What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “PS Vita will die a horrible premature death.” — Bossa Studios head Henrique Olifiers giving his provocative take on how Sony’s new device will do in the market.
QUOTE | “Xbox 720 in 2012 would be a disaster.” — Veteran games journalist Chris Morris talking about what Microsoft has to do to make the Xbox 720 a success.
QUOTE | “Quite frankly, this is cutting into my Skyrim time.” — Epic Design Director Cliff Bleszinski, talking during the Spike VGAs, says Skyrim is now his favourite game since the original Zelda.
QUOTE | “I hope digital distribution stabs the used game market in the heart.” — Chris Avellone, Chief Creative Officer for Obsidian Entertainment, on what he thinks about digital distribution.
QUOTE | “If more than half of people disagree with my opinion, I’m an idiot.” — Analyst Michael Pachter talking about what it takes to be a game industry analyst.
STAT | 33 per cent — Amount of total time on Wii that Wii users spend watching streaming video instead of playing games, according to a new study from Nielsen.
QUOTE | “Games will someday take over the world.” — Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, talking about what he sees for the future of the gaming industry.
QUOTE | “PlayStation Move is tighter, cleaner and more precise.” — Brian Upton, Creative Director on the upcoming Move title Sorcery, discusses why he thinks Move is better than Wii or Kinect.
QUOTE | “We’re already achieving near PS3 cinematics.” — Victor Harris, producer on Uncharted: Golden Abyss, talking about how Sony is in it for the long term with the PS Vita.
QUOTE | “Social gaming will see massive layoffs.” — Rick Marazzani, head of content programming for Exent, talking about what the social game market will look like in 2012 as companies use more “belt tightening.”
STAT | $US3 billion — Amount of game industry retail sales in November which is basically unchanged from 2010 despite huge Black Friday numbers and lots of hit software.
QUOTE | “No reason we can’t build a company as big as Disney.” — Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka talks about Angry Birds‘ continued momentum and how Rovio will build on that success.
This Week in the Business courtesy of IndustryGamers.com
Image: Shutterstock
Average
Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 9:50 PMNext person to say “Skyrim is awesome and perfect in every way, cannot be faulted and is a masterful piece of gaming goodness and will only be surpassed by another Elder Scrolls installment” Gets both a kick in the face and a copy of Dark Souls.
warcroft
Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 9:30 AMI played Skyrim for three hours and couldnt take it any more.
I hate having to have long conversations with NPC’s, trawling through the various conversation branches, approaching every damn villager to hear what crap they may have to say.
I find that stuff mindlessly boring, someone standing in front of me with a blank expression, mouth stuttering up and down, rambling on about some crap. . . I dont know what, I stopped listening. Something about a lost husband. . . whatever.
And LA Noire has ruined facial animation for me. All games need to adopt what Rockstar did with LA Noire.
Everyone keeps raving about Skyrim, but I just dont see it.
I mean, I can see it good, but not the best damn thing since sliced bread.
To me its slow and tedious.
Aaron
Monday, December 19, 2011 at 7:42 PMFor me playing Dark Souls was like being kicked in the face. And being kicked in the face is not fun.
Jordaan
Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 11:19 PMI cannot wait for Rovio to get the slap in the face it needs. They had one fluke success, the gameplay of which was stolen from a flash game, and they do on about themselves as though they the bees knees.
Also, Cliffy B is a bro.
Naio
Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 10:57 PMThe irony is that skeptics said the iPod would never take off. I’m sure the PSP Vita will surely do the same.