Archives for February 3, 2018

Nintendo is bringing Mario Kart to mobile

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In news that will excite every Nintendo fan on the planet, the Japanese gaming giant just announced that it will bring its hugely popular Mario Kart series to mobile.

In news that will excite every Nintendo fan on the planet, the Japanese gaming giant just announced that it will bring its hugely popular Mario Kart series to mobile.

Nintendo teased the upcoming development of ‘Mario Kart Tour’ which it said will be released sometime before March 2019. A long wait, indeed, and for now we have no additional details. But, for most enthusiasts, this confirmation alone is hugely exciting news.

Mario Kart has been one of the most recognizable IPs in Nintendo’s history, and it continues to sell well today. Yesterday, Nintendo revealed that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold more than 7.3 million copies for Switch since its release last April. That means it is on around half of 14.8 million Switch units that Nintendo has sold to date.

Nintendo announced its move to finally develop smartphone games in 2015. To date, it has released Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Miitomo, the social app that was its first release on mobile, didn’t hold its popular and will close down in May.

Mario Kart is the only much-loved franchise that’ll be hitting smartphones, sources told the Wall Street Journal last year that a Legend Of Zelda release is in development, but Nintendo hasn’t confirmed that.

  • This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.

Fitbit’s Looking for a Sweet Turnaround

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Two men jogging in the park.

To say the public markets haven’t been kind to Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) would be a gross understatement. After coming to the public markets in 2015 to much fanfare, the fitness tracking company can’t catch a break. Fitbit now trades hands at less than $6.00 per share, more than 70% below the company’s IPO price.

While it’s true Fitbit hasn’t done itself any favors with mediocre execution, its biggest problem is the product itself — fitness tracking has struggled with slowing demand, capable substitutes, and a commoditized market. So the high valuation the company was afforded at its IPO quickly evaporated.

To reverse its performance, Fitbit needs to move beyond simply fitness tracking. Its newest pilot program could be the solution it’s looking for.

Moving beyond fitness tracking to health solutions

In a recent interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, CEO James Park emphasized his commitment to growing non-device revenue. Last year, Fitbit debuted its Ionic smartwatch powered by its operating system, FitbitOS. This affords Fitbit more revenue sources like Fitbit Coach, the $7.99-per-month personal training app.

However, the most intriguing opportunity is the transition to becoming a solutions-based company in the health space. During CES, UnitedHealthcare announced a partnership with diabetes management company DexCom and an unnamed hardware company for a pilot tracking program. It didn’t take long for Fitbit to announce it was that unnamed company. In the same interview, Park commented on the broader opportunity in healthcare:

It’s a little early, but our goal as a company is not just to sell devices or software, but also to drive actual health outcomes and therefore reduce healthcare costs. So one of the more exciting potentials is seeing if there’s a role for us to play in taking some of the risk upfront and sharing in the cost savings…

We’re starting to see some indication that that could happen. If you look at diabetes, that’s $322 billion in costs to the U.S. healthcare system. Reducing that by 10% means $32 billion that could be distributed across players in the ecosystem that helped make that happen.

Fitbit has an opportunity most hardware producers don’t

Fitbit isn’t alone in its desire to broaden beyond a hardware business model to a subscription-based one. When GoPro filed for its IPO, the company branded itself as a media company and benefited from stretched valuations. Even the most successful consumer hardware company, Apple, is focusing on repeat software and services revenue, with CEO Tim Cook announcing an audacious goal of doubling its revenue in three years.

Adding recurrent revenue has been a mixed bag for most hardware companies: Apple grew revenue in its services division by 23% last fiscal year while GoPro has reversed from its social media focus and appears to be prepping for a sale. Unlike Apple and GoPro, however, Fitbit’s prospects are greatly aided by both an existing and growing market alongside the life-critical nature of this disease. In the end, it’s likely the winners and losers in this market will be shaped more by suppliers than end consumers. While it’s important to note that this is only a pilot project and faces considerable odds as far as monetization is concerned, it’s wise to closely watch announcements from Fitbit and healthcare providers in this spaces.

Bungie’s ‘Destiny 2’ roadmap is designed to win back players

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(Bungie)

Destiny 2 fans haven’t given Bungie an easy ride. After rolling out a free trial in November, the team has been besieged with gripes about the game’s XP system, the now-infamous Prometheus Lens, and, increasingly, the fact that players are running out of content. As Twitch metrics show, engagement has been on the decline for months. Now, in a bid to reignite fan excitement, Bungie has released a pretty comprehensive development roadmap.

Every feature in the roadmap “will be delivered to every player of Destiny 2,” writes game director Christopher Barrett. “Some of these delivery dates may change, but everything you see listed here is being worked on the by the team. While there are larger projects in development, these are the game enhancements you’ll find in your immediate future. If any of these deployments change, we’ll let you know.”

Some of these features have already been discussed by Bungie, others are new additions, such as a public chat function (although they may come to regret that), better rewards, private matches and a 6v6 Iron Banner mode, plus others. The Sandbox update is slated for 27 March — this is the team responsible for the way weapons and abilities work in the game, and one that has faced a lot of community griping in recent times. Tweaks here might help recover some of the lapsed player base, but with at least two months to go, that might not be soon enough.

‘Super blue blood moon’ soars over B.C.

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‘Super blue blood moon’ soars over B.C.

