This Week in the Business: Smells Like No Team Spirit

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “At almost all game companies, there’s almost no appreciation at all for the team dynamic. ‘They’re just replaceable meat puppets,’ and that’s never, ever true.”—Gordon Walton, veteran game company executive, talking about the way most game companies view developers and why it’s wrong

QUOTE | “As we prepare for E3, the pace of launches for Wii U is going to dramatically increase.”—Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, talking about the prospects for the 3DS and the Wii U

QUOTE | “There are times where you just have to sunset a game and there are fans still playing that game.”—EA senior VP Nick Earl, explaining why EA shut down its social games despite still having millions of players

QUOTE | “The total amount of developers shifting focus to solely mobile and tablet titles is frightening.”—EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, concerned that developers may be missing a great opportunity on next-gen consoles

QUOTE | “If the rules of the game aren’t working, change the rules.”—Telltale Games VP of publishing Steve Allison, talking about the company’s approach to marketing The Walking Dead game

QUOTE | “People are playing games of quality wherever they come from.”—Kellee Santiago, head of developer relations for Ouya, talking about how they now have 10,000 developers for Ouya

STAT | $104 million—Profit that Finnish mobile game developer Supercell made in the first quarter of 2013; the company is making about $2.4 million per day from its two games on iOS

QUOTE | “What we have now is just the best next step of a long march.”—Will Luton, free-to-play game designer and consultant, explaining why free-to-play games aren’t evil

QUOTE | “More companies operating in this way will stimulate the market further.”—Pixel Toys CEO Andy Wafer, talking about how the company managed to release their 3DS game in only 6 months of development

STAT | 10%—Amount video game hardware and software sales dropped in US retail stores for March versus March 2012; software was actually up 2%, but hardware dropped 32%

QUOTE | “Everybody says that the game is the ultimate goal. The game is not. The team is.”—Ru Weerasuriya, head of PSP God of War developer Ready at Dawn, talking about the importance of team in game development, as his studio prepares its first next-gen IP.

QUOTE | “Layoffs are fueling way more development in the small, independent space.”—Klei Games founder Jamie Cheng finding the good news amidst all the high-profile layoffs from companies like EA, Activision and Disney

STAT | 9 million—Number of people playing Crytek’s freemium FPS Warface; the game has reached that mark in 12 months mostly in Russia

QUOTE | “For us as a company, it does not matter which of our games you play. As long as you’re having a good time, we like you.”—Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi, explaining why he’s not worried about their next game

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

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