Inside Perfect World Entertainment

North American gamers probably aren’t too familiar with Perfect World Entertainment, beyond their association with Runic Game’s Torchlight and the handful of Asian MMOs the company is trying to bring to North America. But this seemingly small MMO company is really quite big in China and analysts that pay attention to the sector (and like to invest money) have got their eyes all over Perfect World, despite its challenges - in China, of course.

Perfect World Co. Ltd. went public roughly 4 years ago and has beaten earnings estimates for most of its existence, carving out its own little niche in the lucrative online gaming space in China. Perfect World is no small player either, with a $2 billion market capitalization and a long-term plan to have a global presence - hence its North American and European operations. In the latest quarter the company raked in $86.4 million in revenue, compared to $55.9 million the same quarter last year. That’s pretty amazing for a company most North American gamers know nothing about.

But the company, like many others that have a business model that relies heavily on the lucrative Chinese MMO market, faces some serious challenges. Those challenges include government oversight and possible censorship of content, a rather crowded field of competitors (CDC Games, Shanda Games, The9, NetEase, etc.) and an unknown level of growth in China. Here and in places like Europe it faces the challenge of getting Western gamers interested in MMOs that are decidedly Asian in style. One secret weapon the company has is the upcoming Torchlight MMO, which will also serve the Chinese market if it can get by the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

In North America the company has 3 free-to-play MMOs in operation (Ether Saga Online, Perfect World International, and Jade Dynasty) as well as Runic Games single player action RPG, Torchlight. You can learn more about the company and all these games by visiting perfectworld.com.

Game over for the National Institute on Family and the Media

The National Institute on Family and the Media is shutting down, as the economy forces the media watchdog group to Minneapolis-based to close its doors. The National Institute on Family and the Media, founded by psychologist David Walsh and funded mostly by Fairview Health Services, is best known for its annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card, which often criticized game makers for creating and marketing mature themed games to children.

“Thank you for 14 years of amazing accomplishments and success, said a personal message on the organization’s web site today. “Though our doors will close on December 31, 2009, our important work and programs will continue through you.”

A blog post by David Walsh further explains why the organazation is shutting down - and most of it points to the current state of the economy.

“Two years ago, the National Institute on Media and the Family’s board of directors started strategic discussions about the organization’s evolving mission and goals. The current challenging economic environment accelerated those discussions. As a result, the Institute’s board of directors made the decision to close the Institute, effective December 31, 2009 and to begin transitioning the programs to other organizations who share our mission and values.”

The National Institute on Family and the Media says that it will transition many of its programs and initiatives to other national organizations, and founder David Walsh promises to continue speaking out on the things he feels are important like the affects of violent media on children.

City of Heroes HeroCon spawns Real World Heroes

City of Heroes players are decent people, as evidenced by a charity they helped create called Real World Heroes. This six week charity drive will help raise funds for three organizations dedicated to real world heroes and heroic and lofty causes. The charity will also get the support of NCsoft, who will help promote its efforts with the City of Heroes MMO. The idea for a charity drive was conceived by Joel and Karen Garcia, long-time City of Heroes players, after attending the HeroCon 2009 fan event hosted by NCsoft and Paragon Studios, the development studios behind the game.

The charities getting the proceeds from this drive include Child’s Play (an organization created by Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins donates toys, games, books, and cash for sick children in hospitals across the U.S. and the world), Donate Games (a charity dedicated to funding research and support for children with “orphan” diseases) and Operation Gratitude (a charity dedicated to sending 100,000 care packages annually filled with snacks, entertainment items and letters of appreciation to U.S. Service Members deployed in hostile regions).

This time of the year is particularly important to charities around the world because it is when people tend to be the most generous and giving. As gamers, we should show the world that are hearts are as big as our dedication is to playing games. I encourage you to check out www.RealWorldHero.com, see the great work they are doing, and get involved.

Facebook cracks down on offer providers

It looks like the ban hammer has hit its mark on two of the biggest in-game offer providers on Facebook: Gambit and Tatto Media. Earlier in the month Facebook announced that it had shut down in-game offer providers for some shady and misleading offers, but didn’t name names. This week the social network did. Both Gambit and Tatto Media have been accused of serving up offers in games that have hidden obligations or fees. The reason for the bans, according to an excellent report on VentureBeat, was ” repeat violations of Facebook’s guidelines for offers.”

