Post by: WindyMan on May 20, 2004, 09:20:01 AM
MAJESCO SECURES EXCLUSIVE 'GAME BOY ADVANCE VIDEO' RIGHTS TO FUNIMATION'S POPULAR 'DRAGON BALL GT®' PROPERTY
Top-Rated Anime Franchise Joins Majesco's Powerful 2004 Lineup
EDISON, N.J., May 20, 2004 – Strengthening a 2004 lineup already bolstered by premium content, Majesco, (OTC: MJSH), a leading publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products, today announced an agreement with FUNimation Productions, Ltd. to publish Game Boy Advance Video products based upon FUNimation's tremendously popular Dragon Ball GT ® franchise.
Under terms of the agreement, Majesco secures the exclusive rights in the United States and Canada to apply its proprietary technology to the top-rated Dragon Ball GT ® animated series.
"We are thrilled to partner with FUNimation to bring the extremely successful Dragon Ball GT ® property to our Game Boy Advance Video lineup," said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco. "Having achieved retail sell-in of more than two million units for our initial offerings, we're confident that such a highly recognizable property as Dragon Ball GT ® will continue that momentum into the back half of the year, and beyond."
"The Dragon Ball GT ® audience is a perfect match with the Game Boy Advance demographic," said Gen Fukunaga, president of FUNimation Productions, Ltd. "With more than 21 million Game Boy Advance owners throughout North America, Majesco's innovative technology will enable us to bring our top-rated animated action series to this extremely large audience."
One of the most popular properties to date, the Dragon Ball franchise has created a new standard for animated action series having achieved sales of more than $3 billion in related merchandising worldwide and over 20 million home videos. Web sites for the Dragon Ball franchise receive more than eight million hits per day, and the term "Dragonball" was a Top 10 search term on the Lycos 50 Daily Report for a total of 200 consecutive weeks. For additional information on Dragon Ball GT ® visit www.dragonballgt.com.
For more information about Majesco's proprietary compression technology as well as its new releases, please visit www.gba-video.com.
Post by: tssf on May 20, 2004, 09:39:59 AM
Post by: nickmitch on May 20, 2004, 01:01:06 PM
Post by: Ian Sane on May 20, 2004, 01:19:58 PM
Post by: Bartman3010 on May 20, 2004, 01:40:10 PM
and te video compression looks like you could've just downloaded it from the internet for less money.
Its that bad...
Post by: bubicus on May 20, 2004, 02:51:56 PM
Strange, though. Considering the amount of promotion Nintendo and Majesco have made over GBA Video, I wonder why they haven't gotten Kirby: Right Back at Ya as a title yet.
Post by: Darc Requiem on May 20, 2004, 03:07:49 PM
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Originally posted by: Bartman3010
After seeing what the GBA Video can do via screen shots...really, there IS no point in getting them. Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"
and te video compression looks like you could've just downloaded it from the internet for less money.
Its that bad...
This is Dragonball GT we are talking about poor video compression can only help with this crapfest. I had forgotten how pathetic this show was until I caught an episode last week. Blech....DB:GT is the Street Fighter: The Movie Game of the Dragonball series, yes it was made but most people wisely pretend it doesn't exist. I'm glad to see Majesco is really pushing this GBA Video thing, I'm honestly not that interested but its nice to see people getting the GBA to do stuff it wasn't intended to do.
Darc Requiem
Post by: ruby_onix on May 20, 2004, 05:44:21 PM
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You know just because Majesco sends out all these press releases doesn't mean you have to print every single one.
If nobody bothers to read these stories, then it can't negatively (or positively for that matter) affect PGC. So there's really no downside to posting this news, as long as Steve or whoever's posting it still feels like posting it.
Personally I feel the "we've made so many announcements that people are getting bored of them" approach to press releases makes Majesco's GBA Video series seem bigger than if they just lumped more announcements into fewer press releases.
Quote
Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"
That's pretty surprising. I don't see why they wouldn't work with the GBP. The GBP is a perfect GBA. Actually, I do see one reason. If it worked on a TV, it would probably interfere with somebody's "home video" distribution rights.
That means the technical term for GBA Video = "Crippleware"
Post by: UncleBob on May 20, 2004, 05:46:57 PM
Let's look at a similar technology - the "Video Now" player and discs HASBRO. This player plays small discs - called "PVDs". They are *only* in black and white (or, as HASBRO says, "16 shades of greyscale") and hold about "30 mins" (one 30 min TV show, minus commericals) of video. They typically sell for around $8 or more (Some three packs sell for $15 and up) and have content similar to that of these GBA Videos (SpongeBob, Fairly Odd Parents, etc..) The cheaper player (with a pretty small screen - 1.7 by 1.3 inches) runs about $50. These PVDs can *only* play on the Video Now player and the Video Now player can *only* play these PVDs...
And while I have no real numbers, working in retail, I can say we sold a *lot* of these at Christmas time - players and videos.
Now, compare the player to the GBA - the GBA can play these videos, a large selection of games, MP3s (with the MP3 player), all in color and on a screen that's more than twice the size of the Video Now player. The low end GBA does cost around $30 more, but I can't really see why *any* parent in their right mind would pick the Video Now player over the GBA (unless they really dislike video games - in which case, these parents probably wouldn't be buying this kind of stuff anyway.) Plus, when HASBRO stops supporting the Video Now, it'll be pretty useless, since there will be no more videos coming out for it. The GBA, however, will have plenty of use when Majesto stops making these GBA Videos. *PLUS* how many kiddies already have a GBA vs those who have a Video Now player?
Now compare the "PVDs" to the GBA Videos. PVDs currently hold a bit more content for the price (a 3-Disc pack of Sponge Bob has 6 episodes for about $15 or more) than the GBA Video (4 episodes for about $20), however the GBA video is in color (and later will hold more video). Also, the PVDs are discs and suffer the same fate as many discs do around small children - espically those on the go... where as GBA Carts can get ran over by a mag truck and probably still work.
Trust me... These will sell well.
Which is great for the Nintendo market - who cares where they get the money from as long as they get it.
I kinda want to see what these look like on the Game Boy Player though...
Post by: UncleBob on May 20, 2004, 05:50:51 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: ruby_onixQuote
Dont even think about the Game Boy Player, the start up screen is "Not Compatible with GBP"
That's pretty surprising. I don't see why they wouldn't work with the GBP. The GBP is a perfect GBA. Actually, I do see one reason. If it worked on a TV, it would probably interfere with somebody's "home video" distribution rights.
That means the technical term for GBA Video = "Crippleware"
This sounds plausable... I just assumed it wasn't reccomended because it'd probably look pretty crappy because of the compression and such... I could just see an angry parent made because they thought they'd get high quality video for their kid's Game Boy Player...
Post by: Nephilim on May 20, 2004, 06:50:12 PM
people saying "why wont this go away, stop posting these on pgc" is just silly
Draonball GT DVD old eps can be picked up for 20aussie now here, no way a cartiage could beat that. So I cant see this coming to Australia
Post by: Oldskool on May 23, 2004, 10:34:25 AM
Post by: Infernal Monkey on May 23, 2004, 03:53:51 PM
