QUOTE | “That is up to Apple, and if they ever release a good computer then we will do it.” -Palmer Luckey, on when Oculus will release a Mac version of the Rift VR headset.
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week...
QUOTE | “In reality I see [virtual reality] as a very expensive Wii.” - Day Z developer Dean Hall, sharing his concerns about the new tech given how little is known about what games will sell and how big the market for it will be.
QUOTE | “So when I look at VR I think about the fear issues and especially in a hot politics season. It scares me to death to think about the baby shaker games on the phone and then somebody builds that in VR with your hands drawn.” - Former Epic exec and ESA board member Mike Capps, cautioning that VR could produce another wave of anti-game hysteria.
STAT | 15% - The percentage of surveyed gamers who said they planned on purchasing a VR headset in 2016.
QUOTE | “I think once you get to bigger teams, ‘auteur’ almost always means ‘I’m not disciplined enough to plan ahead, so I just have to react to everything and tell you I don’t like it.’ And a lot of those games end up going way over-budget and way under-delivering or just being a kind of a disorganized mess...” - Former Bungie and Sucker Punch developer Jaime Griesemer, shedding light on why he left AAA development to found Highwire Games
QUOTE | “[I]f someone finishes the entire game and is like, ‘I don’t know if I want my money back,’ that’s a thing that only a person who plays video games would ask, right?” - Campo Santo developer Nels Anderson, regarding players who finish Firewatch and then request refunds from Steam.
QUOTE | “Having a unified vision inside the company of who you are and what you’re trying to do really helps you get out of the wilderness.” - Incoming Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau, explaining how his time at EA during that company’s turnaround will help his current employer finally turn the corner.
STAT | $650 million - The combined annual revenues of EA’s Ultimate Team modes in the Madden, FIFA, and NHL franchises.
QUOTE | “That is the health metric of any service that you want to talk about. What’s your monthly active users in the space? It’s not how many consoles I sell. If I sold a console two years ago and now it’s in the closet collecting dust, that’s not good for the gamers.” - Xbox box Phil Spencer, explaining why the company focuses not on hardware sales figures but on user engagement metrics.
STAT | 2 - The maximum number of $3,000 HoloLens dev kits a developer can request from Microsoft in each application to work with the augmented reality hardware.
QUOTE | “It’s validating to really kill yourself for something and bleed for it and have it find an audience and people who are enthusiastic for it and enjoying it… I can’t say I would do it again, but if I were back in time, I would do it again. I just can’t do it again, like, next week.” - Red Hook Studios developer Chris Bourassa, saying the crunch and stress of finishing Darkest Dungeon were ultimately worth it.
QUOTE | “Every kid loved video games, and having the opportunity to make games has changed my life.” - Probe co-founder Fergus McGovern, in 2008. McGovern died last week at the age of 50.
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