Random_oso06
August 22nd, 2008, 05:14 AM
Moviefone is reporting that the first part of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie has just been moved from its November 21, 2008 release date to July 17, 2009.
With the late-breaking news, we'd assume that this would have an effect on the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game being created by EA's UK-based studio, Bright Light. On Friday morning, an EA press representative for the team said that the company had no comment at this time. [Update: A spokesperson has now told us, "We are making a great game that Harry Potter fans will really enjoy -- we are evaluating the impact of the movie date change."] Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian said, "...we expect Electronic Arts to delay the launch of the video game to a similar time period, and we are adjusting estimates accordingly." In fact, Lazard is shifting approximately $120 million in revenue into the 2010 fiscal year from EA's third quarter of fiscal '09. Sebastian said the game could see sales of around three million units.
Signal Hill's Todd Greenwald has similar sentiments. "Though EA is not to blame for this delay, the negative impact will likely be the same nonetheless... We doubt that EA will attempt to release the title without the movie, and believe this was a big title in EA's holiday release slate (planned to launch on 9 platforms)." Greenwald goes $30 million higher than Sebastian; he believes EA will lose around $150 million in the '09 fiscal year because of the delay. Greenwald anticipates 4-5 million units sold for the game.
As for the movie, in a press release from Thursday, Studio President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn states that there were two reasons for the switch: "We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment." And he further stated, "Like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films -- changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent-pole release for mid-summer."
The official statement said that the two-part movie did finish post-production on time and reiterated that release plans for the final movie in the Harry Potter book series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows," are on target for a Nov. 19, 2009 release.
to some it up there moving it to next year and the movie will be replaced with another movie
With the late-breaking news, we'd assume that this would have an effect on the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game being created by EA's UK-based studio, Bright Light. On Friday morning, an EA press representative for the team said that the company had no comment at this time. [Update: A spokesperson has now told us, "We are making a great game that Harry Potter fans will really enjoy -- we are evaluating the impact of the movie date change."] Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian said, "...we expect Electronic Arts to delay the launch of the video game to a similar time period, and we are adjusting estimates accordingly." In fact, Lazard is shifting approximately $120 million in revenue into the 2010 fiscal year from EA's third quarter of fiscal '09. Sebastian said the game could see sales of around three million units.
Signal Hill's Todd Greenwald has similar sentiments. "Though EA is not to blame for this delay, the negative impact will likely be the same nonetheless... We doubt that EA will attempt to release the title without the movie, and believe this was a big title in EA's holiday release slate (planned to launch on 9 platforms)." Greenwald goes $30 million higher than Sebastian; he believes EA will lose around $150 million in the '09 fiscal year because of the delay. Greenwald anticipates 4-5 million units sold for the game.
As for the movie, in a press release from Thursday, Studio President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn states that there were two reasons for the switch: "We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment." And he further stated, "Like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films -- changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent-pole release for mid-summer."
The official statement said that the two-part movie did finish post-production on time and reiterated that release plans for the final movie in the Harry Potter book series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows," are on target for a Nov. 19, 2009 release.
to some it up there moving it to next year and the movie will be replaced with another movie