STAT | 2 - The ranking of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Nielsen’s list of the Most Anticipated Holiday Games of 2018. The only title to beat it out was Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
QUOTE | “The future of gaming is a world where you are empowered to play the games you want, with the people you want, whenever you want, wherever you are, and on any device of your choosing.” - Microsoft’s corporate vice president for gaming cloud Kareem Choudhry explains the vision behind the company’s upcoming streaming service, Project xCloud.
QUOTE | “There is a thought process that goes behind it. At times, it can be opportunistic as well as strategic. Sometimes it’s joined up and sometimes it’s less joined up.” - Sega Europe SVP of commercial publishing John Clark explains the company’s scattershot retro strategy, which includes retail compilations, microconsoles, Sega Ages re-releases, the Sega Forever free-to-play mobile line, and a la carte re-releases of 16-bit games on Steam.
QUOTE | “We never make any product close to 18 years old. It’s always adult, adult, clearly adult. That’s why we don’t do ‘back to school’ stuff. The product should always be adult, so there’s no confusion. Call of Duty is 18-plus.” - Activision Blizzard VP of international consumer products Philippe Bost touts the company’s strict stance against marketing any merchandise for the M-rated Call of Duty to children. When asked why Call of Duty-branded Mega Bloks sets carry a prominent “10+” age rating label, an Activision Blizzard representative explained those were safety ratings, not recommended audience ratings.
QUOTE | “Please note not all games and applications for PS4, PS3 and PS Vita systems are guaranteed to support the online ID change, and users may occasionally encounter issues or errors in certain games.” - Sony warns customers that even though they’ll soon be able to change their PSN handles, doing so might break some of their games. Changing the handles back to their original name should fix “most” of the problems created.
QUOTE | “Our intent is to work with the original team but there are a lot of moving parts.” - Skybound Interactive president Dan Murray explains the company doesn’t yet have the original ex-Telltale developers of The Walking Dead on board to finish up the last two episodes of the series.
STAT | Over 1,000 - The number of Discord servers named “1488,” a slogan used by white supremacists and Nazis.
QUOTE | “If China’s approval policy doesn’t go back to the way it was, not only is it going to stifle growth overall for the market, but it could potentially mean a development shift toward building games from the start with a more global audience in mind.” - Vicarious CEO Michael Brown says China’s hold on approvals for new game releases is hurting the country’s indie devs the most.
QUOTE | “Generally speaking, we think we grew too fast.” - Infinite Esports & Entertainment president Ryan Musselman explains why the parent company of OpTic Gaming, the Overwatch League Houston Outlaws team, and live events company NGAGE decided to lay off 19 employees, along with its former president. Around 70 employees remain at the company.
QUOTE | “We do not tolerate inappropriate or offensive behaviour in any way and, while we had a limited working relationship with some of the individuals, we will not be working with them, or inviting them to future events, going forward.” - Runescape developer Jagex cuts ties with YouTuber and Twitch streamer Ali “Gross Gore” Larson over Larson’s behavior at RuneFest 2018.
QUOTE | “I don’t think it’s an issue for Marvel. When people love the content they want as much of it as they can get, in as many different ways as they can.” - Andy Wafer of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realm War developer Pixel Toys, dismisses concerns that the Warhammer brand may be over-exposed with nearly a dozen different games hitting the market this year.