Tag Archives: ntdoy

Netflix, Nintendo join FedEx, UPS in Christmas failures

FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS) weren’t the only companies having delivery problems this Christmas. Netflix and Nintendo each suffered high-profile service outages this week that prevented them from delivering to consumers. Nintendo announced Friday that it is pushing back the Western release of two Pokemon-related apps for its 3DS video game device from its eShop because of “a large volume of traffic” to its network. The “Pokemon Bank” and “Poke Transporter” apps were supposed to be available on Friday. Nintendo (NTDOY)  also decided to take down its eShop for 12 hours Friday and Saturday to make improvements, starting at 4 p.m. ET. For the second Christmas in a row, Netflix (NFLX) suffered a service outage that prevented it from streaming video to customers. The latest outage affected customers in the U.S., Canada and Latin America for about an hour Thursday night, the Next Web reported. A year ago, Netflix suffered…

Xbox One, PS4 combine for record game hardware sales

Video game software sales took a tumble in November as consumers spent their cash on new game hardware, including Microsoft ‘s (MSFT) Xbox One and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4. U.S. retail sales of new game hardware jumped 58% vs. last November to $1.33 billion as the Xbox One and PS4 consoles hit the market, the NPD Group reported late Thursday. Sales of new game software fell 24% to $1.09 billion. Gamers also bought additional controllers and other extras for their new consoles, driving accessories sales up 17% to $327 million. “With the introduction of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, coupled with positive sales for the Nintendo (NTDOY) 3DS, sales in November 2013 marked the best November for hardware sales on record,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “PlayStation 4 led U.S. hardware sales for the month, and marked the highest first month sales of a hardware platform on record.” Sony’s (SNE) PS4 had an extra week of sales in the month because it debuted on Nov. 15, while the Xbox One came out on Nov. 22. Microsoft (MSFT) touted that its new console sold at a faster pace than the PS4 in U.S.

Early Christmas electronics shoppers singing me-me-me

Most shoppers who braved door-buster sales on Thanksgiving evening and Black Friday to snag cheap electronics were buying for themselves, not for gifts, a new survey indicates. Half of gadget purchases made during the kickoff to the holiday shopping season were for the shoppers themselves, Technalysis Research revealed Thursday. And 6% of purchases were made at the behest of others. That leaves 44% of electronics purchased during the opening weekend, including Cyber Monday, that were bought as gift items. So, it was a selfish start to the Christmas shopping season. The most popular electronics purchase items overall were large tablets, with screens bigger than 8 inches, followed by video game consoles and small tablets, with displays 8 inches and under. Apple ‘s (AAPL) 9.7-inch iPad tablets were the top device bought over the first weekend of holiday buying, the Technalysis survey showed. Coming in second were Microsoft ‘s (MSFT) Xbox 360 and Xbox One game consoles, followed by Apple iPhones and 7.9-inch iPad Mini tablets. Nintendo ‘s (NTDOY) Wii game consoles took fifth place.