Essential Reality (ER) said Wed. it had “executed a letter of intent” to merge with AllianceCorner Distributors. ER, which manufactures the P5 tracking peripheral for gaming and other applications, described Alliance as a wholesaler distributor of videogames, game hardware and accessories. It said “Alliance is able to supply products in a timely, cost-effective manner from its warehouse in the Bronx, N.Y., and from its showroom/daily shipping facility located in College Point, N.Y.” ER, based in Mineola, N.Y., said its letter of intent “sets forth the preliminary terms and conditions of a proposed merger transaction… As proposed, the shareholders of Alliance would exchange their shares of capital stock in Alliance for shares of common stock of Essential. Upon the closing of the merger, as currently contemplated, the shareholders of Alliance will own… approximately 80%” of Essential.
The PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 from Electronic Arts (EA) was knocked out of its #1 perch on the U.S. rental top 10 chart, preliminary data for the week ended Nov. 2 showed. VSDA said Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground for PS2 in its first full week of availability jumped to #1, earning $280,000 in rentals. Madden dropped to #3, earning an additional $210,000 for a total of $3.45 million. Once again, every game in the top 10 was for Sony’s PS2. Despite dropping from the top spot, EA still had the most games in the top 10 again. Its other titles were: SSX 3 at #5 (up from #18 a week ago), which earned $150,00 in the week for a total of $220,000 to date; NBA Live 2004 at #7 (down 2 from #5), $130,000 and $320,000; NCAA Football 2004 at #8 (down 5 from #3), $130,000 and $3.35 million. The only other publisher with more than one game in the top 10 was Konami, whose Castlevania: Lament of Innocence soared to #4 from #26 ($160,000 and $220,000) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to #10 from #46 ($120,000 and $160,000). The only other game that entered the top 10 in its first full week of availability was THQ’s WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain at #2 ($210,000). Sony and Atari also had one game each in the top 10 -- Jak II at #6 (down 4 from #2) and Enter the Matrix at #9 (down 5 from #4).
In its first full week of availability, Universal’s The Hulk was the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., VSDA said preliminary data for the week ended Nov. 2 showed. VSDA said the title earned $5.52 million in rentals during the week for a total of $5.61 million to date. It was the only new DVD in the top 10. Last week’s #1- rented DVD -- Columbia TriStar’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle -- slipped 2 notches to #3, earning an additional $3.87 million ($9.99 million to date). VSDA said that starting next week, Rentrak Home Video Essentials would be distributing the weekly report instead of VSDA. It said it had been providing the report “for the past several years from the data we received from Rentrak.” VSDA didn’t say why it no longer would be involved.
Thomson proposed to spin off its video products group into a joint venture with TCL International that would give the Chinese CE maker a strong entry in the U.S. market with the RCA brand while providing the new company with a low-cost manufacturing base. The deal’s expected to close by mid-2004.
The “nickname” Advanced Optical Disc is gone as NEC and Toshiba have co-opted the mantle of the DVD format for the next- gen technology they'll re-pitch to the DVD Forum as “HD-DVD,” executives told reporters at a N.Y.C. news briefing Mon.
Rural wireless carriers pressed the FCC Thurs. for relief on Enhanced 911 Phase 2 requirements, citing funding and technology dilemmas they faced with current deadlines. They spoke at the 2nd day of a 2-day meeting of the Commission’s E911 Coordination Initiative, stressing problems with the accuracy of some network-based technologies for pinpointing rural subscribers and a lack of commercial volume of location-capable handsets for TDMA and GSM networks.
In its first full week of availability, Columbia TriStar’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle was the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., VSDA said preliminary data for the week ended Oct. 26 showed. VSDA said the title earned $6.01 million in rentals for the week, for a total of $6.12 million to date. The only other new DVD in the Top 10 was Fox’s horror film 28 Days Later at #3, which VSDA said earned $4.74 million in the week, $4.83 million to date. Last week’s #1-rented DVD -- Warner’s The Matrix Reloaded -- dropped to #2, earning an additional $4.77 million for a total of $12.68 million to date.
PS2 continued to dominate the Top 10 rental chart in the U.S. in the week ended Oct. 26. VSDA’s preliminary data for the week showed that every game in the Top 10 was for Sony’s console. Electronic Arts (EA) again was the dominant publisher in the week -- it provided half of the top 10 games, led by Madden NFL 2004 once again. VSDA said the PS2 version of the game earned an additional $240,000 in rentals in the week, for $3.24 million to date. EA’s other top 10 games were NCAA Football 2004 at #3 ($150,000 week, $3.22 million to date), NBA Live 2004 at #5 ($120,000 and $190,000), Freedom Fighters at #6 ($120,000 and $350,000), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 at #10 ($110,000 and $530,000). Sony, Atari, Take-Two Interactive, Vivendi Universal Games and Eidos each had one title in the top 10 -- Jak II at #2 ($160,000 and $230,000), Enter the Matrix at #4 ($140,000/$9.53 million), Conflict: Desert Storm 2 at #7 ($110,000/$190,000), Simpsons: Hit & Run at #8 ($110,000/$450,000), Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This at Home at #9 ($110,000/$230,000).
Consumer intentions on buying TV sets rose in Oct. from Sept., according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 6.9% said they planned to a buy TV set in the next 6 months, compared with 6.3% in Sept., 7.4% in Aug., 7.5% in Oct. 2002. The Consumer Confidence Index jumped more than 4 points in Oct., the Conference Board saying “a more favorable job market was a major factor in the turnaround.” Moreover, it said, the belief that that trend would continue had boosted consumers’ expectations: “With the holiday season around the corner, this improvement in consumers’ spirits is a good omen for upcoming retail sales.”
In its first full week of availability, Warner’s The Matrix Reloaded was the top-rented DVD in the U.S. for the week ended Oct. 19, VSDA said its preliminary data showed. VSDA said the title earned $7.72 million in rental revenue in the week for a total to date of $7.85 million. The only other new DVD in the week was Fox’s Wrong Turn at #3, which VSDA said earned $3.09 million in the week and $3.15 million to date. Last week’s #1 DVD -- Paramount’s The Italian Job -- dropped to #2 ($5.24 million and $11.79 million). On the videogame front, VSDA said the top-rented title again was the PS2 version of Madden NFL 2004 from Electronic Arts (EA), which earned an additional $270,000 in the week for $3 million to date. After some recent rental gains for GameCube and Xbox, every title in the top 10 this time was for PS2. EA again had the most games in the top 10 with 4 -- the other 3 titles being NCAA Football 2004 at #2 again ($150,000 in the week and $3.07 million to date), Freedom Fighters at #4 ($140,000 and $230,000), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 at #5 ($110,000 and $420,000). Atari, Eidos, Namco Hometek, Sega, Take-Two Interactive and Vivendi Universal Games each had one game in the top 10.