, it’s clear he’s doing something right. Volkswagen recently reported a 35 percent increase in March 2012 sales, the auto maker’s best first quarter since 1973. Likewise, UPS has also recently outperformed its fiercest competitor, FedEx; similarly, Comcast has outperformed its nearest competitors, Time Warner and Cablevision.

(I’d be remiss if I didn’t tip my hat to Red Bull’s amazing digital marketing efforts, but, alas, they’re not a publicly traded company).

So what are these companies doing right? Here are three strategies to consider that can help boost shareholder value:

Pair memorable creative with effective targeting
Volkswagen, UPS, and Comcast have all turned to creative and targeting to gain consumer attention. In a world of constant distraction, getting a consumer’s attention has become increasing difficult. Consumers are overwhelmed by hundreds of ads thrown their way on a daily basis. By staying on the cutting-edge of creative as well as targeting the right audiences, companies can break through all the clutter and build brand loyalty.

For example, Volkswagen’s “Star Wars”-themed “The Force” 2011 Super Bowl ad wasn’t just hyper-cute and creative; it became the most-shared Super Bowl video of all time. And though its 2012 follow-up video, “The Bark Side,” didn’t reach the same sharing heights, it still has a place in the viral video hall of fame. Not surprisingly, Volkswagen also has 1.2 million “Likes” on Facebook, compared to 540,000 for Subaru, another car brand consumers love to love. This is a prime example of great creative and targeting the right audience to drive viral distribution.

UPS tapped into the hype around this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. They ran an ad entitled “The Pass,” that replayed the 1992 Duke and Kentucky winning shot. In tandem, the company relayed their “Logistics” messaging, highlighting the company’s ability to get something precisely where it needs to be at precisely the right time. Though controversial to some (mainly Kentucky fans), and beautiful to others (me, as a Duke grad, and just about all other basketball lovers), this ad was certainly memorable. Again, well-conceived creative with the right targeting online to drive distribution.

With a similar approach, Comcast pokes fun at consumers’ increasing appetite to consume content. To the tune of the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” Comcast launched their new streaming service with a creative ad entitled, “Stream, Stream, Stream.”

Engage consumers where they already are
Today’s CMOs must strive to be everywhere their prospective clients are consuming media, in order to stay top of mind. The average U.S. consumer is spending 32 hours a month online, with much of that time — 22 percent — spent on social networking sites. Companies need to connect with consumers on their turf.

At UPS, one of the reasons for the company’s success stems from CMO Alan Gershenhorn’s commitment to use social media for customer service. The company set up a special Twitter feed @UPSHelp to answer customers’ delivery and other questions in real time. Since UPS launched the Twitter program, the company has accumulated more than a million positive impressions from customers who give grateful replies.

Comcast has also jumped on the social customer service bandwagon. The company’s manager of customer service strategy and operations, Bill Gerth, connects with customers in real time via the Twitter feed @comcastbill and @comcastcares.

Additionally, the company’s official customer-focused blog, Comcast Voices, invites customers to comment on any aspect of Comcast’s service or company strategy. Comcast has opened itself up to any type of feedback, including criticism, and shown that it really cares what its customers think — so much so that it has incorporated customers’ ideas into new products and services.

Think multichannel
Standout companies are also breaking ground through the adoption of multichannel campaigns. Crain’s BtoB Magazine, in conjunction with Bizo, recently conducted a study that highlights the importance of expanding the marketing mix. However, according to the study, 63 percent of respondents stated that their current mix of programs does not meet sales demand.

UPS, on the other hand, has recently figured out how to successfully implement a multichannel campaign, and their “We ♥ Logistics” initiative takes it to a whole new level. According to the company, the campaign included TV, print, out-of-home, digital, display, direct mail and email — and it was the first time in U.S. history that UPS had a unified global communications and ad strategy. They are still rocking this campaign today, too.

For the UPS campaign, consumers are driven to the campaign’s microsite, www.thenewlogistics.com, with the goal of bringing the benefits of logistics to life. Likewise, Volkswagen, in keeping with the “Star Wars” theme, created a microsite for their “The Force” campaign, where people could create digital invites to their Super Bowl Party, which included a customized version of the movie’s famous opening crawl.

All of these public companies are innovators — with CMOs who embrace digital technologies to deliver what customers want, and who understand that social media is the glue of their entire digital marketing strategy. This relentless focus on the customer, innovative creative and multichannel strategies have helped contributed to above-average stock market performance.

Russell Glass is a serial technology entrepreneur, having founded or held senior positions at four venture-backed technology companies. Before founding Bizo, Russ led the marketing and product management teams at ZoomInfo, a business information search engine, where he sharpened his B2B marketing skill set and developed his love for business data.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120824/how-a-digitally-savvy-cmo-can-increase-shareholder-value/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120201/eas-star-wars-game-scores-1-7-million-subscribers-in-first-month/ http://allthingsd.com/20120201/eas-star-wars-game-scores-1-7-million-subscribers-in-first-month/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:38:48 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=170422 The results are in and it appears that both Star Wars and Battlefield 3 helped Electronic Arts beat expectations for the final three months of the year.

