QUOTE | “The DLC shitstorm hit full force and washed away people’s enthusiasm, dragging us further and further from that first magical pick-up-and-play experience.” - Turtle Rock’s Chris Ashton and Phil Robb explaining to its community why the studio is now taking Evolve to a free-to-play model with a beta starting this week.
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week...
QUOTE | “The thinking was that because Wii sold well, Wii U would follow suit.” - Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima talking with investors about the company’s expectations for the Wii U, which they naively assumed could sell 100 million units.
QUOTE | “It’s not a tricky - oh, we get some revenue, they get profit. It’s just all revenue and profit goes to the developer after [we recoup].” - EA global publishing chief Laura Miele explaining how the publisher’s indie friendly program EA Originals actually works for developers.
QUOTE | “We see ourselves as the last Mohicans, the last dinosaurs.” - Housemarque founder and CEO Illari Kuittinen talking about his studio’s style of games and development and working with industry legend Eugene Jarvis.
STAT | 2 million – The number of copies that Introversion’s Prison Architect has now sold, generating over $25 million in revenue for the studio.
QUOTE | “Last year was our biggest year ever by a wide margin, both with backers (the number of people backing projects) and the amount of money that was pledged to those projects.” - Kickstarter’s head of games, Luke Crane, discussing the state of games funding on the crowdfunding platform and what the future holds.
QUOTE | “[The Coalition will] address issues of cheating in eSports, with a particular focus on match-fixing and doping.” - Ian Smith, commissioner of the first ever eSports Integrity Coalition, talking about the problems with rampant cheating the eSports space.
QUOTE | “After an incredible journey here at PlayStation, I’ve made the very hard decision to return to the world of game development!” - Adam Boyes, head of PlayStation’s self-publishing indie drive over the last four years, announcing that he’s leaving Sony to pursue a development job at an indie studio.
STAT | 15% - The estimated percentage of workers in the UK’s games industry that come from the EU and could be impacted by the Brexit vote.