Friday Downtime - 8/5/09 Feature

It was financials time this week, which means considerable headaches for us as we scroll through endless reports of GAAP and non-GAAP net revenues, diluted shares, and operating incomes. Nevertheless, we've rounded it all up for you in the least aneurism inducing English we can muster, with details of the EA, Activision, Capcom, and Nintendo reports that have surfaced during the week.

While Nintendo, Capcom, and Activision posted impressive profits in their respective financial reports, EA was left floundering with an excruciatingly painful $1 billion (£723 million) loss - try explaining that to the board. Nevertheless, EA wouldn't be where it is today without managing to put a positive spin on even the most desperate state of affairs and, sure enough, John Riccitello and his gang of suits seemed relatively unfazed by the bad news during their post-earnings conference call.

In the irrepressible words of Eric Cantona: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea". And so, when the usual round of post-earnings conference calls came about, we (the seagulls) were on hand to pick up any news titbits (sardines) from EA and Activision CEOs (trawlers). Sadly, the sardine distribution was a bit on the scant side of things, with only scraps being thrown over the side at best.

Our pick of the bunch: news that gamers will be "optionally supplemented" with guitar in DJ Hero. We're still a little unsure of what that means but, without clarification from Activision (which we have sought), we can only assume that gamers will be able to riff along on their plastic guitars while a friend scratches away on the game's pseudo decks. Speaking of which, it seems like a Cold War of turntable peripherals is being waged between Activision's DJ Hero and its arch rival, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ. Right now, we're thinking that the Ultimate DJ's decks appear to be the most impressive, particularly seeing as they've got the weight of Numark and Akai behind them.

Activision also officially confirmed Guitar Hero: Van Halen during its conference call, although the game had been on the radar for a very long time anyway. In fact, the publisher may as well not have bothered with the official confirmation, although its revelation of Band Hero was a little more unexpected despite GDC slides that hinted at its existence earlier in the year.

Moving on from the financials, you can file this next piece of news under "ridiculous": Terminal Reality's Ghostbusters game has now gone through three separate publishers after news surfaced earlier in the week that Sony has picked up timed exclusive rights to publish the game. It will now release on PS3 and PS2 in June, with the remaining versions to be distributed by Atari later in the year. The title was originally going to be published by Sierra Entertainment before Activision dropped the project (with Atari subsequently picking it up) after the Vivendi merger in 2007.

We've got some hot of the presses news for you in this week's Friday Downtime, as 2K has just detailed Bioshock 2's multiplayer constituent. Read on here to find out why Digital Extremes' multiplayer component will provide the sequel's previously hinted at prequel elements. But will Xbox 360 users be playing the game with motion sensing controls when 2K Marin's title is released later in the year? Unlikely, says TVG, even if these rumours do turn out to have some more significant substance behind them in the coming months.

In other rumour and speculation, it's looking very possible that 3D Realms has shut its doors, leaving its Duke Nukem: Forever project in the perpetual state of limbo that we've come to expect of the game (we're thinking that the Duke has got to be pretty pissed off by now, what with all the time he's spent floating around in nothingness). Could Apple be plotting a takeover of EA? Possibly, says this portion of hearsay. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a Thief 4 reveal on Monday if this teaser is anything to go by, and don't count out a trip to Vietnam for CoD 7 as well judging by these rumblings.

Here's the week's remaining news, summed up in less time than it took Arsenal's dreams of Champions League glory to be dashed on Tuesday: Bethesda still can't get Fallout 3 DLC right; Batman: Arkham Asylum's delay seems a little fishy; Gears of War 2's Dark Corners DLC emerges; Crytek UK is in a dream, apparently; Final Fantasy XIII could get to Europe sooner than originally thought.

TVG Comment of the Week:

"very sexy," posted anonymously on the Chart Attack boards.

Okay, so the comment is a couple of weeks old, but we think anyone who finds graphs sexy is worthy of a mention (unless they're being sarcastic, in which case it's still pretty funny).