What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
STAT | 1%—Amount of more than 5,000 gamers surveyed by Intergi Entertainment planning to buy a Wii U soon; this compares to 58% who said they were planning to get a PS4, and 39% who are planning on an Xbox One
QUOTE | “There’s lots of talk in the industry about games becoming services … this doesn’t always resonate with people, especially gamers.”—Square Enix CEO of US and Europe Phil Rogers, on Square Enix’s struggles with Final Fantasy XIV
QUOTE | “No one really seems to like free-to-play. It’s not something people get excited about so it’s weird that it kind of feels like we’re saddled with it.”—Soren Johnson, ex-Zynga designer and now founder of Mohawk Games, on why his next game will be a classic pay-once-play-forever game
QUOTE | “It’s a massive infrastructure to run this thing.”—Sony Network Entertainment vice president Eric Lempel on the big investment in PSN and why online multiplayer is no longer free on PS4
QUOTE | “This is the beginning of a new era of PlayStation, shifting more from a hardware focus to a service focus.”—Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, discussing the PS4 and why graphics matter
QUOTE | “We don’t pretend that we succeed in everything that we do, and we don’t pretend that this is the only route.”—David Cage, creator of Beyond: Two Souls, on the pressures involved in mixing storytelling and games
STAT | 500 million—Number of times Candy Crush Saga has been downloaded, according to publisher King; over 150 billion games have been played
STAT | 5%—Amount total sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories was up for October over last October, according to NPD; that’s the third month in a row of an increase, all due to software sales as hardware declined 8%
QUOTE | “I think they’ll be impressive, cool consoles … but I think the days of the traditional console are on the way out.”—David Jaffe, creator of God of War on whether next-gen consoles can save console gaming
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
Image by Galgoczy Gabriel | Shutterstock
