Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) plays Solomon Northrup, a New York freeman kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and eventually resold to plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).
Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight Pictures
Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) plays Solomon Northrup, a New York freeman kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and eventually resold to plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).
Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight Pictures
12 Years a Slave
Director: Steve McQueen
Genre: Biopic, drama
Running Time: 133 minutes
Rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality.
Just a few years before the start of the Civil War, two anti-slavery books became bestsellers in the United States. One was Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Harriet Beecher Stowe opus that went on to become the best-selling novel of the 19th Century.
The other was a memoir with a mouthful of a title: Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853 from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana.
Twelve Years a Slave — successful enough to prompt multiple editions before falling into obscurity after the War — was rediscovered by scholars in the 1960s, and has now been transformed into into a wrenching, soul-stirring film from British director Steve McQueen.
The film begins with an enslaved Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) cutting sugar cane on a Louisiana plantation, then flashes back to the life he'd been leading just a few years earlier in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. There, he was a musician of stature, living with his wife and three kids in comfort and even some luxury. A free black family in a state that does not allow slavery, they inhabited a world of learning and culture.
In fact it's Solomon's talent as a violinist that leads to his downfall. He accompanies two men to Washington for what he thinks is a fiddling job, only to have them get him drunk and betray him. New York has laws protecting its African-American residents. The nation's capital does not. He wakes up in chains.
Patsy (Lupita Nyong'o, middle), another of Epps' slaves, becomes the subject of her master's unwanted attentions — and the abuse of his jealous wife.
Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight Pictures
Patsy (Lupita Nyong'o, middle), another of Epps' slaves, becomes the subject of her master's unwanted attentions — and the abuse of his jealous wife.
Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight Pictures
Without papers to establish his identity, far from anyone who knows him, Solomon is helpless when his kidnappers rename him Platt and ship him off to Louisiana to be sold. As other desperate men in chains tell him, he'll be killed if he even says his real name, let alone tries to escape. Survival means "keeping your head down," he's told.
"I don't want to survive," he gasps. "I want to live."
Still, survival comes first. Sold to a Baptist preacher (Benedict Cumberbatch) who realizes there's more to him than meets the eye, and who treats him, as another slave puts it, like "prized livestock," Solomon does keep his head down. He bides his time, and urges others around him to do the same.
Inwardly, though, he's seething. And when another slave accuses him of truckling to his master, he roars, "My back is thick with scars for protesting my freedom."
McQueen keeps those scars — and the brutality that creates them — front and center in 12 Years a Slave, with incidents that scald, and searing supporting performances, particularly from Michael Fassbender (star of McQueen's previous art-house films Hunger and Shame) as a sadistic but strangely conflicted slave owner.
But it is Ejiofor — bewildered, sorely tested, morally towering — whose staggered dignity anchors the film.
John Ridley's script brings both historical sweep and an urgent intimacy to Northup's story — no small accomplishment. Rife with visceral beatings, multiple lynchings and an almost casual air of psychological cruelty, 12 Years a Slave is anything but easy to watch, but it is powerfully moving.
It's also a powerful corrective, because it so skillfully links that brutality to the sort of tranquil antebellum South that Hollywood has often peddled — the broad porches, the hoop skirts, the fields fluffy with cotton. It will be hard for audiences to see those images ever again without thinking about the savagery and injustice that propped them up.
NEW YORK (AP) — Strong third-quarter results have sent Google shares past the $1,000 mark for the first time.
Shortly after the markets opened Friday, Google Inc. shares jumped more than 12 percent to $1,002. The stock had never before surpassed $928 in regular market trading since Google went public at $85 per share nine years ago.
Late Thursday, Google reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. The numbers showed that while the company's advertising prices continue to decline, that's being offset by a larger number of people clicking on ads.
Google shares have climbed steadily for much of the past five years, more than doubling in value. But the stock has slipped slightly in recent months, while the overall market has risen, amid worries about deteriorating ad prices.
Unique skull find rebuts theories on species diversity in early humans
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Christoph P.E. Zollikofer zolli@aim.uzh.ch 41-446-355-427 University of Zurich
This news release is available in German.
