Analyst: Games Gaining Share With Strong CES

 

The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is usually known for the glitz and geekery of the latest cutting-edge gadgets. But this year, analysts observed that games had a larger share of the CES attention than in previous years — and that’s evidence of the market share the games biz is gaining, says Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian.

“While the interactive entertainment industry is traditionally not a core part of the CES conference, we note that an increasing number of game-related products and services displayed at the show is indicative of the incremental market share that video games are absorbing of consumer spending on media and entertainment,” Sebastian says.

One highlight, the analyst says, was Activision CEO Mike Griffith’s “upbeat” keynote on Guitar Hero and the state of the video game industry. Despite speculation that the band game franchise may have seen its peak, Griffith said holiday sales of the franchise were “robust” –Guitar Hero III has topped $1 billion in lifetime sales.

Sebastian is also positive on Activision’s future prospects, but suggests the company’s current earnings estimates might be “aggressive.”

Sebastian also observed Electronic Arts at CES, noting 2 million paid subscribers to the Pogo casual portal, and suggesting that MTV/Harmonix’s upcoming Beatles band game, which EA will distribute, will release in holiday 2009.

As for The Sims 3, although Sebastian suggests it could sell “several million units” in 2009, he isn’t so sure about its launch timing. 

“While the game appears largely complete, we believe exact release timing may still be in flux,” he says.

CES: Microsoft’s Bach Talks Xbox’s Plans For 2009

 

At Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer-presided CES keynote, Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division head Robbie Bach discussed the state of Xbox 360, trailing the Xbox Live Primetime online game show service and LittleBigPlanet-like Xbox Live Community Game Kodu(formerly called Boku).

As part of the CES keynote, which also discussed Windows Live and Windows 7 in some detail, Microsoft’ Bach re-iterated the recently revealed key statistics about Xbox 360.

The company claimed an 84 percent jump in online consumer spending on the service, and Bach noted: “With 28 million consoles sold worldwide, an active online community of 17 million members, and more than $1 billion spent on Xbox Live since the launch of the Xbox 360, it’s clear that consumer demand for these great entertainment experiences has never been higher.”

Elsewhere in the presentation, Bach trailed the two Halo titles shipping this year, with a demo of Ensemble-created RTS Halo Wars confirmed to appear on February 5th, ahead of the game’s March 3 U.S. debut. Later this year, there’s also Halo 3: ODST from Bungie itself.

Bach also threw out some notable statistics on Halo as a franchise, revealing that the franchise has now sold over 25 million copies, and that the average Halo player has dueled for more than 150 hours on Xbox Live.

In addition, the E&D president reaffirmed the date of “this spring” for the launch of the Xbox Live Primetime channel, described as “bringing together the best of TV and gaming.” The previously delayed channel will debut with an online version of the popular TV show “1 vs. 100″ that enables thousands of gamers to play together with real hosts and compete for real prizes.

Finally, Bach highlighted the achievements of Xbox Live Community Games to date, with over 100 Community Games available thus far since the November launch of the Xbox 360 service.

He particularly showcased an upcoming Community Game called Kodu, which is launching in the spring, and “designed to help anyone from age 7 to 70 create their own video games.” 

The Microsoft Research-created application, previously covered by Gamasutra when it was called Boku, appears to “bridge the gulf between Microsoft’s more complex XNA Game Studio language and the user-created content of games like Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation 3″, as we noted in our earlier report.

Bach’s demonstration of the application, with a 12-year old girl invited on-stage to demonstration her Boku-created application, may have been intended to counteract the more ‘core’ announcements about the Haloseries, and ended the Xbox-related discussions on a family-oriented note.

CES: Stringer, Hirai Talk 61.3 Million Userbase, Tease 3D Gaming

 

 

Together, the PlayStation 3 and PSP have an install base of 61.3 million, said Sony chairman and CEO Howard Stringer at the company’s CES presentation today.

According to a liveblog of the event by consumer site GameSpot, SCE CEO Kaz Hirai joined Stringer on the stage to explain how the company’s presented philosophy of networked experiences and multiple-function devices carried over to the company’s gaming business. 

Hirai said that 330 million pieces of content have been downloaded to date on the PlayStation Network, which has seen the creation of 17 million accounts. Just a few weeks ago on December 12, Sony pegged the number of PSN accounts at 15 million, suggesting an increase of 2 million accounts in less than a month.

LittleBigPlanet, also representative of the company’s networked-shared experience philosophy, has sold 1.3 million units worldwide since its October 27 launch, Hirai said. Users have created 300,000 levels and accumulated 2 years worth of collective play time, the exec added.

On the PS3’s video delivery services, Sony announced a partnership with MTV to offer the latter’s video content on the PlayStation Network. 

The Life With PlayStation channel will receive an update this spring, Hirai continued, and as for the somewhat-controversial PlayStation Home, Hirai said it’s seen 3.4 million downloads to date.

$1 million in virtual goods have now been sold via Home, Hirai said. At the end of December, Sony said virtual items in Home were ’selling like hotcakes’, and that they were generating more revenue for the company in the first week than video services had.

Electronic Arts is now a Home partner, Hirai added, and is crafting a new Home space to be unveiled soon.

GameSpot reported that Hirai talked about SCEA “now shifting its way it thinks about its hardware design to better serve customers.” However, no specific further announcements were made about Sony’s games business during the talk.

However, Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg arrived to tout the potential of 3D, and a still from Gran Turismo 5 rendered in 3D was shown following the presentation of a 3D Pixar digital short.

Tech site Ars Technica also reported it had seen Sony demos of games running in 3D during CES, including Gran Turismo 5 and Wipeout HD, although the company was reportedly not forthcoming on details, release dates or 3D strategy.