What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “I don’t think they should have had a physical drive on Xbox One—it’s like having a dead body handcuffed to you.”—David Darling, founder of Codemasters, discussing the revolution of digital distribution
QUOTE | “What I don’t like in the games industry today is that there are too many opportunists who are there to make money.”—Former Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, on mobile games, next-gen, and the future of games
QUOTE | “Nintendo is going to be here in 100 years. I have no doubt”—Oddworld Inhabitants founder Lorne Lanning, praising Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata for declining to lay off employees even though revenue is down
QUOTE | “No company is perfect, but Steam is by far the gold standard in digital distribution.”—Tommy Refenes, Team Meat developer, commenting along with others on the greatest things in the last era of gaming
STAT | 945%—Percentage by which GungHo Entertainment’s mobile game Puzzle & Dragons rose in the first six months of 2013; the game has daily sales of nearly $5 million and has brought in $763 million so far this year
QUOTE | “How many people really want to walk, run and jump to navigate a virtual world?”—Veteran designer Warren Spector, explaining why the HoloDeck and VR is a blind alley leading to a dead-end future for gaming
STAT | 160,000—Number of Wii U consoles sold worldwide over the period from April to June, 60,000 of those in the U.S.; that compares to over 400,000 Xbox 360 sold in the US in that same period
QUOTE | “We’re just putting our shoes on to get to the start line of a long distance race.”—Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer Peter Moore, talking about whether the Playstation 4 or the Xbox One will sell more consoles
STAT | 37%—Amount by which Take-Two’s sales dropped in the April-June quarter compared to the same quarter in 2012, when the company shipped Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: The Line
QUOTE | “We’re moving our entire company toward the concept of emergent content.”—Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley, describing the new direction EverQuest Next is headed
QUOTE | “I’d like to see other shooter developers take up the spirit of what we’ve done.”—Scattered Entertainment head Ben Cousins, talking about his new shooter The Drowning that he hopes will revolutionize mobile FPS titles
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
Image by elnur | Shutterstock
