by The Editors on December 19, 2008
According to story on Gamespot.com reviewers have not be kind to the Shaun White Snowboarding games.
Despite an avalanche of hype, the game wiped out with critics on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, earning less-than-gnarly respective scores of 63 and 62 out of 100 on Metacritic. GameSpot’s own reviewer was even less kind, giving the two games just 5.0 out of a possible 10. . . . This afternoon the Reuters news service reported the game sold 259,000 copies in the US in the two weeks after its November 16 launch. The figure, which was supplied by Arcadia Research analyst John Taylor, says sales of the game racked up $13.6 million during the month. France-based Ubisoft declined to confirm the sales numbers.
Looks like Ubisoft might still have a ways to go before they recoup the $10 million they spent on advertising in the first weeks of November. The company won’t comment, but it sounds like Shaun is planning on a follow up.
Now that I have the knowledge and I can speak to programmers better and I understand a lot more about what’s possible and what’s not possible, this will all help with the next game,” White explained.
Ubisoft says “no comment.”
[Link: Gamespot]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Looks like we should have jumped in on the $.80 Quiksilver share prices several weeks ago because Quiksilver is fighting its way through some rough times. In their conference call today with analysts they stated that they doing well, but still have a ways to go.
Consolidated net revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 3% to $606.9 million compared to $587.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. . . . Consolidated net revenues for the full year of fiscal 2008 increased 11% to $2.26 billion compared to $2.05 billion in fiscal 2007. . . . European net revenues increased 16% during the full year of fiscal 2008 to $933.1 million and were up 4% in local currency.
Bob McKnight says:
I am proud of the efforts of the entire Quiksilver team around the world as we fought through a deteriorating global economy to deliver financial results that were consistent with the outlook we provided 6 months ago. As economic conditions continue to worsen in our key markets in the US and in Europe, we’ve continued our efforts to reduce expenses and capital expenditures, to carefully control inventory and to reconfigure our post-Rossignol capital structure.”
Notes from the conference call:
- Europe has been doing extremely well for the company.
- The DC footwear business has been “quite strong.”
- Sales will be down in the low double digits for the first quarter of 09
- Expecting a revenue decline in the high single to low double digits for 2009
- Every five cent swing in the Euro translates into $30 million in sales.
- Quik will open “very few new stores” in 2009. “Two in the US and maybe 2 or 3 in Asia Pacific and a couple in Europe”
- The company is looking to 25 retail stores. Nine will close in 2009; 21 of the stores are in the US, 12 are full-price stores and 41 percent of those are in California, Arizona, Florida.
- Quiksilver’s top 30 customers worldwide do less than 25 percent of the company’s sales.
- Capital expenditures for the coming year will be cut approximately $34 million from $94 million to $60 million.
- They are looking at every area of expenditure and trying to adjust to a new reality as to the projected 2009 revenue.
- Company debt still in the $1 billion range
- In 2009 there will be $70 million in interest expense
- The company also has a $55 million loan, which CFO Joe Scirocco called “the big one” is due on March 14, 2009
The Street appeared happy with the report as the stock rose 10% in after-hours trading.
For the whole press release, follow the jump, or click here for a transcript, or listen to the whole call right here.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
TV production people love this kind of stuff:
Due to heavy snowfall, Winter Dew Tour sport organizers and athletes gathered and agreed to postpone today’s practices and competitions. The call was made to end activity for the day at 1:45 p.m. MT. The events will be rescheduled and the new Friday schedule will be sent later this evening.
Breckenridge is getting plowed. Great news for everyone, bad news for AlliSports. Oddly, this news is not even posted on their own website yet. . . someone needs to wake those VBS.tv guys up and tell them to start producing some content. Damnit!
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Anon Optics. Great for snowboarding, even better for shielding eyes from tear gas while attempting to disrupt a government in Greece’s Syntagma Square.
Now where is his photo incentive? (Click photo to enlarge).
[Link: Boston.com]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
We’ll probably hear more about this in the conference call tomorrow, but ASR is reporting that Quiksilver (and all its brands but DC Shoes) will “miss the January event for the first time since ASR was held in Long Beach,” according to a Shop-eat-surf.com.
Today Quiksilver told organizers that the brand will miss the January event for the first time since ASR was held in Long Beach,” the statement said. . . . “ASR continues to look for ways to work with Quiksilver and the industry as a whole through these hard times.”
Anyone want to buy a great surfwear brand?
[Link: Shop-eat-surf]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
According to a story on CBC.ca, the cause of the Whistler Blackcomb Excalibur Gondola tower failure was “water seeping into a welded and bolted joint and cracking the metal as it froze.”
Thirteen people suffered minor injuries on Tuesday when one of the towers that supports the cables on the Excalibur Gondola near Fitzsimmons Creek partially collapsed, leaving three gondola cars dangling in mid-air. . . . People were left stranded in the cold for about three hours while fire crews went gondola to gondola removing the 53 passengers from the 30 trapped cars.
Good thing it was only on the lower section of the gondola.
[Link: CBC.ca]
by The Editors on December 16, 2008
by The Editors on December 16, 2008
According to story on Gamespot.com reviewers have not be kind to the Shaun White Snowboarding games.