Its multi-million dollar investment in Star Wars: The Old Republic, is starting to pay off.

In EA’s third quarter, the massively multi-player online game generated 1.7 million active subscribers and sold more than two million units in a little over one month.

Is that enough units sold to call off the critics?

In an interview, EA’s CFO Eric Brown said he thought so. ”We were able to sell more units beyond what we were able to plan, and because of that, it was a big part of the upside of our EPS of 99 cents a share,” he said.

The company said non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, which excludes acquisition costs and other non-cash items, totaled 99 cents, exceeding its guidance of up to 95 cents, and exceeding analyst expectations of 93 cents.

The company’s non-GAAP revenues also exceeded estimates, totaling $1.65 billion, which was slightly above the top end of internal guidance and the $1.61 billion that analysts were looking for.

Additionally, its big first-person shooter, Battlefield 3, performed well.

To date, Brown said the game has sold 11 million units, and that it was able to gain 12 points of market share in the category year over year. “It’s an incredible success,” he said.

Still, in after-hours trading, the company’s stock continued to slip, dropping 4.3 percent, or 79 cents, to $17.65 a share.

The company’s fourth-quarter outlook suggests that it will not be able to sustain the levels seen at the end of the quarter. It predicts that non-GAAP revenue will be between $925 million and $975 million, and earnings per share will fall between 10 cents and 20 cents.

In the third quarter, EA’s GAAP revenues, which follow all accounting standards, totaled $274 million. Its loss per share was 62 cents, weighed down by the acquisition of PopCap as well as other expenses.

Brown said it was also worth calling out that its digital revenues for the 12 months ended in December hit $1.07 billion, exceeding the company’s goal of hitting $1 billion in digital revenues by March.

Digital revenues in the quarter grew 79 percent year over year with the assistance of Star Wars and digital revenue coming from Battlefield 3, he said.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120201/eas-star-wars-game-scores-1-7-million-subscribers-in-first-month/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120127/kabam-acquires-top-lucasarts-game-makers-to-help-build-hardcore-social-games/ http://allthingsd.com/20120127/kabam-acquires-top-lucasarts-game-makers-to-help-build-hardcore-social-games/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:18:39 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=168074 Kabam, known for developing hardcore social games such as The Godfather and Kingdoms of Camelot, has acquired a company with deep roots in the console game space.

Fearless Studios was co-founded two years ago by notable game makers Haden Blackman and Cedrick Collomb.

Blackman was the creator and senior executive producer of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Collomb was formerly director of engineering at LucasArts. The two will immediately join Kabam, along with all members of the team from Marin, Calif.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Acquisitions in social gaming are common, especially as emerging companies try to gain scale. But it is not often that a social game company purchases a console game developer.

In the case of Kabam, it matches with what that company is trying to achieve. It is the goal of the Redwood City, Calif., company to challenge the notion that all gamers on Facebook are housewives in their mid-40s. Instead, it wants to bring some of the high-end games found on consoles to social networks in order to attract more engaged players, who are willing to play — and pay — more.

In a release, Kabam CEO Kevin Chou said the team at Fearless has the right game-design skills and technology set to help social games become higher fidelity.

“Having the background and emerging technologies and proficiency in making the transition from 2D to 3D on consoles mesh perfectly with Kabam’s strategy,” Chou said.

It is not clear if Fearless Studios ever released any games, but in an interview with USA Today, the founders did say the team was interested in developing for the Xbox, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, and for other devices, such as the iPhone.

Fearless will be joining a much more established organization, with roughly 400 employees. But there are already some common threads between the two companies: Kabam’s COO, Chris Carvalho, worked at Lucasfilm for a decade; and Blackman spent 13 years with LucasArts.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120127/kabam-acquires-top-lucasarts-game-makers-to-help-build-hardcore-social-games/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111221/still-looking-for-gift-ideas-wal-mart-recommends-a-box-for-men/ http://allthingsd.com/20111221/still-looking-for-gift-ideas-wal-mart-recommends-a-box-for-men/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:27:18 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=155821 Still don’t know what to get your loved one for the holidays?

Well, you better decide fast. For many sites, today is the final day that orders can be placed to get guaranteed delivery by Christmas.

If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas, there are plenty of Facebook applications that will offer recommendations based on a gift recipient’s interests.

Late last month, Wal-Mart launched an application called Shopycat, which does just that.

To be helpful, I got a list of Shopycat’s 20 most-recommended gifts. At the very top of the list was an unexpected item called a “personalized keepsake box” for men. The box, which costs $24.76, is designed to hold a man’s watch, jewelry, money clip and/or other items.

It’s not clear what a person’s interests would have been for this to surface at the top of so many lists (maybe the popularity of the holiday-themed Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg music video “Dick in a Box” had something to do with it?) After all, many of the other items on the list are clearly based on someone’s favorite TV shows, movies or videogames. For instance, other fun items that made the list were action figures for “The Big Lebowski,” an Angry Birds beanie and “Star Wars” bathrobes.

As for the man box, it is sold out, so clearly some people agreed with Wal-Mart that it made for a good gift.

Not all of the items are recommendations for items sold on the Wal-Mart site. It also refers shoppers to other sites, such as ThinkGeek.com, Barnes & Noble, CBSstore.com and RedEnvelope.

Wal-Mart did not say how many people have used the app since it went live last month, but given that Wal-Mart has 11 million Facebook fans, it could represent big numbers.

Here is the entire list of most-recommended gifts for 2011:

1. Personalized Keepsake Box
2. “Star Wars” Jedi & Sith Bathrobes
3. Personalized “Home is Where your Story Begins” Canvas
4. “Twilight: Director’s Notebook: The Story of How We Made the Movie”
5. 3-Pointer Basketball Tin
6. “House” Cane Ornament
7. “Harry Potter” Clue
8. Men’s Comfy Feet Miami Dolphins
9. “How I Met Your Mother” MacLaren’s Irish Pub Shot Glass
10. OtterBox iPhone 4 Defender Case
11. Angry Birds Red Bird Peruvian Beanie
12. Picnic Backpack
13. “The Big Lebowski”: Urban Achiever 8-Inch Figures
14. The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book
15. Tennis Star Gift Tin
16. Dallas Cowboys Floor Mats
17. “1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die”
18. “The Wire”: Bubbles Depot Reusable Travel Mug
19. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” Wall Calendar
20. “Game of Thrones” Sword Letter Opener

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111221/still-looking-for-gift-ideas-wal-mart-recommends-a-box-for-men/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111117/call-of-duty-grosses-more-than-775-million-in-five-days-to-destroy-all-records/ http://allthingsd.com/20111117/call-of-duty-grosses-more-than-775-million-in-five-days-to-destroy-all-records/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:52:44 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=145259 Activision’s latest Call of Duty title has shattered all previous entertainment records, grossing more than $775 million in its first five days of sales.

The gory first-person shooter has managed to outsell all movies, books and videogames during its initial debut.

It even surpassed last year’s release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which grossed $650 million, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which sold $550 million.

In an interview, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick told AllThingsD that the game’s entertainment value compares well against other more accessible media options.

“I don’t think we have empirical evidence to support this, but the cost per hour is a lot lower than any form of entertainment,” he said. “In this difficult economy, you are getting a great value.”

The latest installment, called Modern Warfare 3, retails for about $60 and is available on the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and for the PC.

He said for that price, you get a social experience because of the multiplayer capabilities; a cinematic experience with good imagery and a story line; and an interactive experience. “It touches on all of the compelling areas of entertainment,” he said.

Activision is claiming that the Call of Duty franchise is one of the most valuable entertainment properties worldwide, having exceeded $6 billion in revenue over its lifetime. At that level, Kotick says, it is up there with “Star Wars,” the Harry Potter franchise, and maybe “Lord of the Rings.”

In its first day on the market, Activision sold more than 6.5 million units in North America and the United Kingdom at an estimated sell-through rate of more than $400 million.

It’s competing against a number of blockbuster first-person shooters that are being released this winter, like Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3, which came out late last month. That title sold five million units during its first week of sales.

Not only is Call of Duty a big revenue hit, but it’s also likely sucking away time spent on other media.

According to Microsoft, more than 3.3 million unique gamers logged seven million multiplayer hours with the game by the end of Nov. 8, the first day it was available. At one point, more than 3.3 million concurrent users played the game on Xbox Live.

A companion social network for the game, called Call of Duty Elite, is being sold separately for $50 for premium access.

Kotick said Activision will release more information about sales on that soon, but “the response has been much higher than we anticipated.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111117/call-of-duty-grosses-more-than-775-million-in-five-days-to-destroy-all-records/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110930/viral-video-floppy-disk-drive-in-star-wars-symphony/ http://allthingsd.com/20110930/viral-video-floppy-disk-drive-in-star-wars-symphony/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:26:16 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=126784 It does not get any better than this: A pair of floppy disk drives playing the “Imperial March” from the classic movie “Star Wars.”

Amirite?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110930/viral-video-floppy-disk-drive-in-star-wars-symphony/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110813/how-does-steve-jobs-ispaceship-match-up-against-hollywoods-spaceships/ http://allthingsd.com/20110813/how-does-steve-jobs-ispaceship-match-up-against-hollywoods-spaceships/#comments Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:08:11 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=109603 Internet publishing rules require us to show you new architectural plans and sketches of Apple’s proposed headquarters. So you here you go (full monty available from the city of Cupertino, which is reviewing the plans). You can click on each image to embigify it:

But since Steve Jobs has already declared that his new building will be “like a spaceship,” now might be a good time to see how the proposed, but presumably real, building stacks up to some of Hollywood’s actual, but fictional, spaceships. Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110813/how-does-steve-jobs-ispaceship-match-up-against-hollywoods-spaceships/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110619/happy-fathers-day-darth/ http://allthingsd.com/20110619/happy-fathers-day-darth/#comments Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:33:06 +0000 Nitrozac and Snaggy http://allthingsd.com/?p=88229

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