If you were awake early enough, you may have caught the moon turning red on Wednesday morning.

A “super blue blood moon” was visible in B.C. just before 5 a.m. It was the first lunar eclipse of the year.

So, why was it red?

In a lunar eclipse there is a sun-Earth-moon alignment, during which the Earth refracts, or bends, light from the sun — which means blue light is scattered and only red is left.

The light from sunsets and sunrises happening all over the world was also reflecting off the moon, making it seem red.

Elaine and Daniel Chen took it all in from Kitsilano Beach.

“It’s a once in a lifetime experience and it’s amazing to see,” said Daniel, who woke up at 4:30 a.m.

“It’s super early in the morning but it’s worth it, and its a perfect view in Kitsilano,” Elaine added.

Another “blue moon eclipse” won’t happen again for decades.

Canadian dollar reaches four-month high as economy strengthens, greenback falls

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FILE PHOTO: A Canada Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar strengthened to a four-month high against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as the greenback broadly fell ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate decision and after data showed strong growth in Canada’s economy in November.

At 9:13 a.m. EST (1413 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading 0.3 percent higher at C$1.2291 to the greenback, or 81.36 U.S. cents. The currency touched its strongest since Sept. 20 at C$1.2250.

Canadian gross domestic product rose by 0.4 percent in November from October, Statistics Canada said. The increase was in line with economists’ expectations and the biggest gain since May 2017.

The data supported expectations for growth to accelerate in the fourth quarter, but likely not as fast as the 2.5 percent annualized gain that the Bank of Canada has projected, Ryan Brecht, a senior economist at Action Economics, said in a research note.

The central bank has raised interest rates three times since July. Money markets expect another hike by May.

The U.S. dollar fell against a basket of major currencies after a pickup in eurozone underlying inflation helped support the euro.

Financial markets expect the Fed to take a more confident stance about the outlook of the economy but keep policy unchanged.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump called on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to ensure at least $1.5 trillion in new infrastructure spending.

The price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, fell for a third day after data that showed U.S. inventories rose more than expected.

U.S. crude prices were down 0.37 percent to $64.26 a barrel.

Canadian government bond prices were mixed across a flatter yield curve in sympathy with U.S. Treasuries. The two-year dipped 1 Canadian cent to yield 1.836 percent and the 10-year climbed 9 Canadian cents to yield 2.282 percent.

The 2-year yield touched its highest since June 2011 at 1.849 percent.

Alibaba Group Agrees to 33% Equity Stake in Ant Financial

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Alibaba Group Agrees to 33% Equity Stake in Ant Financial

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA, “Alibaba”) and Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group Co., Ltd. (“Ant Financial”) today announced that pursuant to 2014 transaction agreements, Alibaba will acquire a 33% equity interest in Ant Financial. The parties have agreed to certain amendments to their 2014 transaction agreements to facilitate the transaction.

Under the terms of the amended agreements, Alibaba will acquire newly-issued equity from Ant Financial in exchange for certain intellectual property rights owned by Alibaba exclusively related to Ant Financial. There will be no cash impact to Alibaba following completion of the transaction. Upon closing, the companies will terminate the current profit-sharing arrangement under which Ant Financial pays royalty and technology service fees in an amount equal to 37.5% of its pre-tax profits to Alibaba.

Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, said, “This transaction is a significant step for Alibaba to enhance our long-term strategic relationship with Ant Financial as we continue to pursue our mission to make it easy to do business anywhere. Importantly, an equity stake in Ant Financial enables Alibaba and our shareholders to participate in the future growth of the financial technology sector, as well as the benefits of user growth and improved customer experience.”

Eric Jing, Chief Executive Officer of Ant Financial, said, “We are pleased to strengthen our strategic relationship with Alibaba. This marks the next step in our collaboration to generate more strategic synergies and deliver tremendous value proposition to our customers. We look forward to continuing to work with Alibaba as we pursue our mission to bring the world equal opportunities.”

The transaction was reviewed and approved by a committee of non-executive directors, the majority of whom are independent under NYSE rules (the “Alibaba Independent Committee”), the audit committee of Alibaba’s board and the full Alibaba board of directors. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions. Alibaba will acquire the equity interest in Ant Financial through a Chinese domestic subsidiary.

Morrison & Foerster and King & Wood Mallesons acted as legal advisors, Credit Suisse acted as financial advisor and PricewaterhouseCoopers acted as tax advisor to the Alibaba Independent Committee. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Sidley Austin LLP and Fangda Partners acted as legal advisors to Ant Financial.

A detailed summary of the transaction has been filed by Alibaba on Form 6-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.

About Ant Financial

Ant Financial Services Group is focused on serving small and micro enterprises, as well as individuals. Ant Financial is dedicated to bringing the world more equal opportunities through building a technology-driven open ecosystem and working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society. Brands under Ant Financial Services Group include Alipay, Ant Fortune, Zhima Credit, MYbank.

Safe Harbor Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provision of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” “targets” and similar statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including but limited to the following: uncertainties as to the timing of the consummation of the transaction and the parties’ ability to consummate the transaction; the timely satisfaction of the closing conditions; regulatory approvals and uncertainties; unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the transaction; potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationship resulting from the transaction; changes in laws, regulations and regulatory environment; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions; and actions by third parties, including government agencies. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Alibaba’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this announcement is as of the date of this announcement and are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date, and Alibaba does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.