QUOTE | “If these folks had their way, none of those people would be able to buy Grand Theft Auto.” – Take-Two president Karl Slatoff reacting to Australian protestors who got GTA V pulled from some retailers; ultimately Slatoff believes “if you don’t like it and it’s offensive to you, then you don’t buy it.”
Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “Why are there so few women in the industry? Does this really matter, and if so, why? What can we do about it? Is the industry sexist?” – Ella Romanos of the UK’s Next Gen Skills Academy talking about the importance of a balanced workforce in games and how to get more women involved in the industry
QUOTE | “Mobile gaming has become stagnant…Our promise to our peers and our audience is to put forth original properties that shake the mobile scene out of its comfort zone.” – Lasse Seppänen, CEO of PlayRaven, a Helsinki-based studio formed by AAA vets from Remedy and Rockstar, on the need for the mobile market to start maturing.
STAT | 27 percent – The dip seen at US retail in November for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare compared to last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson; in fact, Advanced Warfare’s first-month US retail sales were just 49 percent of Modern Warfare 3’s
QUOTE | “Several high-profile new IP releases, Destiny and Titanfall, have had massive financial success despite…average review scores that fell below industry expectations.” – EEDAR’s Patrick Walker, head of insights and analytics, discussing the shift in importance this console generation for reviews aggregator Metacritic
QUOTE | “Mobile gaming has rapidly emerged as the brightest star in the gaming universe.” – Lewis Ward, IDC research manager, talking about the huge growth in the mobile games space; the global installed base for mobile gamers surpassed 1 billion players this year
QUOTE | “I think it’s important to have a vision and know where you’re going, and I think that’s actually lacking in the game industry a little bit.” – Josef Fares, director of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, describing the lessons that game makers should be taking from filmmakers.
QUOTE | “We want people to get to know each other without judging what they look like.” – Raymond Walintukan, talking about his new app LovelUp, which brings people together on dates based on the games they enjoy
QUOTE | “Our goal is to make better games. I don’t think we need more people, necessarily to do that.” – EA Studios executive vice president Patrick Soderlund on Battlefield developer DICE Stockholm relocating but also preparing for growth.
STAT | $15 million – The amount of financing, led by Puzzle & Dragons firm GungHo Online, raised for Kamcord, a social network for mobile games that lets players record and share gameplay videos
