Consumer intentions on buying TV sets rose in Nov. from Oct., even though overall consumer confidence fell for 5th straight month, according to preliminary data in Conference Board monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 7.7% said they plan to buy TV set in next 6 months, vs. 6.8% in Oct., 7.5% in Sept., 6.2% in Nov. 2000. Consumer Confidence Index fell 3 points in Nov., marking 2nd significant decline in as many months, Conference Board said: “Rising unemployment and continuing layoff announcements are dampening confidence. Pessimistically, it said that turnaround in consumer confidence isn’t likely before year-end, “nor are retailers likely to enjoy a blockbuster holiday season.”
Square Electronic Arts (SEA) said it would start shipping “limited quantities” of T- (Teen) rated PS2 game Final Fantasy X ($50) to retail stores throughout U.S. Dec. 26 instead of Jan. 2002 as scheduled. Title was released in Japan July 19 and sold through 90% of 2.14 million units shipped in first 4 days, company said, calling game “first PlayStation 2 title to reach the 2 million-unit mark.” SEA Pres. Jun Iwasaki said “all efforts were put into bringing the title out earlier than expected” in U.S. SEA, exclusive publisher of all Squaresoft games in N. America, said it would hold one-day event Dec. 15 offering gamers chance to demonstrate title before its release. “Consumer Demo Day” will be in PlayStation store in San Francisco, where gamers also will have opportunity to win prizes and get free promotional item while supplies last. Title is being released in DVD format and is compatible with Dualshock 2 analog controller, SEA said. Company said Final Fantasy game series had sold more than 35 million units worldwide to date. But popularity of series in game arena hasn’t been duplicated in movie theaters. Failure of computer-animated feature film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was cited by parent company Square Co. Mon. as primary reason why it reported largest-ever loss in its history (CED Nov 27 p5).
Top-selling DVD at Sam Goody stores over Thanksgiving weekend was How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Best Buy subsidiary said. Rounding out top 5 were 2001 version of Planet of the Apes, Shrek, Tomb Raider, Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
EMusic.com signed licensing and digital distribution agreement with Matador Records that makes hundreds of MP3 recordings from Matador artists available for download at www.emusic.com, including Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo. Companies said additional Matador catalog and new releases would be made available to EMusic subscribers “over the next several months.” EMusic said it now offered members more than 200,000 MP3s. Company is offering free 30-day trial of its service.
Official Web site for Codemasters game Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing went live, game maker announced. Site -- www.codemasters.com/mthb -- provides game information, images and movies to promote upcoming title.
THQ and Jakks Pacific said that for first time both of their upcoming World Wrestling Federation (WWF) licensed videogames -- WWF Smackdown! Just Bring It for PS2 and WWF Raw for Xbox -- would feature licensed songs from Flip/Interscope Records and Smackdown! Records. Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin'” and Motorhead’s “The Game” will be featured in both titles as entrance theme music for wrestlers Triple H and The Undertaker, game makers said.
Mobile entertainment service provider JAMDAT Mobile said it had worked with Intel to improve performance of entertainment applications on wireless handsets. L.A.-based JAMDAT said Intel’s Flash Data Integrator technology loaded into Motorola’s Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) handset using JAMDAT’s J2ME Golf application had created 500% improvement in write performance and 300% improvement in read performance. JAMDAT said increased data transfer rates within handset’s memory chips translated into faster gameplay in form of quicker scrolling and speedier plays. Company created wireless game Gladiator, which JAMDAT said had attracted more than one million unique users and generated more than 14 million min. of air time since Oct. 2000 rollout.
Activision said it projected U.S. retail sales of “front- line games” was 44% higher for this year’s Thanksgiving week (Nov. 18-24) than comparable week year ago. Santa Monica, Cal., game maker said data were based on retail sellthrough reports from 80% of its U.S. customers. Activision COO Ron Doornink said company’s “sellthrough results for the first big week of this year’s holiday season bodes very well for both Activision and the videogame industry overall, in that it suggests that this year’s holiday season is off to a very strong start.” Front-line games in projections included action, action-sports, adventure, fighting and strategy for Game Boy Advance (GBA), Game Boy Color (GBC), GameCube, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 (PS2), Xbox.
Majesco said its first multiplatform game for next- generation and PC platforms would be BloodRayne. Game is being developed by Terminal Reality and is to ship in 4th quarter next year for GameCube, PC, PS2, Xbox. Title will use Terminal Reality’s new Infernal Engine, Edison, N.J.-based Majesco said.
TV networks have amended suit against SonicBlue and its ReplayTV personal video recorder (PVR), dropping portion that applied to commercial skip feature of dual-deck VCR. Networks sued SonicBlue earlier this fall alleging that several features of ReplayTV 4000 PVR, including commercial skip and ability of users to share files, made copyright infringement possible. Networks had included dual-deck as part of PVR suit, but since have withdrawn copyright infringement claims against it, Disney spokeswoman confirmed. SonicBlue CEO Kenneth Potashner said amended suit showed that networks had “concluded their legal argument against our dual-deck VCR was not strong enough to move forward.” Disney amended suit to sharpen its focus on ReplayTV’s PVR features, including commercial skip and file sharing, spokeswoman said. Officials of other networks weren’t available for comment. Commercial skip has been standard feature of VCR business for several years, but is relatively new in PVRs.