The Winner of the IGN People's Choice Award is...

Guild Wars 2 has won the IGN People's Choice Award 2012 with over a quarter of votes cast being awarded to the hotly-anticipated MMO.

The PC exclusive title beat out 49 competitors in a list of games assembled by IGN editors from across the globe out of titles that were on display on the show floor in Cologne.

The winner of last year's inaugural award was DOTA 2, which is similarly only in development for PC. Despite Guild Wars 2 walking away with the top prize, a number of other titles did well enough to be commended.

FIFA 13, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, World of Warplanes and Assassin’s Creed III all won the silver award for the huge amount of support they received, while Injustice: Gods Among Us, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6, Planetside 2 and Tomb Raider picked up bronze.

Guild Wars 2 was originally announced almost five and a half years ago and Gamescom 2012 marks the second year that the title has appeared at the show. It's due to be released worldwide next week on August 28.

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Soulcalibur V, Naruto UNSG Sales Pass 1 Million

Namco has revealed its earnings for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, posting sales figures for two of its recent sequels. 1.38 million units of Soulcalibur V have been sold worldwide since launch, while sales of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations are at an even one million. Sales of both, in addition to solid portable game sales in Japan, led to an overall increase of 200% for Namco Bandai profits for the quarter.

Namco Bandai earned $1.39 billion for the quarter overall, up 23.2% from last year. The publisher’s upcoming release slate includes Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition this month and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 in September. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, Star Trek: The Game and Ni no Kuni will be released in early 2013.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Diablo III, Skylanders Push Activision Earnings Past Expectations

In its second quarter 2012 earnings call today, Activision Blizzard reported that sales of Diablo III and Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure put revenue even higher than the company was expecting. Diablo III in particular has been purchased more than 10 million times, while Skylanders sales continue to soar. CEO Bobby Kotick noted that, including toys, Skylanders was the best-selling game of the first half of 2012 and its toys have also outsold the best-selling action figure line in the United States and Europe. “Our performance was driven by strong audience demand for our great games,” Kotick said.

Activision Blizzard earned $1.05 billion overall, with $343 million (32%) coming from digital channels. Despite the successful quarter overall, World of Warcraft continued to lose subscribers, shedding more than one million (but remaining the number one subscription MMO). Meanwhile, Activision reported that a la carte Call of Duty downloadable content sales are down, though Call of Duty Elite continues to thrive with 12 million users overall, 2.3 million of which have purchased a Premium account. Earlier today, Activision also announced the final pieces of Modern Warfare 3 downloadable content.

Kotick also commented on parent company Vivendi’s potential sale of Activision Blizzard for the first time, saying “While we're unable to comment on Vivendi's behalf, we continue to remain focused on strong execution, the delivery of great games and the provision of superior shareholder returns as we have for over 20 years. Our strategy has served us very well in the past and will position us very well for the future.”

Looking forward, Activision Blizzard will launch World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria on September 25th, Skylanders Giants in October and Call of Duty: Black Ops II on November 13th. Beyond that, Blizzard continues to develop Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard All-Stars (formerly Blizzard DOTA), and “an all-new MMORPG in the future,” which we last heard referred to as Titan.

Activision Blizzard expects to make $4.3 billion for this fiscal year, up $1 million from initial projections, but Kotick noted that “the next few years are going to be challenging.” He added that “when you look at the things that have an influence on the consumption of entertainment, unemployment data is very concerning, and when you look at what’s happening in Europe there are a lot of challenges that are going to continue to affect the microeconomic outlook. I think we are at the late end of the cycle, and the late end of a console cycle is always going to have its share of difficulties.”

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Diablo III Has More than 10 Million Players

In its second quarter earnings report today, Activision Blizzard confirmed that as of July, more than 10 million people have played Diablo III. This is up four million from the figures announced after the game’s launch and supports the game’s continued success at retail.

According to an Activision Blizzard earnings call that followed, the company said that Diablo III is the best-selling PC game of the first half of 2012 and once again reiterated that changes are coming to the game in the future. Elsewhere in the earnings report, Activision Blizzard also revealed that World of Warcraft subscriptions are down by more than one million.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Sony Posts $312 Million Loss, PlayStation Stagnant

On the heels of Nintendo's $220 million quarterly loss, Sony released its consolidated financial results for its first fiscal quarter of the year, which ran from April 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012. Here is another version of the report.

The major takeaway is that the company as a whole lost another $312 million to add on top of its epic stock fall, debt downgrade, and a gigantic quarterly loss last year. It’s worth noting that a loss of $312 million is significantly lower than the $2.03 billion loss from Q3 of 2011, indicating that the company is on the upswing even if it’s still in the red.

The company notes that “the operating environment surrounding Sony in the first quarter continued to be difficult with the economy slowing in many areas of the world and the trend toward appreciation of the yen taking hold.” As Sony is also under a massive corporate restructure to streamline the company’s operations towards profitability, the company incurred “11.3 billion yen of restructuring charges included in the operating results,” inflating the loss. 11.3 billion yen is roughly equivalent to $14.5 million.

“Uncertain foreign exchange rates and trends in the global economy” have caused Sony to “downwardly [revise]” its fiscal year forecast moving forward.

Sony is a gigantic corporation, and the PlayStation brand is merely a segment of it (it’s the third biggest segment of the business by sales and operating revenue). But the PlayStation brand itself is also experiencing further financial difficulties. Sony notes that “Primarily due to the lowering of the annual unit sales forecast for portable hardware, sales are expected to be significantly lower than the May forecast… Sales are expected to be essentially flat and operating income is expected to decrease significantly year-on-year.”

