Disney Interactive loses $58 million in Q3

by Jessica Conditt on Aug 7th 2013 7:30PM

Disney Interactive reported an operating income loss of $58 million in Q3 2013, 38 percent greater than the loss in 2012's third quarter (operating income measures money brought in after costs, but before taxes). Disney's video game arm brought in revenue of $183 million this quarter, down 7 percent from last year. At least Disney Interactive is consistent.

Disney attributed the losses to the lack of new consoles on the market and a decrease in its social games sector following an acquisition in Q3 2012. The decreases were offset by growth at Disney's Japan mobile business, the company said.

The financial report doesn't mention April's closure of LucasArts or its imminent Disney Infinity series, which takes a page out of Activision's Skylanders playbook.

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Mario Kart Wii bundle loses GameCube support, just in time for the holidays

by Christopher Grant on Nov 14th 2011 9:30PM

"Racing fans start your engines, because Nintendo is releasing the ultimate Mario Kart Wii bundle this year," Nintendo's press release reads. Of course this bundle – featuring a black Wii, black Wii Wheel, and a copy of Mario Kart Wii – looks an awful lot like the existing Mario Kart Wii bundle. So what makes this bundle "the ultimate" one? Simple. It's got the "newly-configured" Wii console, of course!

"This new Wii bundle not only offers great value to fans, but introduces a Wii console with a slightly altered configuration, which now stands horizontally, rather than vertically." For those of you just joining us, this new configuration doesn't just limit your console feng shui options; the new console is no longer compatible with GameCube games or accessories. This announcement is UK only for now, but just like the New Super Mario Bros. Wii bundle that introduced the new configuration last month, it looks like Nintendo is systematically gutting GameCube support from its Wii lineup.

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New European Wii model loses GameCube compatibility

by JC Fletcher on Aug 17th 2011 9:45AM

It's officially a trend. One day after Sony introduced a cheaper, less functional PSP for Europe, Nintendo has announced a new "value Wii" for the region, though no price was given. The new Wii, according to Nintendo UK, is designed to sit horizontally instead of vertically (although the original Wii can technically do both, so we aren't sure what the distinction is). The other major alteration is the loss of GameCube backward compatibility -- both games and accessories.

This new model (we've dubbed it the "Wii Jr.") will be released sometime before Christmas, in a bundle with a Wii Remote Plus, Nunchuk, Wii Party and Wii Sports. Other bundles will also be forthcoming. Eurogamer posted the above picture, and also got word from Nintendo that the company will "focus on the new Wii Bundle/s going forward," suggesting it won't coexist with the current model. Bye, GameCube!

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Nintendo stock loses another five percent

by Justin McElroy on Jun 9th 2011 12:10PM

Though E3 attendees may be crazy for it, investors are continuing to express their displeasure with the Wii U. Nintendo's stock lost another five percent after a similar fall on Tuesday, the first day after the new hardware was announced at E3. At the time of this writing, the stock is down to 16,170 yen per share on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, another 800 yen loss from the previous day's close of 16,970.

That is, however, a slight climb from the day's low of 16,040 earlier in the day. Company shares haven't been this low since before Nintendo's massively successful Wii console was released in 2006.

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