This is the best-preserved fossil find yet from the early era of our genus. The particularly interesting aspect is that it displays a combination of features that were unknown to us before the find. The skull, found in Dmanisi by anthropologists from the University of Zurich as part of a collaboration with colleagues in Georgia funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, has the largest face, the most massively built jaw and teeth and the smallest brain within the Dmanisi group.
It is the fifth skull to be discovered in Dmanisi. Previously, four equally well-preserved hominid skulls as well as some skeletal parts had been found there. Taken as a whole, the finds show that the first representatives of the genus Homo began to expand from Africa through Eurasia as far back as 1.85 million years ago.
Diversity within a species instead of species diversity
Because the skull is completely intact, it can provide answers to various questions which up until now had offered broad scope for speculation. These relate to none less than the evolutionary beginning of the genus Homo in Africa around two million years ago at the beginning of the Ice Age, also referred to as the Pleistocene. Were there several specialized Homo species in Africa at the time, at least one of which was able to spread outside of Africa too? Or was there just one single species that was able to cope with a variety of ecosystems? Although the early Homo finds in Africa demonstrate large variation, it has not been possible to decide on answers to these questions in the past. One reason for this relates to the fossils available, as Christoph Zollikofer, anthropologist at the University of Zurich, explains: Most of these fossils represent single fragmentary finds from multiple points in space and geological time of at least 500,000 years. This ultimately makes it difficult to recognize variation among species in the African fossils as opposed to variation within species.
As many species as there are researchers
Marcia Ponce de Len, who is also an anthropologist at the University of Zurich, points out another reason: paleoanthropologists often tacitly assumed that the fossil they had just found was representative for the species, i.e. that it aptly demonstrated the characteristics of the species. Statistically this is not very likely, she says, but nevertheless there were researchers who proposed up to five contemporary species of early Homo in Africa, including Homohabilis, Homorudolfensis, Homoergaster and Homoerectus. Ponce de Len sums up the problem as follows: At present there are as many subdivisions between species as there are researchers examining this problem.
Tracking development of Homoerectus over one million years thanks to a change in perspective
Dmanisi now offers the key to the solution. According to Zollikofer, the reason why Skull 5 is so important is that it unites features that have been used previously as an argument for defining different African species. In other words: Had the braincase and the face of the Dmanisi sample been found as separate fossils, they very probably would have been attributed to two different species. Ponce de Len adds: It is also decisive that we have five well-preserved individuals in Dmanisi whom we know to have lived in the same place and at the same time. These unique circumstances of the find make it possible to compare variation in Dmanisi with variation in modern human and chimpanzee populations. Zollikofer summarizes the result of the statistical analyses as follows: Firstly, the Dmanisi individuals all belong to a population of a single early Homo species. Secondly, the five Dmanisi individuals are conspicuously different from each other, but not more different than any five modern human individuals, or five chimpanzee individuals from a given population.
Diversity within a species is thus the rule rather than the exception. The present findings are supported by an additional study recently published in the PNAS journal. In that study, Ponce de Len, Zollikofer and further colleagues show that differences in jaw morphology between the Dmanisi individuals are mostly due to differences in dental wear.
This shows the need for a change in perspective: the African fossils from around 1.8 million years ago likely represent representatives from one and the same species, best described as Homoerectus. This would suggest that Homoerectus evolved about 2 million years ago in Africa, and soon expanded through Eurasia via places such as Dmanisi as far as China and Java, where it is first documented from about 1.2 million years ago. Comparing diversity patterns in Africa, Eurasia and East Asia provides clues on the population biology of this first global human species.
This makes Homoerectus the first global player in human evolution. Its redefinition now provides an opportunity to track this fossil human species over a time span of 1 million years.
###
Literature:
David Lordkipanidze, Marcia S. Ponce de Len, Ann Margvelashvili, Yoel Rak, G. Philip Rightmire, Abesalom Vekua, and Christoph P.E. Zollikofer. A complete skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the evolutionary biology of early Homo. Science. October 18, 2013. doi: 10.1126/science.1238484
Ann Margvelashvili, Christoph P. E. Zollikofer, David Lordkipanidze, Timo Peltomki, Marcia S. Ponce de Len. Tooth wear and dentoalveolar remodeling are key factors of morphological variation in the Dmanisi mandibles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). September 2, 2013. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1316052110
Research and development collaborative work with huge leverage
The new research findings on Dmanisi are based on collaborative work ongoing for many years between the Anthropological Institute at the University of Zurich and the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi. The Dmanisi project is financed by SCOPES (Scientific co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland), a research program co-funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). This research tool operates with a comparatively modest budget, but has a major and positive impact on the research landscape in the participating countries.
