It’s an odd statistic, yes, but also an interesting one! The Financial Times have looked at some of the world’s top-earning companies, and worked out how much cash each generates per capita (ie divide the total profit by the total number of employees). Each worker at money grubbers Goldman Sachs, for example, is worth $1.24 million. Google employees can “only” manage $626,000. But Nintendo employees? Every one of the 3000 workers at Nintendo Towers generates $1.6 million. Yes, even the tea lady.
Nintendo makes more profit per employee than Goldman [Financial Times, via Develop]
And the entries are starting to roll in. Above Kotaku reader Shane sends his Tales boxart, writing, “I just can’t see the game title without thinking about the scooter…” Here’s what’s going on: Create boxart for an imagery Tales game. That’s it! Send your entry to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. Contest ends this Friday.
Hit the jump for Kotakuite CTZanderman’s entry. DO IT!
We know that Amazon users do not take kindly to Spore’s DRM measures. Seems Spore users don’t either. GameCulture have dug up a number of anti-SecuROM creatures/vehicles people have seeded in the game’s creation galleries, which range from the absurd to the surprisingly clever. Our pick’s probably the Veroflraptor, a hideous creature that “is known to spray excessive DRM and overhype on its attackers”.
DRM Evolved: Spore Users Create Creatures to Voice Their Displeasure [GameCulture, via Shacknews]
As part of their annual report, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation have ranked and scored many major American corporations on their treatment of “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors”. 259 of the companies received perfect scores, and of that 259, three are in the gaming biz. Those three are Microsoft, Electronic Arts and GameStop. Tales of employee woe from both EA and GameStop are pretty common, so it’s nice seeing they can get something right.
EA, Microsoft, GameStop Earn Perfect Scores from Gay Rights Group [GamePolitics]
In an effort to either appeal to more consumers or confuse the crap outta them, Namco Bandai is releasing two versions of DS game Tales of Hearts, the 11th entry in the Tales franchise. One version will use animation style cutscenes and the other one will use computer graphic style cutscenes. Hit the jump for another comparison.
You run a game for around five years, you can’t expect it to be cheap. You’ve got to run servers, pay customer service reps, pay for marketing, etc etc. World of Warcraft’s been running for five years now, so how much has the upkeep cost Blizzard?
$200 million. Or, at least that’s what Blizzard disclosed during yesterday’s analyst conference call.
That’s it. Staff payroll, hardware support, customer service (which, interestingly, they say is their largest department), the lot. Well, mostly – we think they’re just talking the upkeep costs, not the original development costs. Sure, in isolation $200 million is a lot of clams, but when you put $200 million in the “expenditures” column then put $300 gazillion in the “revenue” column, you’re not just laughing all the way to the bank, you’re cackling.
Fun with text and song! Here’s a really nice video the Portal song that’s perfect for singalongs.
As game blog Aeropause points out, a your/you’re type needs-a-fixin’. Make that happen person-who-made-this-awesome-clip!
Excellent work: Portal’s “Still Alive” done with typography [Aeropause]
Aggressive business strategy or sign of desperation? You, dear reader, decide. Because Microsoft have, for the second time in six months, cut the price of the Xbox 360 in Europe. Starting Friday, the price of the standard-issue Pro unit will be £169/€239. Arcades will be £129/€179 (now a LOT cheaper than the Wii), and Elites will go for £229/€299. Compared to the prices a year ago those are some big savings, and with FIFA and Pro Evo around the corner it’ll be interesting to see whether they’ll tempt many Europeans away from Mother Sony.
At that Gamestop managers show last week, pics were leaked of the Street Fighter IV Madcatz fighting sticks. Today, the Capcom blog announced this:
We are working very closely with Mad Catz to produce what we think will be the best fighting sticks and pads ever released, and we’re happy to see the initial reaction has been so positive… For anyone that’s ever been serious about their controllers, I think you’re going to be very, very happy.
Really hope that Capcom and Madcatz churn out a top shelf product. Players not only deserve it, SFIV deserves it. Dammit.
Official Street Fighter IV Controllers? [Capcom][Pic]
After Peter Moore killed the Dreamcast (damn him!) and fired a buncha people (ouch), he was feeling down. Moore was sick and tired to trying to convince SEGA Japan that it needed to hire foreign developers because the Western market was starting to really take off. Good thing Microsoft exec Robbie Bach called Moore to wish him Merry Christmas and offer him a j-o-b at Microsoft. Moore met with Microsoft to meet with Microsoft sweaty man Steve Ballmer to talk about going head-to-head with Sony. Nintendo, it seems, didn’t even enter the equation. According to Moore:
