QUOTE | “If you’re a gamer and you have high end graphics cards – I don’t want to stereotype – but you’re probably not the kind of person who cares about fashion.” - Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, talking about why VR is not a fad like 3D TV.
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week...
QUOTE | “I honestly thought I was done. It was a combination of gamers feeling jaded, as well as working with some very talented people who were also very jaded.” - Boss Key founder Cliff Bleszinski, talking about why he resigned as design director of Epic Games in 2012.
QUOTE | “I was thinking probably 300,000 copies by the end of the summer would be fantastic. But we sold that much in the first 24 hours... It was crazy.” - Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen, talking about the overwhelming success of Cities: Skylines.
STAT | $10 billion – Amount of revenue Apple’s App Store took in during 2014, of which more than 80% is from games; the all time revenue leader is Clash of Clans, followed by Candy Crush Saga, Puzzle & Dragons, Game of War: Fire Age, and Monster Strike.
QUOTE | “Somebody is going to create the seminal company and the seminal game of that era. Somebody is going to be the Blizzard or Riot of that era.” - Super Evil Megacorp COO Kristian Segerstrale, talking about eSports on touchscreens.
STAT | 66% – Amount that Chinese mobile game revenues will increase this year, to $5.5 billion, according to analyst firm Niko Partners; this will make China the biggest mobile game market in the world, ahead of the US’s expected $4.5 billion.
QUOTE | “The market is very free-to-play oriented on mobile, so us coming out and making a premium game is a strong statement.” - Square Enix’s Daniel Lutz, talking about the decision to launch Lara Croft Go as a premium mobile game.
QUOTE | “I can’t think of many successful free-to-play games (other than Triple Town) that sell infinite energy - it makes the game dramatically harder to balance and tends to really cap your upside, revenue-wise.” - Spry Fox CEO David Edery, talking about the unusual monetization for their new mobile game Alphabear.
QUOTE | “Our goal is to become a top-rated publisher esteemed by game developers, distributors and players.” - DotEmu founder Xavier Liard, talking about how they plan to make their new publishing company Playdigious a success.
STAT | 50% – Percentage of Steam’s million unit sellers in 2015 that are on the Steam Early Access program, according to Steam Spy data; the million-selling full releases are Grand Theft Auto V, Cities: Skylines and Rocket League, and from Early Access it’s H1Z1, Besiege and Ark: Survival Evolved.
STAT | $30 million – Amount Chinese game publisher Shanda is investing in creating a new subsidiary, Eyedentity Mobile, based in Berlin; the company is putting that money into a portfolio of eight games, two of which are already released.