Contacts:
Prof. Christoph P.E. Zollikofer
Anthropological Institute
University of Zurich
Phone: +41 44 635 54 27
E-mail: zolli@aim.uzh.ch
Dr. Marcia S. Ponce de Len
Anthropological Institute
University of Zurich
Phone: +41 44 635 54 27
E-mail: marcia@aim.uzh.ch
Please find the News release from the University of Zurich in German and with comprehensive, high-resolution images and a video of the excavation on the Mediadesk of the UZH, see http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2013/schaedelfund-dmanisi.html
The News release from the University of Zurich in English and with comprehensive, high-resolution images and a video of the excavation you'll find on the Mediadesk of the UZH, see http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2013/schaedelfund-dmanisi_en.html
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Unique skull find rebuts theories on species diversity in early humans
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Christoph P.E. Zollikofer zolli@aim.uzh.ch 41-446-355-427 University of Zurich
This news release is available in German.
This is the best-preserved fossil find yet from the early era of our genus. The particularly interesting aspect is that it displays a combination of features that were unknown to us before the find. The skull, found in Dmanisi by anthropologists from the University of Zurich as part of a collaboration with colleagues in Georgia funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, has the largest face, the most massively built jaw and teeth and the smallest brain within the Dmanisi group.
It is the fifth skull to be discovered in Dmanisi. Previously, four equally well-preserved hominid skulls as well as some skeletal parts had been found there. Taken as a whole, the finds show that the first representatives of the genus Homo began to expand from Africa through Eurasia as far back as 1.85 million years ago.
Diversity within a species instead of species diversity
Because the skull is completely intact, it can provide answers to various questions which up until now had offered broad scope for speculation. These relate to none less than the evolutionary beginning of the genus Homo in Africa around two million years ago at the beginning of the Ice Age, also referred to as the Pleistocene. Were there several specialized Homo species in Africa at the time, at least one of which was able to spread outside of Africa too? Or was there just one single species that was able to cope with a variety of ecosystems? Although the early Homo finds in Africa demonstrate large variation, it has not been possible to decide on answers to these questions in the past. One reason for this relates to the fossils available, as Christoph Zollikofer, anthropologist at the University of Zurich, explains: Most of these fossils represent single fragmentary finds from multiple points in space and geological time of at least 500,000 years. This ultimately makes it difficult to recognize variation among species in the African fossils as opposed to variation within species.
As many species as there are researchers
Marcia Ponce de Len, who is also an anthropologist at the University of Zurich, points out another reason: paleoanthropologists often tacitly assumed that the fossil they had just found was representative for the species, i.e. that it aptly demonstrated the characteristics of the species. Statistically this is not very likely, she says, but nevertheless there were researchers who proposed up to five contemporary species of early Homo in Africa, including Homohabilis, Homorudolfensis, Homoergaster and Homoerectus. Ponce de Len sums up the problem as follows: At present there are as many subdivisions between species as there are researchers examining this problem.
Tracking development of Homoerectus over one million years thanks to a change in perspective
Dmanisi now offers the key to the solution. According to Zollikofer, the reason why Skull 5 is so important is that it unites features that have been used previously as an argument for defining different African species. In other words: Had the braincase and the face of the Dmanisi sample been found as separate fossils, they very probably would have been attributed to two different species. Ponce de Len adds: It is also decisive that we have five well-preserved individuals in Dmanisi whom we know to have lived in the same place and at the same time. These unique circumstances of the find make it possible to compare variation in Dmanisi with variation in modern human and chimpanzee populations. Zollikofer summarizes the result of the statistical analyses as follows: Firstly, the Dmanisi individuals all belong to a population of a single early Homo species. Secondly, the five Dmanisi individuals are conspicuously different from each other, but not more different than any five modern human individuals, or five chimpanzee individuals from a given population.
Diversity within a species is thus the rule rather than the exception. The present findings are supported by an additional study recently published in the PNAS journal. In that study, Ponce de Len, Zollikofer and further colleagues show that differences in jaw morphology between the Dmanisi individuals are mostly due to differences in dental wear.
