Matsushita Battery Industrial said it had produced cumulative total of 100 billion dry cells, 83% of which were manganese batteries, rest alkalines. About 40% were produced in Japan, company said.
Titus Interactive expects to return to profitability or break even next year after cutting its debt through plan to buy back convertible bonds, report from France said Mon. Report said Titus Chmn. Herve Caen told reporters at news conference that game maker believed it could become top 5 global player within 5 years, up from current ranking of 13.
Technology licensing and marketing agreement was announced by ESS Technology and NEC under which former will develop enhanced versions of NEC system controller chips for digital set- top boxes and other devices. ESS and NEC also agreed to jointly promote ESS system controller devices for NEC’s VR-series of microprocessors.
Downloads of new DivX video compression format have exceeded one million in last 2 weeks, developer DivXNetworks said. It said new MPEG-4 based codec, DivX 4.02 and DivX Playa had 20% faster encoding speed and improved visual quality compared with original DivX 4.0. More than 5 million downloads have been recorded since release of 4.0 version in June, DivXNetworks said. Company estimated that more than 25 million downloads had occurred since DivX codec emerged in 1999. Technology’s high compression ratio enables easier sending of digital video over Internet.
Midway Games began shipping NHL Hitz 20-02 for Xbox at $49.99. Title already had been released for PS2 and version for GameCube is to ship Nov. 13. Midway Mktg. Vp Helene Sheeler said it would be “the only hockey videogame available for the Xbox videogame system at launch” Nov. 15.
Id Software and Activision announced availability of Doom for GBA. T-rated (Teen) title started shipping at $39.99. It was developed by Id and David A. Palmer Productions.
Sega of America said retailer reaction to its game Super Monkey Ball for GameCube already was strong. Game maker said Toys “R” Us “recently doubled its orders for game, citing buzz factor as impetus,” while Electronics Boutique predicted it would be success “based on presale efforts.” E-rated (Everyone) game started shipping at $49.95.
Most of game industry’s biggest players on hardware, software, accessory and retail sides of business are expected at Gerard Klauer Mattison PlayTime Investor Conference Wed. in N.Y.C. Scheduled to speak are: Acclaim Entertainment CEO Gregory Fischbach, Activision CEO Robert Kotick, Electronic Arts CFO Stanley McKee, Electronics Boutique CEO Jeffrey Griffiths, Infogrames CEO Bruno Bonnell, InterAct Pres. Todd Hays, Jakks Pacific CEO Jack Friedman, Mattel CEO Robert Eckert, Microsoft Chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach, Midway Games CFO Tom Powell, Nintendo of America Exec. Sales & Mktg. Vp Peter Main, Sega of America COO Peter Moore, Sony Computer Entertainment America Senior Vps Jack Tretton and Andrew House, Take-Two Interactive Software CEO Kelly Sumner and Pres. Paul Eibeler, THQ CEO Brian Farrell, 3DO CEO William (Trip) Hawkins, Toys “R” Us CEO John Eyler, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing COO Luc Vanhal. Also scheduled to speak are Knowledge Universe Pres. Tom Kalinske and LeapFrog Pres. Michael Wood.
Universal Display cancelled resale of 2.5 million shares of common, citing market conditions. Sellers included: Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., 186,114 (1.1% of total being sold); Pine Ridge Financial, 1.8 million; and Strong River Investments, 1.8 million. Latter 2 include 226,330 shares each of Series C and D stock convertible at $12.70. Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) developer, which recently signed licensing agreements with Motorola and Samsung, had 17 million of common outstanding as of Sept. 17.
Prodigy Communciations reportedly is poised to start selling $199 Web-surfing appliance from New Internet Computer Co. (NIC). Prodigy will sell Linux-based device, known as NIC, offering those who buy device 3 months of Internet service for price of one. Prodigy is being acquired by SBC Communications. NIC is 20-person company that’s majority-owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who several years ago also championed ill-fated network computer.