What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “Xbox 360 exclusives are becoming fewer.” — David Cole, analyst at DFC Intelligence, talks about Microsoft’s overall entertainment and apps focus taking away from the company’s securing game exclusives.
QUOTE | “Consoles are in trouble.” — Gene Hoffman, CEO of Vindicia, in an industry panel at CES talking about digital distribution, streaming and next-generation consoles.
QUOTE | “We expect great software support for Wii U.” — Scott Moffitt, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, promising that the Wii U will have a steady flow of great software.
STAT | 8 percent — Amount game industry sales dropped in 2011 over 2010, counting only hardware and software sold in retail stores.
QUOTE | “I couldn’t be more happy.” — EA COO Peter Moore, describing how well the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone so far.
QUOTE | “The waters in games journalism are actually pretty calm.” — Peer Schneider, senior vice president of content publishing at IGN Entertainment, stating his belief that games journalism is undergoing less upheaval than other vertical markets.
QUOTE | “Streaming will not replace console gaming.” — GameStop CEO Paul Raines, speaking about his company’s Spawn Labs streaming technology and what it means to traditional gaming.
STAT | 1.7 million — Number of Xbox 360s sold by Microsoft in December, which meant it was the #1 selling console for the US for 2011.
QUOTE | “Tablets are turning out to be great gaming devices.” — RW Baird Analyst Colin Sebastian, talking about the rumoured iPad 3 and how it will be a good for games.
QUOTE | “We should see new boxes in the market for Christmas of 2012.” — Anonymous developer source noting when he expects to see new consoles from Microsoft and Sony.
STAT | 1 million — Number of copies of World of Goo downloaded through the App Store so far, with over 500,000 downloaded on Android.
This Week in the Business courtesy of IndustryGamers.com
Image: Shutterstock)
Scott
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:02 PMStreaming will not replace console gaming. Agreed.
Richard Smack Version 2
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:09 PMif it does it is where i will say goodbye to gaming…
Alinos
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:48 PMYup i’ll be bailing too.
It’s not even the download requirements needed nor the drop in picture quality.
It’s the fact that if i can’t have the game on my machine then at any point in time any publisher developer can completely and 100% remove that game from existence.
Sure Steam could go bankrupt but i would still have game files that i have access to. And most of them already have cracks floating around on the internet.
A game that is only streamed however has no contact with the outside world meaning that it can’t be cracked. Or played decades after unless the company still allows it
Richard Smack Version 2
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 8:32 PMExactly Alinos but you watch people defend the move if they ever do it. Saying ohhh it needs to happen to stamp out piracy and the rest of the excuses…
markd
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 10:34 PMSo you’ll stop playing video games, because one day in two decades time there is a possibility you may not be able to play a specific game from the present? Do you actually enjoy playing games or do you just like gaming culture?
NegativeZero
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 3:02 AMIt’s a pretty legitimate worry. Not just older games too, a 100% streaming future means no buying games from outside your region and no ability to shop around for better prices.
DKnight1000
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 4:37 AMJust to jump in on this streaming games stuff.
Last night for whatever reason I could not connect to X-Box live, not the end of the world right? Of course not, I can happily play games offline.
Now if I can only stream games and the service goes down I’ve got nothing.
And for the record I have no idea what the problem was, it told me to go online for help, to reset my modem, and try configuring port forwarding. I did nothing and in a few hours it started working again. During the time my PC worked online perfectly too.
Richard Smack Version 2
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 2:39 PMNegativeZero hit the nail on the head. You think steam will be the only guys that price gouge us for a online service. LOLOL wait for this when you are stuck on region 4 aka pal you would be totally screwed.
markd
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 12:43 AMWhy not starting worrying about everything? What if the electricity to your house cuts out? What if the world runs out of coal? What if a plane crashes into your house just as you feel like playing a game?
If your concerns are about not being able to find cheaper ways of playing the game then just get Everyone to not buy Any games, and the price of games will magically lower. The correct price of something is what most people are willing to pay.
Frank Woods
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:06 PMPS generally has better exclusives anyway! Xbox still has some majorly amazing franchises on its side! Like Gears of War, Halo are epic franchises (see what I kinda did there) that the developers will generally try leech the money out of. However, PS3 is catching up in terms of sales and the only current major hurdle is the amount of content and the release date of content on XBLA and PSN! PS3 has always been the better console, I own an Xbox and Im not afraid to admit it. Will I be buying a PS3 soon? No, not even if I had the money, because all my mates have Xbox’s and multiplayer is a big part of gaming for me!
Alinos
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:53 PMEh i think it meant more in terms of Third Party exclusives.
Both sides first party titles are always going to be exclusive.
But 360 started off the generation by buying exclusivity of any third party game that would take their money
fgsghs
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:17 PMStreaming services like Onlive will never replace PC/console gaming. I doubt anyone is stupid enough to pay for something that they don’t have access to, if the company closes down they lose their paid for games, and something that isn’t in their possesion at all.
HH
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 7:59 PMI think i would pay to rent a game… there are seriously some games that aren’t worth owning but worth experiencing.
But of course, If i was renting a game. I would expect a very low price point… Maybe $10 for a “triple A game” for three days?
markd
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 12:44 AMYou’re right, that’d be like buying a car knowing you’re totally relying on service stations providing you with petrol to run it…
Sage
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:38 PMXbox 360 has exclusives?
Rowan
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 11:17 PMwell, it has banjo kazooie nuts and bolts, but if you count games the have apperd on pc well, it has halo and gears of war, but since they have appeared on pc, well, Banjo Kazooie and forza are bassicly it
Crispus
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 7:45 PMCongrats to 2D Boy for WoG sales!
Its about time that little gem became popular.
wh1tebum
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 1:31 AMtrololololololol
wh1tebum
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 1:32 AMi blame the laptop that was intended for rowan
Bait
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 7:51 PMThis pleases me.
Now if we could get some of the existing exclusives ported properly to – *falls over laughing at Skyrim*
Merus
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 1:58 AMI’m not convinced by the Wii U talk, honestly – Nintendo have great software, but it’s third party support that people want to see and Nintendo just aren’t as attractive to work with as Microsoft, Sony or Apple are. You don’t sell 90 million consoles and yet have a barren release schedule if third parties (with the exception of Ubisoft) aren’t finding any excuse they can to go elsewhere.
NotheMama
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 5:20 PMMicrosoft doesnt give a fuck about gamers, nuff said. But I dont really care, their franchises are old & stale now anyway