This Week In The Business: The Clueless Gamer Responds

QUOTE | “These Clueless Gamer segments are not serious reviews nor endorsements … We do not believe sponsorship identification is needed.” — Unnamed representative for Conan O’Brien’s show, responding to the news that Red Barrels paid $US35,000 to have their game Outlast featured on the segment.

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “[Nintendo] should consider getting out of the Wii U business, and consider going back to the drawing board on consoles.” — Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, responding to the news that Nintendo expects to sell only 2.8 million Wii U’s this year.

STAT | 3.9 million — Number of Xbox Ones Microsoft shipped before the end of 2013, according to the company’s latest earnings report; Microsoft also sold 3.5 million Xbox 360’s during that time.

QUOTE | “The legal protection covers only the technological measures intended to prevent or eliminate unauthorised acts of reproduction, communication, public offer or distribution.” — EU court ruling that some devices that circumvent console copy protection may be legal, in a case between Nintendo and a mod chip seller.”

STAT | 1.1 million — Number of concurrent players of World of Tanks recently, according to Wargaming; worldwide the game has over 75 million players, with the Xbox 360 planned.

QUOTE | “Just how long can Nintendo keep its head in the sand with respects to mobile?” — Nintendo investor and Virtue CFO Asif Khan, on the many things Nintendo might do to turn things around.

STAT | $US360 million — Revenue that mobile game maker Kabam brought in during 2013; the amount was more than double the total for 2012, and the company is considering an IPO.

STAT | $US624 million — Amount of revenue that Riot Games made from League of Legends, according to an estimate by SuperData; this was impressive but still less than the $US957 million brought in by Korean game CrossFire.

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