QUOTE | “Violence in the normal course of video gameplay is generally acceptable for advertising, but montages where gratuitous violence is the focal point is not.” - YouTube continues to limit the type of content creators can profit from after advertisers decided they didn’t want their brands associated with some objectionable content common on the site.
QUOTE | “We will not be giving in to the demands of the individual or individuals that have contacted us, which might eventually lead to the files being published online.” - The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red says it has been the target of an extortion scheme by people who threatened to release early documents about Cyberpunk 2077 if their ransom demands weren’t met.
QUOTE | “If you’re the person who is in charge of a company, and you’re saying you want all Muslims to leave the country, that doesn’t bode well for your hiring practices.” - Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail suggests the anti-Muslim comments made on Facebook by the CEO of QA services company Testology, were not just bigoted, but tactically ill-advised to boot.
QUOTE | “Breath of the Wild has managed to bring classic open world mechanics together while not relying on them to guide the player through its world. You go and explore it because you wonder what’s out there, not because a loot icon tells you to.” - The Witcher 3 senior designer Damien Monnier is just one of many developers praising the latest Zelda adventure.
QUOTE | “Vita is still a viable platform, chiefly in the Japanese and Asian markets. We still have developers in Japan who are building for that platform. But it just didn’t get over the hump in Europe and America.” - Sony Interactive Entertainment America president and CEO Shawn Layden suggests Vita is only dead in most of the world’s key gaming markets, not all of them.
QUOTE | “As with PSVR, and I suppose in forecasting these things we haven’t done a very good job, the product is in desperately short supply.” - Sony Interactive Entertainment head of global sales and marketing Jim Ryan says PlayStation 4 Pro accounts for 20% of PS4 systems sold these days.
QUOTE | “The award is given to companies that use new and unconventional methods to succeed and effectively grow their companies.” - Controversial gray market key re-seller G2A explains why Business Insider saw fit to give it the Innovation Initiator’s Award.
QUOTE | “We earn about the same amount as we spend every month, and that has been true for the majority of the existence of this company.” - Portalarium’s Richard Garriott attempts to calm those alarmed by the studio’s $528,000 bank account and $230,000 monthly burn rate.
QUOTE | “Many are still unconsciously incompetent, although I think many more are now consciously incompetent - like me.” - Sol Trader developer Chris Parsons says indies are coming around on the idea that they could benefit tremendously from competent publishers.
STAT | 50% - The portion of Xbox One owners who have used the system’s backward compatibility function, according to Xbox chief marketing officer Mike Nichols.
QUOTE | “When you’re making a game as big as an MMO, you are pushing the boundaries of their IP in directions that they did not anticipate going. You’re creating dozens or hundreds of characters they didn’t have in their worlds, places they never had to go. And that’s really hard on those IP holders when you’re taking their baby and reworking it.” - Cryptic Studios CEO Stephen D’Angelo shares the hardest part of making MMORPGs like Star Trek Online and the upcoming Magic: The Gathering based on licensed IP.