This shows the need for a change in perspective: the African fossils from around 1.8 million years ago likely represent representatives from one and the same species, best described as Homoerectus. This would suggest that Homoerectus evolved about 2 million years ago in Africa, and soon expanded through Eurasia via places such as Dmanisi as far as China and Java, where it is first documented from about 1.2 million years ago. Comparing diversity patterns in Africa, Eurasia and East Asia provides clues on the population biology of this first global human species.
This makes Homoerectus the first global player in human evolution. Its redefinition now provides an opportunity to track this fossil human species over a time span of 1 million years.
###
Literature:
David Lordkipanidze, Marcia S. Ponce de Len, Ann Margvelashvili, Yoel Rak, G. Philip Rightmire, Abesalom Vekua, and Christoph P.E. Zollikofer. A complete skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the evolutionary biology of early Homo. Science. October 18, 2013. doi: 10.1126/science.1238484
Ann Margvelashvili, Christoph P. E. Zollikofer, David Lordkipanidze, Timo Peltomki, Marcia S. Ponce de Len. Tooth wear and dentoalveolar remodeling are key factors of morphological variation in the Dmanisi mandibles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). September 2, 2013. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1316052110
Research and development collaborative work with huge leverage
The new research findings on Dmanisi are based on collaborative work ongoing for many years between the Anthropological Institute at the University of Zurich and the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi. The Dmanisi project is financed by SCOPES (Scientific co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland), a research program co-funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). This research tool operates with a comparatively modest budget, but has a major and positive impact on the research landscape in the participating countries.
Contacts:
Prof. Christoph P.E. Zollikofer
Anthropological Institute
University of Zurich
Phone: +41 44 635 54 27
E-mail: zolli@aim.uzh.ch
Dr. Marcia S. Ponce de Len
Anthropological Institute
University of Zurich
Phone: +41 44 635 54 27
E-mail: marcia@aim.uzh.ch
Please find the News release from the University of Zurich in German and with comprehensive, high-resolution images and a video of the excavation on the Mediadesk of the UZH, see http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2013/schaedelfund-dmanisi.html
The News release from the University of Zurich in English and with comprehensive, high-resolution images and a video of the excavation you'll find on the Mediadesk of the UZH, see http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2013/schaedelfund-dmanisi_en.html
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - In this Monday, July 16, 2012, file photo, a consumer sits outside the entrance to the World of Coca Cola attraction in Atlanta. The Coca-Cola Co. is expected to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - In this Monday, July 16, 2012, file photo, a consumer sits outside the entrance to the World of Coca Cola attraction in Atlanta. The Coca-Cola Co. is expected to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola reported a higher quarterly profit as the world's biggest beverage maker managed to sell more of its drinks despite choppy economic conditions.
The maker of Sprite, Powerade and Vitaminwater said global sales volume edged up 2 percent for its third quarter, helped by its performance in countries such as China, India and Russia.
Still, the company conceded that it was facing an economic slowdown in many parts of the world including Mexico, where the government is also considering a tax on sugary soft drinks.
In a conference call with analysts, CEO Muhtar Kent pushed back at the suggestion that the company's days of growth were coming to an end. He noted that the company is emphasizing affordability and smaller packages to "keep the drinkers base growing" in developing markets.
That strategy is critical for "when economies also start turning up and when disposable incomes start heading north," he said.
Kent also shot down the prospect of the tax in Mexico, saying that such measures don't work and that he didn't want to discuss the matter any further because "the discussions under progress."
"We've made our case to the government," he said. The company stood by its goal to double system-wide sales by 2020, from 2009.
Back in the U.S., where soda has been under fire as well for fueling obesity rates, the Atlanta-based company rolled out smaller cans and bottles of soda that are more profitable and better suit the reduced portions people are seeking. Coca-Cola is also focusing on other drinks, such as flavored water, as Americans continue to cut back on soda.
In North America, for instance, soda volume was flat for the period, following a 4 percent decline in the previous quarter and flat growth a year ago. But uncarbonated drinks such as tea, juice and bottled water rose 5 percent. That lifted overall volume for the region by 2 percent.
Meanwhile, soda sales are faring much better in developing markets. The company said its namesake brand saw volume growth of 22 percent in India. In China, soda volume rose 8 percent.
