What's happened in the business of video games this past week ...
QUOTE | "You want to avoid the appearance of a glorified add-on pack and every publisher is guilty of that at one time or another."—Ubisoft marketing exec Tony Key talking about the pitfalls of having annualized a major franchise like Assassin's Creed and their effort to keep it fresh.
QUOTE | "Let's forget about that embarrassing situation with the giant man-babies who didn't like the way the game ended."—GamesIndustry writer Rachel Weber discussing with other staff, as part of a personal favorites list, why she feels Mass Effect 3 deserved more recognition.
QUOTE | "Mobile won't kill console. F2P won't kill full-price. Cloud won't kill local."—Former GI.biz editor Rob Fahey talking about how the "idea that one form of entertainment, one form of business model or even one form of distribution will emerge to Rule Them All, is simply an idiot's fantasy."
QUOTE | "Virtual reality is going to be a platform, and not just something that you plug into the console. We're going to get to the point where the headset is the console."—Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey talking about how virtual reality gaming is going to become a major option for game developers.
QUOTE | "Consoles will become ultracore, almost like hobbyist."—ngmoco boss Clive Downie talking about the role of consoles in the marketplace as tablets eventually dominate gaming.
STAT | 2,100—The number of sexual predators recently purged from online games in New York, thanks to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and companies like NCsoft, Gaia Online, Funcom and others.
STAT | 30 million—The number of PS3s that Sony has sold across Europe more than five years after it launched in the region.
QUOTE "The single biggest challenge we've realized since jumping from console into mobile, is how completely differently the audience behaves."—Playrise CEO Nick Burcombe, one of the creators of Wipeout, talking about the big shift in gaming and audience going from console to mobile.
QUOTE | "Journey is a glorious piece of art as entertainment and a banker for Sony during a year it needed to scrape together every single penny."—GamesIndustry International European editor Matt Martin talks about why Thatgamecompany's title is one of a dozen that defined gaming in 2012.
STAT | 1.2 million—The number of players that have downloaded and played the first free-to-play game on Xbox Live, Happy Wars, showing the importance of the growing business model.
QUOTE | "Shouldn't we also quit marketing murder as a game?"—David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, helps to reignite the video game violence debate in the wake of the terrible Newtown tragedy.
QUOTE | "A Steam Box could have a major ripple effect on next-gen."—Veteran games journalist Chris Morris discussing the potentially huge impact of Valve's entry into hardware and how it could hurt Sony and Microsoft.
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
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