Prada Revenue Suffered 40 Percent Decline Due to Coronavirus

Update – Fashion

The luxury house brought in less than a billion euros thus far in 2020.

Prada First Half 2020 Financial Results Report q1 q2 quarter profit revenue sales stock share price

 Prada Group has suffered an imposing loss due to store closures, dwindling travel and reduced wholesale, posting a 40 percent net revenue decline, down to €938 million EUR (approximately $1.1 billion USD).

Like its peers, Prada Group — which owns Prada, Miu Miu and Church’s footwear — touts resilience during these tough times, emphasizing diminished retail and buoyant e-commerce, which saw a 32 percent decline and “triple-digit sales growth during and after the lockdowns,” respectively. 

The Group’s statement also highlighted its “disciplined approach” to cost containment and effective supply chain management as key factors for minimizing loss, realized through lease renegotiation and a tightened marketing budget.

With Kering and LVMH reporting underwhelming financial results, it follows that their fellow luxury groups would be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed.

Prada closed 70 percent of its stores in response to the epidemic, slicing wholesale by a whopping 71 percent, a drastic move that the group is only just now beginning to recover from.

Unsurprisingly, the “entire Asia Pacific region” has boosted Prada’s fortunes as the area’s lockdowns loosen, reportedly enjoying double-digit sales growth in the month of June, the final month of 2020’s first half. Europe and Japan are seeing some bounceback as well.

“I am very proud of the commitment and sense of responsibility demonstrated in these circumstances by all our people,” Patrizio Bertelli, Prada Group CEO, said in a statement. “The first half of 2020 saw a temporary interruption of our growth trajectory which, in a situation of progressive control of the pandemic, we are confident will gradually resume from the second half of 2020, when our store network will again be fully operational.”

source Prada

#PRADA

‘Blankos: Block Party’ Wants to Be the ‘Fortnite’ of Party MMOs

Update – Gaming

When new titles garner a certain degree of popularity, they also frequently propel the gaming industry in new directions.

If a formula is proven to be successful, the market will center around it for a time in an attempt to jump on the fad. Halo and Call of Duty, for example, put first-person shooters on the map in the early 2000s, which resulted in an overabundance of FPS titles in those years.

These days, cosmetic collecting is largely what makes free-to-play Battle Royale titles — the latest fad in gaming — so appealing. Most multiplayer titles within the gaming industry now function by making fans chase after the next big skin/content coming exclusively to an upcoming battle pass.

Blankos Block Party MMO Battle Royale Preview

However, outside of Steam‘s community marketplace, few titles have given players the resources to buy, sell, and trade these items they’ve collected with other players. It appears Blankos: Block Party is looking to change that, while also melding the formula of several popular titles in the free-to-play market.

Blankos: Block Party is an upcoming free-to-play party MMO from game studio Mythical that allows players to meet in an online hub called The Junction, where they can take on daily challenges, go on dares, earn items, and more.

The meat of the game is to buy and collect these digital figurines and customize them to your liking. Players can also build and customize their own digital hubs to invite friends and participate in mini-games with friends, which is another key focus of the title.

Blankos Block Party MMO Battle Royale Preview

Players can repurpose building items to serve functions the dev team didn’t initially intend. For instance, someone building their own hub used a skateboard halfpipe as a platform by turning it upside down, much to the surprise of the devs. 

However, Mythical looks at this as a core prospect in building and wants to allow players the freedom to be creative and use items in any way they see fit.

Blankos: Block Party also taps into the collectors market by utilizing the free-to-play market’s model of selling multiple cosmetic skins. The developer has stated that it will avoid loot boxes and grey markets for rare Blankos, noting “the community dictates the value of what they buy and sell.” Titles like Fortnite saw accounts sold on eBay that contained several skins, emotes and accessories bought with V-Bucks. And although nothing has been confirmed, there are rumors of several notable cosmetic collaborations slated to take place when Blankos eventually goes live. There’s no telling if the collabs will have as much range as Samsung’s “Galaxy” skin promotion, which was promoted alongside Ninja and Travis Scott, but there’s potential. As such, it appears Mythical will have a far better handle on third-party distribution than Epic Games, and will even use it to its potential benefit.

Blankos Block Party MMO Battle Royale Preview

However, from what we saw gameplay-wise in a virtual demo, there is no incentive to partake in any of these enticing prospects, primarily because the gameplay looks so frustrating.

Unfortunately, the controls and mechanics for the game make these modes a chore to play through. Although the gameplay we saw in the hands-off demo was in the very early stages, the fundamentals themselves look as though they’re aimed at the often young audiences attracted to the Minecraft and Roblox titles that Blankos is inspired by.

Blankos Block Party MMO Battle Royale Preview

All we can hope is that when the title releases a beta and the full project, the gameplay has been fine-tuned or revamped in a way that makes actual gameplay fun — or at least look fun to play.

Blankos Block Party is coming to PC later in 2020.

source hypebeast

#HALO #NINJA #CALL OF DUTY #MMO #FORTNITE