Jumping further into the numbers, one finds a year-over-year sales fall. “Sales decreased 14.5% year-on-year (a 10% decrease on a constant currency basis) to 118.0 billion yen ($1.493 billion). This decrease was primarily due to lower sales of hardware and software of the PSP (PlayStation Portable) and PlayStation 3, partially offset by the contribution of the PlayStation Vita introduced from December 2011.”

Sony projects sales of PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 to amount to 16 million units globally during the entirety of its fiscal year. However, it has downgraded earlier estimates of 16 million PSPs and PlayStation Vitas sold during the fiscal year to 12 million. Its total software sales of 196.7 million units in 2011’s fiscal year is expected to be replicated in fiscal year 2012.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

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Grand Theft Auto V Making 'Substantial Progress'

Rockstar parent company Take-Two has provided a brief status update about Grand Theft Auto V. During the company’s first quarter fiscal 2013 earnings call today, CEO Strauss Zelnick commented that Grand Theft Auto V is in “full development” and that Rockstar has made “substantial progress” on the game’s “vast, detailed open world setting.”

Beyond that, Zelnick was coy about Grand Theft Auto V’s release date, commenting “we can't talk about the credibility of a release date that we haven't announced” when asked about various reports about the game’s timing. When asked how often Take-Two communicates with Rockstar regarding the game’s status, Zelnick simply said he “wouldn't talk publicly about the way we communicate with our teams internally” and noted that Take-Two is “blessed” to be in business with Rockstar. “We have the best creative teams in the business across our company,” he added.

Grand Theft Auto V seemed to be the focus of many shareholders during the call’s Q&A session, but one investor also inquired about Agent, which, aside from aside from a few screenshots, hasn’t been heard from since it was originally announced in 2009. “We haven’t announced anything about the title yet” was Zelnick’s only comment.

Overall, Take-Two referred to the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year as below expectations, largely pointing to lower than expected sales of Max Payne 3 (which has shipped three million units worldwide) and Spec Ops: The Line. The company earned $226.1 million for the quarter -- down $108.3 million compared to the same quarter last year -- and reported a $110.8 million loss, more than $100 million over last year’s first quarter loss of $8.6 million. “Consumers at this stage in the hardware cycle are more selective than ever,” Zelnick said. “Our teams are already trying to do groundbreaking work. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we succeed mightily. Occasionally we are disappointed. We’d like that to be even less occasionally.”

Take-Two is investing heavily in digitally-delivered content, including mobile games and downloads. 14% of Take-Two revenue this quarter came from downloaded content, including Civilization V’s recent Gods and Kings expansion and Max Payne Mobile. A free multiplayer add-on for Max Payne 3 was announced, as well as online launches including an open beta for NBA 2K13 in China, Comedy Central’s Indecision Game for mobile and NBA 2K All Stars for the GREE platform. Catalog sales were up 50% compared to last year, including successes like Grand Theft Auto III 10th Anniversary Edition and Red Dead Redemption.

Take-Two expects this fiscal year “to be one of the best years in Take-Two's history,” projecting between $1.7 and $1.8 billion. 55% of that total is expected to come from Rockstar, with the remaining 45% coming from 2K titles. 2K’s upcoming release slate includes Borderlands 2 in September, followed by NBA 2K13 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown in October. First-person shooter XCOM is scheduled for fiscal 2014 (meaning it will arrive between April 2013 and March 2014) and BioShock Infinite is scheduled for February 2013. Take-Two also hinted at additional titles that have yet to be announced.

Take-Two noted that Borderlands 2 has some of the highest pre-order numbers in the company’s history, behind only Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. "Consumer anticipation is phenomenal," chief operating officer Karl Slatoff commented.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Madden 13 Pre-Orders Surge

EA has announced big pre-order numbers for Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 and Madden NFL 13. According to a first quarter earnings call today, pre-orders of Dead Space 3 “are tracking almost five-times higher than Dead Space 2 in the same timeframe in 2010.” Crysis 3 pre-orders, meanwhile, “are roughly three-times what they were for Crysis 2 at this time in 2010” and Madden NFL 13 pre-orders “are up 25% versus last year.”

Elsewhere in the call, EA reported continued success for Battlefield 3 Premium, which has boosted its financials in the wake of disappointing subscriber numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Looking ahead, the publisher also commented that it’s keeping a close eye on Wii U.

Overall, EA lost $130 million this quarter, with revenue of $491 million that fell just short of its $500 million forecast. EA announced this morning that it will hire former Yahoo! exec Blake Jorgensen as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. The publisher called the quarter “solid” overall and CEO John Riccitiello referred to the company’s plans as “a strategic balance that none of our peers can duplicate.”

EA also commented on the results of a recent lawsuit over sports exclusivity, noting that it’s “not out of the NCAA football business” but that it won’t hold the exclusive rights moving forward. “We’re very bullish on our NCAA product going forward and we welcome the competition,” Riccitiello said.

EA’s upcoming release slate includes NHL 13 in September in addition to Sim City in February, Madden NFL 13 in August and Need for Speed Most Wanted in October. Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3 will hit stores in early 2013.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Battlefield 3 Premium Passes 1.3 Million Members

EA has announced that more than 1.3 million people have signed up for Battlefield 3 Premium. The news comes as part of EA’s first quarter earnings report for its 2013 fiscal year, and represents an increase of half a million members since EA announced that 800,000 people had signed up during the service’s first two weeks.

Battlefield 3 Premium was announced during E3 and offers all five of Battlefield 3’s expansions for a one-time purchase of $49.99. Premium players also receive unique in-game weapons, priority servers, double XP weekends and new dog tags.

Add-ons featured as part of Premium include December 2011’s Back to Karkand, June’s Close Quarters, Armored Kill in September, Aftermath in December and March 2013’s End Game. All content is available one week early on PlayStation 3.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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