Death of Spider-Man Issue Sells Over 159k

Driven by press coverage (see “Ultimate Spider-Man Death Issue Gets Advance Press”), the “Death of Spider-Man” storyline brought big sales in June, with the polybaged Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160 selling over 159,000 copies to comic stores, according to our estimates of comic sales number based on sales indexes released by Diamond Comic Distributors. That was best sales number for the top comic in over a year; Avengers #1 sold 163,000 last May (see “Avengers Launch Is Over 163K”). This issue increased sales on Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by over a factor of three.

Marvel’s Fear Itself was the #2 book at around 96,000, the #3 issue holding strong at only slightly less the sales on #2. DC’s Flashpoint event came in behind Fear Itself, but sales on Flashpoint #2 actually came in higher than the first month sales on #1 (and issue #1 picked up another 8,864 copies this month).

Despite the strong sales on the books at the very top of the chart, over-all sales were down from the year ago period (see “Comics Slide Continues in June”).

DC had only eight of the top 25 issues this month; not shipping the titles Green Lantern or Green Lantern Corps hurt.

Top 25 decliners outnumbered advances by a significant margin in June; 14 of the top 25 titles declined in sales; eight increased.

On the graphic novel chart, The Walking Dead Vol. 14 was the top title with over 20,000 copies in first month sales, a great performance when compared to other top graphic novels in recent months. And if you needed more than the continuing sales on The Walking Dead Vol. 1 to show the series is gaining new readers, the 6% increase between first month sales of Vol. 14 and Vol. 13 (see “Top 300 Graphic Novel s Actual—November 2010”) should help.

Here are ICv2’s estimates for the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the Top 25 comic titles in June of 2011:

Read more

DC COMICS Lowers Price On $3.99 Titles To $2.99

New York, October 7, 2010– Beginning January 2011, DC Comics will implement a line-wide pricing adjustment, lowering the prices of all standard length 32-page ongoing comic book titles currently priced at $3.99 to $2.99, it was announced today by DC Comics Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio.

“Today’s announcement re-affirms DC Comics’ commitment to both our core fans and to comic book store retailers,” said Jim Lee, DC Comics Co-Publisher. “For the long term health of the industry, we are willing to take a financial risk so that readers who love our medium do not abandon the art form.”

“As Co-Publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive. Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they’d collected for years.” said Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publisher. “We needed a progressive pricing strategy that supports our existing business model and, more importantly, allows this creative industry to thrive for years to come. With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point.”

When taking into account mini-series, annuals and specials, more than 80% of DC’s comic books will be priced at $2.99.

Source

President Of Disney Interactive Media Resigns

Steve Wadsworth, head of Disney’s Interactive Media Group — better known to us as "the guy in charge of Disney’s video game arm" — has stepped down. According to a New York Times report, Wadsworth issued a late-night missive to his staff last Thursday announcing his resignation. "I have been thinking about this for quite some time, and while it is difficult to leave a great company, an exciting business anda wonderful group of people, my desire and excitement to pursue other opportunities is too great to ignore."

Disney confirmed the news and offered an official statement from Wadsworth: "While there is never a good time to leave a great role at a great company, for many reasons now is the right time for me to move on. I am extremely proud of the huge progress we’ve made at Disney Interactive Media Group, and am confident that the business is well-positioned for continued significant growth." The split appears to be amicable, with Disney CEO Robert Iger offering only kind words about Wadsworth (found in full after the break).

The NYT also heard from "people with knowledge of the matter" that a replacement should be revealed "shortly," with Playdom head John Pleasants allegedly being eyed for the position (a social game developer that Disney acquired earlier this year).

Source

Wildstorm Comics Ends Production

Citing “this soft marketplace,” DC Comics Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio announced the end of the Wildstorm imprint in December. Wildstorm’s licensed comics, which include a number of video game-inspired titles such as Resident Evil, Clank, and Rachet will continue to be published (along with Wildstorm’s kids titles) under the DC imprint. DC will also stop publishing under the ZUDA banner. Titles that were scheduled to come out under the ZUDA imprint this year will appear as DC books.

Didio and Lee made their announcement on DC’s The Source blog noting that: “After taking the comics scene by storm nearly 20 years ago, the WildStorm Universe titles will end this December. In this soft marketplace, these characters need a break to regroup and redefine what made them once unique and cutting edge. While these will be the final issues published under the WildStorm imprint, it will not be the last we will see of many of these heroes. We, along with Geoff Johns, have a lot of exciting plans for these amazing characters, so stay tuned.”

Originally part of Image Comics, Wildstorm was Jim Lee’s studio and he brought it with him when he joined DC in 1999. According to the Source, “the WildStorm editorial team will undergo a restructuring and be folded into the overall DC Comics Digital team, based in Burbank, which will be led by Jim Lee and John Rood.” Clearly the end of the Wildstorm unit was tied in to the downsizing and consolidation of DC operations attendant on the transfer of many of DC Entertainment’s units to California (see “The Cost of Consolidation”).

Source

Microsoft Kin Phones Discontinued

The supposed ultimate social networking phone from Microsoft, the Kin, has been discontinued. Microsoft has officially announced that they won’t be producing any more Kin phones because of poor sales.