The company blamed volatile economic conditions for more disappointing results in other parts of the world. In Europe, volume fell 1 percent. Coca-Cola also cited hurricanes for a 2 percent volume decline in Mexico.
For the quarter, the company said it earned $2.45 billion, or 54 cents per share, up from $2.31 billion, or 50 cents per share, a year ago.
Not including one-time items, earnings per share were 53 cents, which was in line with Wall Street expectations.
Revenue fell 3 percent to $12.03, hurt by structural changes and unfavorable currency exchange rates. Analysts had expected $12.05 billion, according to FactSet.
The results for the quarter were boosted by a gain related to a bottling transaction in Brazil.
Shares of Coca-Cola Co. rose 1.6 percent at $38.51. Over the past year, the stock is down almost 1 percent.
____
Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi
The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C., where the federal government shutdown left policymakers without key economic data.
J. David Ake/AP
The Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C., where the federal government shutdown left policymakers without key economic data.
J. David Ake/AP
Talk to economists about the government shutdown's impact on their forecasts and you'll hear this phrase again and again:
Flying blind.
For economists and investors, "at this moment, we are flying blind," said Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and now president of Greenspan Associates LLC, a consulting firm.
Greenspan is not alone in feeling a little lost without the compass of government reports.
"We have not been collecting the data, so we are flying blind," said Diane Swonk, past president of the National Association for Business Economics and an economist for Mesirow Financial, a financial services firm.
Even though federal offices were reopened on Thursday morning, government economists have not yet been able to pull together and release their long-delayed reports. For example, the Labor Department's September employment report should have been released on Oct. 4. But when the government shut down on Oct. 1, it sent home the workers who should have been there releasing the statistics.
That employment report is very closely watched by investors. Its regular release — precisely at 8:30 a.m. — has the power to move markets.
So when will we see it again?
Your guess is as good as anyone's. The Bureau of Labor Statistics website offers a calendar of report release dates, but the schedule has not yet been updated to reflect any post-shutdown changes. No one answers the phone.
At the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which issues reports on international trade, personal income and spending, the website read, "Please Note: BEA is currently assessing the impact of the shutdown and will post a revised release schedule as soon as possible."
The government data points — and their release times — are crucial for making decisions about investments. At BLS alone, this month's missing reports include those that measure wages, job creation, unemployment rates, import and export prices and consumer inflation.
Swonk said that while it's frustrating to wait for the release of September data, it's even more painful to think about the data that may never get collected for October.
She is especially worried about the monthly employment report because that one greatly influences Fed policymakers who set interest rates. If Fed officials don't have BLS data, then they have to make very consequential decisions in the dark.
And this week — just as BLS employees get back to their desks — is crunch time for October data collection.
According to the BLS, the government learns about Americans' job status when its "interviewers contact households by telephone and in person and ask questions regarding the labor market activity of household members during the previous calendar week which included the 12th day of the month—the reference week."
In other words, right now is when phone calls need to be completed about last week's jobs.
But will BLS have the manpower to assemble the delayed September report, and then conduct surveys for October? "It's labor intensive to collect that information," Swonk noted.
BLS officials cannot be reached to confirm what is happening.
Bottom line: October data may be skewed. And it may be a long time before anyone sees reliable numbers for September, as well as the crucial revisions for earlier months.
"You feel like you're in a fog," Swonk said.
Greenspan said he was relieved that the shutdown did not go on longer. "If we went another four or five weeks without these data, it would leave a hole in our capacity to understand what's going on," he said. But the 16-day shutdown, while not trivial, probably won't distort data enough to have a major impact on the overall accuracy of 2013 economic readings, he said.
Robert Murphy, a Boston College professor and former senior economist for the Clinton Council of Economic Advisers, agreed that the shutdown ended in time to prevent long-term harm to economic forecasts.
He believes the BLS professionals will "scramble more" this month to round up the data as quickly as possible. But for now, "we'll be flying blind for a bit," he said.
When Google acquired Android in 2005 and subsequently unveiled it in 2007, there was no such thing as ChromeOS yet. Google’s entire OS effort was on Android, and separately the company worked on the Chrome browser for desktop and mobile operating systems.
