At a loss
Two games industry giants revealed financial losses last week. Sony Corporation lost 88.29 billion yen ($810m) in the year's second quarter on sales that grew by 5.4% or 1.56 trillion yen ($14.3bn). However, the company made an operating profit of 33.74 billion yen ($309m) before taking a 101 billion yen ($926m) write-off on movie projects following a change in US accounting rules.
Electronic Arts, the world's biggest independent games company, lost $42.3m in the quarter, as sales slumped to $154.8m from $186.1m in the same quarter last year. Larry Probst, EA's chairman and chief executive officer, said: "The first quarter was a challenging period, as we entered the seasonally slow summer prior to the introduction of PlayStation 2".
Both companies are investing heavily in developing games for the PS2, to be launched in the UK on October 26. The date for pre-ordering the machines has been put back to September 7.
In training
Microsoft hopes to repeat the success of its long-running flight simulator with the Microsoft Train Simulator.
It will preview the title tomorrow at the National Train Show, a model railway exhibition in San Jose, California. However, it won't be launched until next spring.
The program offers six simulations including the Flying Scotsman, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, Amtrak in the US, and Odakyu Electric Railway in Japan.
The MS Train Simulator is being developed by Kuju Entertainment in Surrey, England.
Xbox on track
Robbie Bach, senior vice president of Microsoft's games division, told an annual meeting of financial analysts that the Xbox games console "will be the biggest launch Microsoft has ever done". The 18-month marketing blitz will cost $500,000. "You can't do this half-hearted. It's a long-term investment and one we take very seriously."
BIG League
Battletop.com, which launched the Korean Internet Game League (KIGL) and the American Internet Game League (AIGL), is now planning a British Internet Game League (BIGL). It will be launched at a tournament at the Millennium Dome in London on September 9. The first prize is £15,000. The winner will compete in the World Cyber Game Challenge in Seoul, Korea on October 15, for a $200,000.