The Microsoft Kin phone is far too expensive for a phone that was designed to be used as a social networking phone and obviously aimed at the teenage market. However, Microsoft will continue to provide support for those who have already purchased the Kin phone. [Geeky Gadgets]

Source

Netflix Stock Rises On Rumors Of Amazon Acquisition

Stock in Netflix Inc. surged earlier this week on rumors that the online movie rental firm would be acquired by a tech giant like Amazon.com.

So far, the rumors have remained just that. But the speculation highlights how the Los Gatos firm that revolutionized the way people rent DVDs has emerged as a big player in an evolving world of Internet video.

Netflix’s strong suit is that it already has the technology, experience and distribution deals in place to stream movies and TV episodes, said analyst Tim Bajarin.

“One of the things (Hollywood) studios are coming to grips with is that DVD sales, especially through retail, are declining,” said Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies Inc. of Campbell. “The distribution of movies over the Internet is going to increase.”

Amazon and Netflix officials declined to comment on the rumors.

Bajarin also noted there was speculation that Microsoft or Google might make a better partner for Netflix, which has more than 10.3 million subscribers. They rent about 2.2 million DVDs each day online and receive them in the mail, bypassing retail outlets like the once-mighty Blockbuster.

Netflix offers more than 100,000 movies and TV episodes in standard or Blu-ray discs. But since 2007, it has also been expanding its catalog of 12,000 titles available for instant online viewing.

It has secured deals to stream content to a TV monitor hooked to a variety of Internet-connected devices, including Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console, TiVo, a Roku video player and new Blu-ray players from Samsung and LG.

Netflix hasn’t announced how much streaming video it serves up.

However, Microsoft said in February that Netflix members streamed 1.5 billion minutes of content on the Xbox 360 in the first three months the service was available.

Last week, Netflix said Sony will make streaming available on Internet-ready Bravia TVs. Vizio will have similar models for…

Source

Is Amazon Looking To Acquire Netflix?

Shares of Netflix stock rose five percent yesterday on indications that Amazon may be looking to acquire the popular movie rental service, according to the Memphis Business Journal.

The paper reported Netflix shares (NASDAQ: NFLX) closed at $42.19 on Monday, up 5.29 percent after trading as high as $42.40 earlier in the day.

Netflix stock has more than doubled since hitting a 52-week low of $17.90 on Oct. 27.

Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) offers its own video-on-demand service, which competes directly with Netflix’s online video streaming service.

Neither company would comment on the rumor.

On Slice of SciFi #219 we reported on how Netflix was looking to address the future of the video rental industry when their core business model of delivering DVDs through the mail begins to wane. Netflix was exploring ways to deliver more on-line content but one thing holding them back was licensing agreements with Hollywood studios. If this merger goes through, consumers could benefit from a greater selection of movies offered between Netflix and the Amazon Unbox service.

Kindle DRM Is Getting Even More Frustrating

Amazon needs to work on its Kindle DRM policy, because the following story is ridiculous.

Basically, the way Kindle and the Kindle iPhone app are set up today, users have no idea how many times they can download a book, nor can they easily know how many devices can be used to read said book.

Making the situation even more confusing is the fact that the DRM information actually varies by publisher, and to find out how many times they will allow you to download a book you have to visit the legalese. Sometimes the info isn’t there, either. The worst part is this was all confirmed by an Amazon tech support person:

“How I find out (sic) how many times I can download any given book?” I asked. He replied, “I don’t think you can. That’s entirely up to the publisher and I don’t think we always know.”

I pressed – “You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn’t say ‘this book can be downloaded this number of times’ even though that limitation is there?” To which he replied, “No, I’m very sorry it doesn’t.”

As the author notes, this isn’t so bad if you’re buying a beach book or something you’ll read once and be done with it. Where it does get shitty is with reference books, which the author would like to read today, on his iPhone 3GS, and perhaps in a year, on the theoretical iPhone 4G, powered by unicorn tears. With certain books, you could be limited in such a way that your reading material does not follow your gadget’s natural upgrade cycle.

At the very least Amazon should update its policy so this info is out in the open and easily accessible. The best case scenario would be to allow consumers to actually, you know, literally own the books they’ve just bought. [Gear Diary]

Source

E-Book Sales Continue To Climb

Anime Network Taken Off Comcast, Put on DirecTV

A.D. Vision‘s Anime Network television service has announced on its web forum on Friday that it will no longer be available on the Comcast cable service provider in the United States. At the same time, The Anime Network announced it is available on the VOD service from the DirecTV satellite television provider. The network is also offering the first five episodes of the Kiba, Mezzo, and Azumanga Daioh anime series on the Ovi Phone Service for select Nokia phones.

Thank you to Prede for the news tip.

Update: The American anime distributor Funimation put its Funimation Anime video-on-demand content on Comcast earlier this month. This move coincided with the removal of Comcast‘s own Anime Selects package from the same cable provider.

The Anime Network was available as one of DirecTV’s Pay per View Channels in 2006. It later became part of DirecTV’s Video On Demand offerings.

Source

Next Page »