Over the last year we’ve started to see Google have success with ChromeOS in the notebook computer market. Android and ChromeOS are both based on Linux, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. ChromeOS is a very thin client, almost everything is done via the browser.
On a personal level, I’ve now gotten to the point where I’d rather consume content on a touch screen device. I prefer swiping my finger on a screen to navigate a website rather than being forced to use a trackpad. This tells me all computers will be touchscreen soon, just like all mobile devices already are.
(UPDATE: A few people interpret this to mean I'm suggesting keyboards or mice/trackpads will be taken away. I didn't think this clarification would be required considering some Windows machines and the Chromebook Pixel have already introduced touch as an added input mechanism without taking anything away, but apparently it is necessary to make explicitly clear.)
So this raises the question — why would Google want to maintain two operating systems down the road? I don’t think they want this. And I’m trying to get my head around the possible solutions.
Ubisoft has decided to hold back on releasing its Watch Dogs, and The Crew won't be seeing any action until sometime well into 2014 either. While that will take some festivity out of the holiday season for the company and disappointed gamers alike, it's not all bad. "Ubisoft will have a bigger installed base of next-generation consoles to aim for when these games do launch," noted gaming analyst P.J. McNealy.
Ubisoft -- Europe's largest video game publisher -- might have a less-than-merry holiday season. It announced Wednesday that two of its hotly anticipated titles, Watch Dogs and The Crew, would be delayed until sometime in 2014.
Shares fell on the news by as much as 32 percent -- the most since Ubisoft made its debut on the Paris exchange in 1992. Ubisoft has predicted an operating loss of 40 million euros to 70 million euros for the year ending in March.
The holiday period accounted for more than half the company's sales last year.
Tough Decisions
Watch Dogs and The Crew are now expected to debut sometime between March and September of next year.
"Our long-term goal is to win the next generation," said Ubisoft cofounder and CEO Yves Guillemot.
"The tough decisions we are taking today to fully realize the major potential of our new creations have an impact on our short-term performance. We are convinced that longer term, they will prove to be the right decisions both in terms of satisfaction for our fans and in terms of value creation for our shareholders," he explained.
"We are building franchises that will become perennial pillars of Ubisoft's financial performance," Guillemot added. "In a context of growing successes for mega-blockbusters, the additional time given to the development of our titles will allow them to fulfill their huge ambitions and thus offer players even more exceptional experiences."
Game Delayed, Not Over
These are not the only high-profile game launches to be postponed, but what makes the delay of Watch Dogs especially problematic is that it had been slated as a launch title for Sony's PlayStation 4 video game console. It was included in some prerelease bundle deals for next month's PS4 debut.
The delay could cause headaches not only for Ubisoft but also for Sony.
"Game delays, especially high-end console games, are unfortunately common," Piers Harding-Rolls, director and head of games for IHS Electronics and Media, told the E-Commerce Times.
"Much like big-budget movies with unwieldy crews and post production processes, the complexity of pulling games together and the number of staff involved in their development mean that some delays are inevitable," he said.
"Ubisoft will be disappointed to miss the launch period of the next generation of consoles, especially as this is often a time when consumers are more open and interested in entirely new games properties and gameplay," added Harding-Rolls. "It's also likely that Ubisoft will have additional costs to bear associated with these delayed games, included prepaid marketing costs and development time costs."
Console Transition
Though Ubisoft could easily recover from this setback, it might be a portent that the next-generation systems -- including Sony's PS4 -- could be more challenging for game developers than had been expected. It also could be that Ubisoft would rather endure a short-term delay than risk damaging a potential cash cow franchise.
"Console transitions are always challenging, and pushing out a launch window title at this point is not unusual but is unfortunate," said video game industry consultant P.J. McNealy of Digital World Research.
"Caution is the better path at this point, because you never want to ship a new intellectual property early in the cycle if it isn't fully baked," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Near-term, this is painful for Ubisoft, but not fatal."
There is one possible bright side to this. The delay ultimately could mean bigger sales, as launch titles might not have legs beyond the launch window.
"On a more positive note, Ubisoft will have a bigger installed base of next-generation consoles to aim for when these games do launch, which will help mitigate these additional costs," noted Harding-Rolls. "We expect next generation software on PS4 and Xbox One to sell for a higher sales price than current generation software, so that will likely soften the blow."
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