If you take into account that 30 percent of revenues in the $1 billion virtual goods business are derived from such offers, then this is a very serious matter that needs to be addressed now, because it shows a weakness in that business model. Game providers like Zynga, Playfish and others have started cracking down on these kinds of dubious offers as well - though Facebook has certainly done its fair share of forcing these companies to do the right thing.

Ultimately in-game offers need to be re-thought and refreshed so that users aren’t roped into products and services without knowing what all of the details are. Some examples of this might include a service that doesn’t tell you until it is too late that you have signed up for a lengthy and expensive subscription, or a product that is mailed to you unsolicited with a questionable amount of time to return. At the end of the day players have to ask themselves if the virtual currency they might earn by participating in an offer is really worth the risk and ultimate costs (goods and services they didn’t know they purchased).

You can learn more by checking out this excellent VentureBeat article on the topic.

UMLOUD! A Rock Band Night for Child’s Play

Harmonix has teamed up with Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik for ÜMLOUD!, a special Rock Band Night for the Child’s Play charity. Child’s Play is a charity that supports the National Children’s Hospital Organization by giving money, toys, games and gaming hardware to hospitals where children are going through often life threatening and difficult medical problems. Ümloud! is an annual fundraiser event for Child’s Play Charity, a “gamers’ charity” started by Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik that provides toys and games to Children’s Hospitals around the country, including Oakland Children’s Hospital.

The spiritual-successor to last year’s successful Fünde Razor, and hosted by Chris Kohler (Wired), Joe Markert (Gamehelper), and John “Seg” Seggerson (Telltale Games), Ümloud! will hit the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California on December 9th, and feature a full-blown Rock Band 2 main stage set up courtesy of Harmonix Music Systems, where Rock Band bands can rock out in the name of charity.

Doors open at the DNA Lounge at 7:00pm and the party will rage until 2:00am. There is a suggested donation of $10.00 (but you should give more if you can)upon entry to the event, and all attendees will be entered into a raffle that will go on throughout the night offering amazing prizes and limited edition gaming swag, courtesy of participating sponsors. You can sign your band up for either the Ultimate Band Package for $120.00 or the Standard Band Package for $40.00. If you are going to be in the San Francisco area, go and join the fun, be entered to win some totally awesome prizes and help raise money for a good cause.

Global Game Jam 2010 registration opens

Registration for the 2010 Global Game Jam will begin this Saturday, November 21, allowing those interested in securing their spot at one of more than 90 locations worldwide. The 2010 GGJ will take place January 29-31, 2010 and is expected to eclipse last year’s success which saw 1,650 participants across 23 countries and 54 venues.

Global Game Jam is an interesting competition where creative types team up to create games in a short amount of time and then share them with the community. It’s fun stuff and exciting to watch – let alone participate in.

Chances are there’s a location that is in your general vicinity if you want to participate or just stop by to see all the magic happen first-hand; for example, there’s one location in Albany, NY and another in Troy, Ny - both about an hour away from where I live - and another location in New York City, should any of the Crispy Gamer staff want to check it out.

Confirmed locations for Global Game Jam 2010 after the break.

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GameStop’s Q3 results buoyed by hit game sales

While other companies are screaming that the sky is falling, retailer GameStop said Thursday that sales of hot game titles helped boost its third-quarter profits by nearly 12 percent and offset a sales decline for video game hardware in the quarter. These profits just barely helped the company beat Wall Street expectations. Excluding costs, GameStop’s operating profit of 32 cents per share beat a forecast of 30 cents per share.

Net earnings for the quarter that ended on Oct. 13 were $52.2 million - 31 cents per share, up from a profit of $46.7 million - 28 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Sales in the quarter climbed 8.2 percent to $1.83 billion; analysts estimated $1.73 billion. A year ago the company raked in $1.7 billion.

Sales of new software rose 9.4 percent, and sales of used products jumped 19 percent. These gains helped offset a decline in sales of new video game hardware. But sales at stores open at least a year, which is considered a measure of a retailer’s financial health — fell 7.8 percent. That’s in line with forecast the company offered last week - a decline of 6 - 11 percent.

So what games pulled GameStop’s fanny out of the fire this quarter? According to the company, Madden NFL 10, Halo 3: ODST, Batman: Arkham Asylum, NBA 2K10 and Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide in its first 72 hours of release as well.

For the fourth quarter, GameStop expects a profit of $1.47 - $1.65 per share; analysts forecast Q4 profits at $1.57.