As analysts predicted, Sony finished the first quarter of its fiscal year (ending June 30, 2010) with a net income of ¥25.7 billion ($295M), a significant increase from the ¥37.1 billion ($426M) loss during the same quarter last year. Overall, sales were up 3.8 percent year-over-year to ¥1.7 trillion ($18.7B).

Compared to the same time last year, the division that houses the PlayStation brand is in a much better place, even though it still operates at a loss. While sales increased 32 percent this year to ¥326 billion ($3.7B), bumped up by PC and PlayStation 3 hardware and software, the division had an operating loss of ¥3.8 billion ($43 million) -- a vast improvement from the ¥36.7 billion ($422M) loss last year. The company expects hardware sales of the PS3 to continue increasing this year and software sales to remain flat.

Sony's PlayStation division sees sales increase, still operating at a loss originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Explodemon, a platformer featuring a supergroup of inspirations such as Super Mario Bros., Bangai-O and 'Splosion Man, has been given a release window by developer Curve Studios. The chemically unstable title will land on the PSN sometime during Q4 this year. The PSP Go and WiiWare versions weren't referenced at all in the studio's press release -- we've contacted the developer just to make sure those two versions haven't been blown to smithereens.

While you wait, check out the latest batch of screenshots for Explodemon in the gallery below. We could try to use some synonym for "explosive" to describe them but, honestly, that well's running a little dry.

Explodemon detonating on PSN in Q4 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Capcom experienced another "sluggish" performance in its latest financial quarter -- the first of Fiscal 2010, from April 1 to June 30 -- and consequently blamed slow growth of Lost Planet 2 sales, among other things. Net sales for the quarter were down 2.4 percent year-over-year at 19 million yen ($219 million) and net income dropped a dramatic 90 percent from last year to the tune of 213 million yen ($2.5 million).

Although titles like Super Street Fighter IV and Monster Hunter Frontier Online showed what Capcom calls "steady growth," LP2 and Monster Hunter Tri only sold at a "sluggish pace." The first two weeks of Ghost Trick sales were also met with disappointment, although the game premiered at number two in its first week of Japanese sales.

The Japanese publisher also lamented "shrinking" US and European markets "under the stagnating economy," as well as fluctuating exchange rates. Though sales across the board were lower than expected, Capcom considers its financial forecast for this fiscal year to be unaffected.

More 'sluggish' sales plague Capcom financials originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The last footage we saw of Halo: Reach introduced us to the Forge World design tools. The latest video to come out of Bungie is a lot more straightforward, getting to the "real" Halo stuff: the campaign.

The trailer after the break, featuring an excerpt from Marty O'Donnell's score, shows everything from hand-to-hand combat to massive space battles, with plenty of armored Spartans looking very serious. You'd look very serious too if you were fighting to keep a planet invader-free. Or if you had to walk around in hundreds of pounds of armor.

Continue reading Halo: Reach trailer reminds us it has a single-player campaign

Halo: Reach trailer reminds us it has a single-player campaign originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Realtime Worlds just released APB, but it's already hard at work on its next huge online game, which appears to be a ... real-time world. "Project: MyWorld," which RTW expects to release "early next year," is a social game based on a detailed model of the Earth. Players can build structures in a virtual version of real space, and open those spaces up to interaction with friends. The teaser trailer (after the break) shows one user commenting about a "fishing game" in a structure, for example.

The trailer also suggests a number of ways to interact with the real world from within MyWorld, with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google, and Loopt integration shown. "What would it look like if Nintendo built Google Earth?" the website asks. It wouldn't have this much online functionality, that's for sure.

Continue reading Realtime Worlds reveals Project: MyWorld

Realtime Worlds reveals Project: MyWorld originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far ... is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day? I guess we both know that isn't going to happen."

Continue reading These talking GlaDOS Curiosity Spheres probably want to kill you

These talking GlaDOS Curiosity Spheres probably want to kill you originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dire Wolf Digital and NetDevil have signed an agreement that will see the creation of a LEGO Universe trading-card game, due in 2011. (The Lego Universe MMO is set to launch on October 26.) What makes this deal interesting is the potential to create products outside of just the TCG.

The agreement gives Dire Wolf Digital "a license to produce physical TCG products as well as digital products for PC, Mac and mobile devices." This could portend the TCG will come to digital spaces or it could simply refer to additional products outside of the card game -- as soon as we know something, we'll be sure to pass it along.

Head past the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Dire Wolf Digital is building a Lego Universe trading-card game

Dire Wolf Digital is building a Lego Universe trading-card game originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over on the official Aion message boards, NCsoft has announced a "Double Your Fun" weekend, during which all players will receive double experience points.. In addition, all inactive Aion accounts will be reactivated for the weekend in order to entice lapsed players. If you've had an inkling to revisit the world of Atreia, this looks like the weekend to do it. Find the double XP schedule for each server after the break.

Continue reading Inactive Aion accounts reactivated for double XP weekend

Inactive Aion accounts reactivated for double XP weekend originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Syd Bolton, who runs the Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Canada, really enjoys Dragon's Lair in all its many, many incarnations. Bolton owns almost every version of Dragon's Lair ever released, which is saying a lot considering that game has been ported more times over the last 30 years than a Carnival Cruise ship. However, he hasn't got them all, telling Joystiq that he's missing the mobile phone version from 2005 (because it wasn't available in his area) and the Amstrad CPC versions from the mid-'80s.

The picture above contains 47 versions of the game and its sequels. Bolton mentions that the image doesn't contain the whole collection, as a few copies are in storage. We've listed every copy of the game featured in the picture after the break.

Continue reading A daring Dragon's Lair game collection

A daring Dragon's Lair game collection originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week Activision announced that Rush's 20-minute, seven-part rock suite "2112" would grace Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and today the publisher followed up with 22 additional tracks that will appear in the game.