What's happened in the business of video games this past week ...
QUOTE | "Wii U has failed to capture consumer imagination."—Rob Fahey, former editor of GI.biz, talking about Wii U's problems but ultimately why there's no need to worry about Nintendo. UPDATE: Fahey also wrote: "Sentiment is negative right now, but fundamentals aren't, and for a business like Nintendo, it's the latter that counts."
QUOTE | "We wanted the violence to come with regret and consequence, so you couldn't always feel good about it."—Kevin Boyle, executive producer of The Walking Dead, talking about the decisions they made in designing the hit game.
STAT | $137.5 Million. —Estimated development cost of Grand Theft Auto V, according to analyst Arvind Bhatia;marketing costs will add up to another $109 million, but the game should make $200 million profit or more.
QUOTE | "I decided I couldn't do it anymore."—Vander Caballero, designer of Army of Two, explaining why he stopped designing violent games, in a discussion with other designers about games and violence.
QUOTE | "We know we've got a fast boat. We just don't know how deep the water is right now."—EA's CEO John Riccitiello, talking about why EA is uncertain about how well the game industry will do this quarter.
QUOTE | "Nintendo's chance to attract third-party development dollars is rapidly vanishing along with the Wii U's sales momentum."—Steve Peterson, West Coast editor for GamesIndustry International, talking about what Nintendo can do to revive its sales.
QUOTE | "The community is awesome; their enthusiasm is infectious and occasionally scary."—David Baumgart, CCO of Gaslamp Games, talking about the fans of the still popular Rogue-like games.
STAT | $237.7 million—Amount of money Minecraft developer Mojang made in 2012, according to a Swedish author following the company to write a book;pre-tax profits were $92 million.
QUOTE | "Relic could be the catalyst for one of the most remarkable transformations in memory: Sega, the new cutting edge of strategy gaming."—Matthew Handrahan, journalist for GamesIndustry International, talking with other journalists about what THQ's breakup might mean.
QUOTE | "The CrossFire FPS game is a $100 million per month, which underscores how big the potential market is for FPS."—Greg Richardson, CEO of Rumble Entertainment, talking about why their first third-party game is Ballistic, a Facebook and browser-based FPS.
STAT | $180 million—Amount of revenue Kabam made in 2012;the company grew 70% from its previous year.
STAT | 3.5—Amount you have to multiply Android game revenues in order to reach iOS game revenues, according to analytics firm App Annie; the highest-grossing game in December was Clash of Clans.
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
(Image from Shutterstock)
NOTE: This story's original headline—" 'Wii U Has Failed to Capture Consumer Imagination'"—has been changed, as it did not properly convey the intent or context of the article it was pulled from. While this is part of a recurring series of guest pieces—with headlines suggested by our guest contributors—we should have caught this one. Apologies for the misleading headline. —Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief