This Week In The Business: Virtual Insanity

This Week In The Business: Virtual Insanity

“You really need those experiences to help people understand — most people just can’t suspend disbelief.” — Oculus VP of product and co-founder Nate Mitchell, talking about the difficulties still ahead in bringing virtual reality to consumers.

Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “Now we’ve got gardens with small fences around them, or maybe a hedge.” — Microsoft VP Phil Harrison, talking about how they have made the “walled gardens” of the previous console generation much more accessible.

QUOTE | “I want us as an industry to stop being so scared… Let’s not be scared to ruffle feathers.” – BioWare designer Manveer Heir, in his GDC talk on misogyny, racism and homophobia and how the industry should take games beyond these things.

STAT | $US129 million — Amount of profit that Minecraft studio Mojang took in in 2013, more than double 2012 profits; that profit is after Mojang paid Minecraft creator Notch slightly more than $US129 million in royalties.

QUOTE | “Using the camera to broadcast yourself is much, much more fun than they thought and they didn’t quite get it.” — Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, talking about by marketing that’s led to shortages of the PS4 camera.

QUOTE | “Never underestimate Nintendo. They’re probably one hardware release away from something that utterly convinces us that they know exactly what the future of games should be.” — Veteran designer Peter Molyneux, talking about why he’s not willing to discount Nintendo’s business in the future.

STAT | 7.38 million — Number of copies sold so far of Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS worldwide; one million of those have been sold in the last six months.

QUOTE | “From scratch, I don’t think we could do an Oddworld title for a couple million dollars.” — Lorne Lanning, Oddworld creator, talking aboutwhy he won’t do a Kickstarter to create a new Oddworld title.

STAT | 9th — Rank of the Lego video game franchise among all video game franchises, according to Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment; WBIE has sold 1.6 million Lego games since the beginning of 2013.

STAT | 500,000 — Number of people who play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn every day; the game has 1.8 million registered players so far.

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


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