News (Page 3918)

Nintendo has reported a 36.8 per cent fall in net profit for the year ended March 31 due to poor sales of GameCube hardware and games - but the company still posted a 67.72 billion Yen (€494 million) annual profit.

Focus Enhancements, a company which supplies specialist video chips for the Xbox, has received the first order for its components from Microsoft - indicating that the software giant is expecting sales of the console to pick up.

Gary Locke, governor of the state of Washington in the USA, has signed into law a bill banning the sale of certain violent videogames to minors - including Enter the Matrix and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, both of which depict violence against law enforce

Demis Hassabis, founder of Elixir Studios, has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of the developer, although he will continue to act as chairman and creative director at the company, which just secured $3 million new funding.

Publisher Acclaim has filed a financial report which indicates that it expects a net loss of between $40 and $50 million for the three months ended March 31st, compared with a profit of $4 million one year previously.

Hideki Sato and Tetsu Kamaya, Sega president and COO respectively, have both stepped down from their roles at the company over the recent merger debacle - just as the publisher announces its first annual profit in five years.

Sony has announced that it's to cut the price of the PlayStation 2 in Europe at last, with the console dropping from €249 to €199 in a move which brings the hardware price in line with the Xbox and GameCube.

Publisher 3DO has announced that it is "evaluating its strategic options" following lower than expected revenues in the first quarter of the year, and has issued a warning notice indicating that workforce cuts may be in store.

Both Microsoft and Sony have cut $20 off the price of their consoles in the USA, bringing them down to $179 - while Nintendo has announced plans to bundle the Game Boy Player accessory for free with the Cube.

The ambitions of mobile phone giant Nokia in the games market received a major setback this week as the company's pre-E3 conference was massively negatively received by most commentators.

The big guns were rolled out at Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference in Hollywood yesterday, but despite a stage packed with famous developers, there was little in the way of real news from the company.

In the end, Sony did decide to make a hardware announcement at this year's pre-E3 conference. Just not the hardware we'd expected. Instead, we were treated to our first glimpse of PlayStation Portable..

Although Microsoft's pre-E3 conference focused almost entirely on showcasing forthcoming software, with little in the way of new announcements, the company did slip in details of some new Xbox functionality.

Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has stayed at number one in the UK All-Formats sales charts for a second week, while Xbox and Cube releases for Burnout 2 propel it back into the top ten.