Four Nintendo-published titles achieved more than a million units of worldwide sales in its latest fiscal quarter alone, according to the company's third quarter briefing. Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sports, and Nintendo DS game Pokemon Platinum Version all neared two million units in the three-month period that ended June 30, 2009, and Wii Fit accrued an impressive 3.6 million units in that time frame. The total count was down two from six million-sellers ...

Disney's various divisions all saw lower sales for the quarter ending in June, with Disney Interactive Media revenues dropping 20 percent, the most out of all of the company's businesses. Disney reported that in fiscal Q3, Interactive Media logged revenues of $113 million, down from $142 million for the same quarter a year ago. Lower marketing and development costs in the games business helped narrow operating losses in the segment, which declined to $75 million ...

Tokyo-based Sonic the Hedgehog house Sega Sammy reported a year-on-year decline in sales and a net loss for its first fiscal quarter ended in June. The publisher also revealed official sales figures for High Voltage Games' Wii-exclusive shooter The Conduit to retailers. Sega reported net sales of ¥60.46 billion ($638.44 million), a 19 percent decrease from the same quarter a year ago. Net loss was ¥10.29 billion ($108.66 million) compared to net loss of ¥10.53 ...

Since the 2006 launch of PlayStation 3, Sony has wrestled down build costs for the console by about 70 percent, Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said in an earnings call this week. "The cost reductions since we introduced the PS3 are very substantial, and on schedule," the exec said, as reported by consumer site GameSpot. "We don't disclose how much of the PS3 cost reduction was specifically achieved during the past two years. But that is ...

Three key staffers from Sony Online Entertainment Seattle, the studio behind the upcoming spy MMO The Agency, left SOE to form the social and mobile game studio Detonator Games. The company formed on July 4, 2009, according to Detonator's website. Matt Wilson, former director of development at SOE Seattle, is Detonator's creative director. He was also often the face of The Agency, speaking with the media and the gaming community about the game's progress. Detonator ...

Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been down for weeks in China, as the hugely popular MMORPG switches operators from The9 to NetEase -- though it has just relaunched to existing users in free, 'closed beta' form. But Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian said in a Friday research note that the financial impact on Activision Blizzard from the downtime will be "modest," partly because Asia makes up just 6 percent of total worldwide World ...

Pre-eminent U.S. physical specialty video game retailer GameStop extended its digital distribution efforts on Friday with the launch of the RealNetworks-powered GameStop Casual Digital Store. Tony Bartel, EVP of merchandising and marketing at GameStop, said the new store aims to appeal "to an ever-expanding customer demographic." Games appearing on the site currently include PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies, Insaniquarium, and Peggle, Gamehouse's Scrabble, and Take-Two's Diner Dash. Hundreds of games are available for download. The site ...

Talking to Gamasutra as part of an in-depth new interview, Splash Damage's Edward Stern has been discussing the firm's Brink, suggesting that it's "ludicrous" that multiplayer isn't better integrated into normal play for most games. Senior designer Stern, who is working on the UK-based Enemy Territory: Quake Wars developer's new Bethesda-published console and PC title, is part of a team trying to elevate the art of multiplayer through some interesting new tactics. Stern starts by ...

RealNetworks, the online entertainment company that's home to PC game sites RealArcade.com, GameHouse.com, and Zylom.com and develops games like the Collapse! series, said it fell short of expectations in its fiscal Q2, reporting a revenue shortfall and a net loss. The company, which also specializes in online music, media software, and other online content, said revenues for the quarter ended June 30 fell 11 percent to $135.7 million compared to the same quarter a year ...

The July 11 release of Square Enix's RPG Dragon Quest IX continued to drive sales of Nintendo DS hardware in Japan, with total sales of DS hardware topping 90,000 units for the week. Sales of the Nintendo DSi were 80,362 for the week ended July 26, Japanese tracking firm Media Create said Friday. That's a drop from the prior week, which saw sales of 96,986, but the levels were still about double the unit sales ...