“As an industry person, I hope they drop like a fly. It’s better when the industry gets shaken up.” — Unity CEO David Helgason, joking about Supercell’s Clash of Clans, though he was making a serious point about wanting to see more variety.
Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “I actually look at that episode as a relatively proud moment. For us, it showed that the system worked.” — ESRB president Patricia Vance, talking about the infamous Hot Coffee scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
STAT | $US325 million — Amount generated by Bungie’s Destiny in its first five days, according to Activision; that is more than half of the $US500 million worth of Destiny sold-in to retailers on the first day.
QUOTE | “The acquisition makes strategic sense for Microsoft in terms of strengthening the games platform, but also extending the company more into the realms of cloud and mobile.” — Baird analyst Colin Sebastian commenting along with other analysts on Microsoft’s $US2.5 billion purchase of Minecraft developer Mojang.
QUOTE | “My belief is that in the future of our industry… the relationships that you have with the players are going to be the deciding factor between success and failure.” — Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson, explaining the goals he’s trying to reach with EA.
STAT | $US1.7 billion — Amount that Sony reduced its profit forecast for its fiscal year, according to their note to investors; the company now expects to lose nearly $US500 million for the year, mostly due to its mobile business.
QUOTE | “We’re in the business of mobile entertainment and this is a game that is enjoyed by millions, the majority of whom aren’t paying at all.” — Glu Mobile SVP Christopher Locke, commenting on the success of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, which was the most downloaded game on iOS in July.
QUOTE | “I think we’ll see a lot more business model innovation. I don’t know that in the end we’ll ever see premium go away.” — Ex-EA CEO John Riccitiello, talking about why he thinks free-to-play games won’t completely dominate the industry.
STAT | 73 per cent — Percentage of over 300 developers surveyed who said platform holders don’t do enough to help get games discovered on their platforms, according to GDC Next; nearly 25 per cent of developers said getting a boost from a YouTube personality could have the most impact on sales.
QUOTE | “The relationship with the community is more important, frankly, than the relationship you have with advertising partners, retail partners or things like that.” — Motiga’s SVP of publishing David Reid, talking about the huge importance of community to games today.
STAT | 20 million — Number of players Hearthstone has reached, according to Blizzard; the game came out in March for PC and Mac, and hit 10 million players a month later (arriving on iPad at that time).
STAT | $US1.50 — The cost per install, on average, for an Android game, according to analytics firm Fiksu; costs per install for iOS games are about $US0.50 less, but both costs are rising.
Comments
6 responses to “This Week In The Business: Down With The Popular Kids”
I thought it was saying that there was $500m worth of Destiny games traded in by customers on the first day!
“The acquisition makes strategic sense for Microsoft in terms of strengthening the games platform, but also extending the company more into the realms of cloud and mobile.”
Jesus, is this a quote from Silicon Valley? 2 Billion for a company that has made 1 game. Granted, a very popular game, but just one game. MS are going full retard with their stupid acquisitions. Skype, Nokia now Mojang.
I guess the best part is Notch gets a shit load of cash, hopefully he does something rad with it… other than buy a new hat every day.
Your missing the point. Microsoft has massive cash reserves just sitting in the bank making interest. The money they spent on mine craft will give them a yearly return higher than the interest.
It was a move to please share holders. With mine craft your buying more than a game. Look at all they toys and shirts that sell like crazy too.
It’s not about the game, it’s about the IP. And Minecraft is huge in that regard.
They’re essentially buying a massive and ridiculously engaged customer base, in a demographic that they’ve had very little impact in so far.
Easily worth $2 billion to a company like MS.
I’m an investor myself. I’m aware that the interest is expected to be lower than return. What I’m saying is what happens when the people who have Minecraft are all the people who want it. Sales dive mojang aren’t really that good at game development outside of Minecraft? MS are left holding a cold, damp 2.5 billion dollar potato. Video games are a fickle market, there are only so many autistic kids to keep MC profitable.
Now if only Blizzard would make a tablet Strategy game, imagine how good that’d be.