This Week In The Business: Not As Simple As It Sounds

QUOTE | “We are thinking about a new business structure … It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.” — Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, on Nintendo’s loss for the year and what to do about it.

Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …

STAT | $US766 million — Change in the amount of profit Nintendo expects for its fiscal year ending March 30; the company now expects a loss of over $US240 million, lowering Wii U sales estimates by 70 per cent.

QUOTE | “If EA wants to put Origin on it, that would be fine.” — Valve head Gabe Newell, talking on Reddit about how SteamOS will be “as open as possible.”

QUOTE | “If Valve can actually get some exclusive freemium games like Dota 2 working great with its controller I think that would be the best possible calling card.” — IDC analyst Lewis Ward, on the opportunity ahead for Steam Machines.

STAT | 2 per cent — Amount that physical retail sales for video game hardware, software and accessories in the US fell in 2013, according to NPD; hardware sales were up 5 per cent, but software slipped 9 per cent and accessories were up 3 per cent.

QUOTE | “It felt as if the industry just didn’t care much for making games more accessible to new audiences.” — Sunni Pavlovic, studio manager for thatgamecompany, on the high and low points of the game industry in 2013.

STAT | 12 billion — Number of minutes per month Twitch fans watched game streams in 2013; the service now has over 45 million monthly visitors who watch 106 minutes per day, on average.

QUOTE | “I think local compute will be important for a long time.” — Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer on why Xbox hardware will remain relevant despite the rise of cloud processing.

QUOTE | “It’s my belief that the age of 2D monitors has run its course.” — Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, on the future of VR and why some Oculus Rift games may cost more than $US60.

QUOTE | “Console manufacturers are all under siege right now… if you look at Xbox One and PS4 they are almost identical except for interface.” — Former Silicon Knights boss Denis Dyack, on how the game industry is still in the “Dark Ages” while headed towards a Renaissance.

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
Image by Elnur [Shutterstock]