Topic: March Video Game Sales Up 8% Over Last Year - - - Singer Sues Sega!

[MarioLinkSamus]

GameMarketWatch

March Video Game Sales Up 8% Over Last Year

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Game industry financial analysts say that year-to-year sales for March were up 8%, based on monthly data provided by NPDFunworld. Recent product releases by Nintendo evidently buoyed the latest sales figures.

The top selling game of the month was GameCube’s ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’. That title took in almost $41 million on 826,352 units sold.

In addition, sales for the Game Boy Advance console rose 32%, owing to the mid-February launch of the upgraded SP model.

The data also indicate that overall software sales for the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube rose 36%, according to Deutsche Bank’s Jeetil Patel.

This isn’t to say that analysts necessarily have a rosy outlook for the industry.

"We view the March industry software data as disappointing, noting that, excluding the strong software sell-through by Nintendo, industry software sales would have been down 8.3 percent," J.P. Morgan analyst Dean Gianoukos said in a note.

Gianoukos said that the PS2 ended the month with a 37.8% share of the hardware marker, followed 14.7% for the Xbox and 10.7% for GameCube.

Deutsche Bank analyst Patel cited a 70% decline from a year ago in the sales of console makers’ legacy platforms. “That decline was a drag on over all sales growth, he said.”

Last week Sony predicted a sharp drop in future sales of its original PlayStation and PSOne systems.

Singer Sues Sega!

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Singer Lady Miss Kier (real name Kieran Kirby), wants her groove back.

The flamboyant lead singer of the now-disbanded group Deee-Lite, known for its early 90’s hit “Groove is in the Heart”, alleges that Sega Corporation stole significant aspects of her persona for the video game ‘Space Channel 5’.

‘Space Channel 5’ was originally released in 2000 on the Dreamcast console, but an updated version of the game for Playstation 2 is due for release this summer.

The game features a character named Ulala with pink ponytails, and clad in a short skirt and knee-high boots.

Kirby filed suit this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, saying that the Ulala character uses her likeness without permission. She also alleges that the character’s name is deceptively similar to the phrase “Ooh La La”, which Kirby has used in her songs.

The lawsuit states that Sega offered Kirby $16,000 to license Kirby’s name, likeness, and recordings for ‘Space Channel 5’. But the suit alleges that when the offer was rebuffed, Sega used the singer’s likeness anyway.

Kirby is asking for damages in excess of $750,000.

MarioLinkSamus

[Uncle Rich AiAi]

ouch!

[PIAC]

hehehe certainly an odd court case indeed, 'washed up singer wants money, targets gameing company'
at first i though that it was Singer the sewing machine company was sueing sega (this could be a good tounge twister)

[Termin8Anakin]

well, Singer could sue Nintendo.
Remember in Nintendo Gamer, and Kelly's feature on the weird creations form Nintendo? One of the them was a sewing machine - for a sewing machine game. Odd......

[PIAC]

hrm, must have missed that issue, i kinda didn't buy any magazines for a while untill i got my cube :\ kinda stupid of me ohwell

[mouse_clicker]

"She also alleges that the character’s name is deceptively similar to the phrase “Ooh La La”, which Kirby has used in her songs."

Surprised she's not suing the French, then- they've been using her trademark phrase for years. She'll lose the case- even if Sega did get the influence for Ulala from miss what's-her-face, she doesn't have a copyright or trademark on it.

[Michael_82]

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Surprised she's not suing the French, then- they've been using her trademark phrase for years.

zing!

[Darc Requiem]

She may have a case....its seems that Sega offered her money to endorse the game and she declined. If Sega hadn't offered her cash I would say she had no case, but since they didn't it makes things a bit more interesting.

Darc Requiem

[S-U-P-E-R]

It works better when you sue someone who actually has money

[Gamefreak]

She may be lying about Sega offering her cash...that's a common tactic to use in situations like these...

Anyway, remember when that group of soccer moms sued Nintendo for like 7 million dollars - 1 million for each mom - because their kids would force them to buy Pokemon Cards, which they said were "gambling" since you may or may not get a rare card in a deck. Of course Nintendo won by a mile...I bet those mom's feel stupid right now...

[GoldShadow1]

Hahaha, Gamefreak, that's one of the worst lawsuits I've heard of.  Kids FORCING their moms to buy them stuff?  Anyway, shouldn't they have sued Wizards of the Coast anyway, not Nintendo?

[PIAC]

or sued 'god' for gifting them with lack of inteligence

[ThePerm]

they shoul really sue their spoiled little brat bastard kids.