Sony eyes Vita push, feels Fitch heat

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp, set to report a $1 billion loss this year, is banking on a big slate of new software to drive sales of its new PlayStation Vita handheld games device, even as Fitch downgraded the Japanese electronics giant to a notch above junk.

Welshman Andrew House, who took the top job at Sony Computer Entertainment in September, must plot a much-needed success story for the Vita, negotiating a minefield of consumer gloom and competition from smartphones and tablet PCs such as Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad.

Sony, which has forecast a fourth straight annual loss this year, launches the Vita in Japan this weekend.

It hopes a package of 24 software titles at launch will help the gadget avoid the fate of rival Nintendo's 3DS, which flopped shortly after launch, forcing a hefty price cut.

"It's unprecedented for us to achieve that degree of publisher and development support ... we adopted a different approach to the lead-up to the platform in terms of our relationships with publishers and developers," House told reporters at Sony's Tokyo head office on Thursday.

He said he hoped the Vita would outsell its predecessor, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which has

Angry Birds maker eyes 2013 Hong Kong IPO: report

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish gaming firm Rovio, creator of "Angry Birds," the world's most popular computer game, is planning an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2013, Finnish weekly Tekniikka&Talous reported on Friday.

Rovio's marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka told the paper the aim is to build the company into a media firm which would have a market capitalization similar to that of Walt Disney Co, whose shares are valued at $65.3 billion.

"That is the target. There is no reason why we should not be able to build a company of that size," Vesterbacka was quoted as saying, adding Rovio's 2011 revenues would be around $100 million, compared with $10 million a year before.

In May Rovio Chief Executive Mikael Hed told Reuters the firm was aiming for a stock market listing in New York in 2-3 years time.

Unlike most mobile game crazes, Angry Birds, in which players use a slingshot to

Zynga prices IPO at top end of range

(Reuters) - Online games maker Zynga Inc is expected to make a strong debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday after it priced its initial public offering at the top end of a preliminary range but did not increase the size of the $1 billion deal.
Analysts and investors had expected Zynga to raise the price or boost the number of shares it was selling, since demand had seemed strong in recent weeks. The IPO, from the maker of "CityVille" and "FarmVille" games, has been highly anticipated because it is seen as a way for investors to get a slice of Facebook's growth before the social network goes public itself.
Zynga sold 100 million shares of Class A common stock at $10 per share in the IPO, the top end of the $8.50 to $10 indicative range.
In addition, certain of Zynga's stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15 million shares to cover over-allotments, Zynga said in a statement late on Thursday. Zynga will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.
Zynga publishes four of the top five games played on Facebook and has more than

How To Pick The Right Wow Leveling Guide

One of the most popular online games is WoW or World of Warcraft and it involves playing hours on end to gain items and experience. The main fun of the game starts after one reaches the maximum level those who have been playing this game for a couple of years will tell you. Because there are countless quests to undertake this is quite tough. Because they cannot figure out which quest to complete first new players find leveling tough.

In fact, there are many players who spend hours on end just traveling from one location to the other while killing mobs at random and doing quests too at random. Very soon they feel bored and lose their interest in the game though initially the new players will find lots of fun in this. If one knows the exact sequence of steps for leveling up in WoW then these problems can be resolved. Noticing your friend moving on from one level to the other with high speed you might have thought that he or she was using a cheat.

The best way for you to level up quickly is by knowing the tricks of the game. To help you enhance your gaming skills you can make use of various guides available online which promise to assist you. To make sure you get your money's worth, you should go in for the right WoW leveling guide. Your friends who have been playing this game for quite some time can help you to select one of them.

Gaming sites where these guides are reviewed can also be checked by you. The most important thing when selecting a guide is to check whether it comes with an addon or not. Nearly all popular gaming sites have their own discussion forum. Actually, the site where you viewed the reviewof the guide should also have a discussion forum. It can be that you might also come across other guides on WoW by other authors on that website.

Use that gaming website's discussion forums after becoming a member and then ask other members about their views. They will assist you to choose a WoW guide that has instructions that will assist you to level upthe game quickly. Booklets that do not contain any valuable information can be avoided with the help of the members

Playstation 3 Vs. Xbox 360: Choosing The Best

Gaming consoles are just one of the very best entertainment tools accessible and a lot of folks buy one for their own house. In fact, gaming consoles are incredibly popular nowadays that every release of a new kind of gaming console, stores usually run out of stock.

Nevertheless, you will find also diverse kinds of gaming consoles out there inside market today that claims to be the top. These firms claim that they guarantee that with their gaming console, you may have the ultimate gaming knowledge. Due to the fact of this, people tend to get confused on which gaming console they have to purchase.

Two examples of businesses that manufacture gaming consoles that are continually competing is Sony and Microsoft. The upcoming Sony PlayStation Three or more as well as the newly released Microsoft Xbox 360 are two on the most common gaming consoles out there nowadays. Both businesses claim that their gaming console provides the top quality gaming encounter that you can ever have.

So, to be able to end all the confusion, here are some facts about these two diverse gaming consoles and with this information, it is possible to choose which gaming console is correct for you.

The Sony PlayStation 3 is the third inside the PlayStation series and is expecting fantastic success upon its release on November 2006 in Japan, United States, and in Canada. PlayStation 3 is integrated using the latest and unique technologies in a gaming console. It has features like the Blu-ray drive that's not found in other gaming consoles offered in the market today. The Blu-ray drive is one from the latest disc drives obtainable presently. What makes Blu-ray special is it has a much larger capacity to store data, meaning it will

The National Lotto Is At The Moment Recognizable All Around The Globe

The National Lotto was first launched to the UK residents in 1992, it proved to be a exceptionally thrilling period creating much excitement and media coverage. Being the first considerable draw UK people had experienced which gave gamblers the precise matching prospects to win, at the time an astounding quantity of capital to lots of lottery gamblers.

Participants new or experienced to this lottery may like to be aware of how much this lotto draw takes in money on a yearly base. Gamers might be very shocked to study they make a payment to an estimated 676,0000000 gross in yearly sales.

2 years following the release of the Uk game of chance a gaming group called virtual world direct expected lottery commission support and made a lotto syndicate named e-Lottery.

Ever since the birth of this lotto syndicate folks from all over the world with an attraction in other countries lotteries can at present play the National lottery. Because e-Lottery buy entry tickets on other gamblers behalf, gamblers not in the UK can collect the Uk game of chance reward from

Fishville Help Guide And Tutorials

I'm not going to lie....I'm pretty much a Facebook addict!! Often times I'll sign on and play all the games for hours such as Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, etc... This is exactly why whenever I began to discover all these FishVille help guide things popping up everywhere I became sort of confused