QUOTE | “I think linear story games are really going to suffer in the modern marketplace.” – Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson, talking about why he thinks open-world and emergent games will be the most popular games going forward.
Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “It’s now my personal goal that people will remember [John Riccitiello] as the CEO of Unity rather than the ex-CEO of some big publisher.” – David Helgason, ex-CEO of Unity, talking about why he’s stepped down to EVP so ex-EA CEO John Riccitiello can become the new CEO of Unity.
STAT | 102% — Amount that Xbox console sales rose for the quarter ending September 30 over the same quarter last year; Microsoft sold 2.4 million Xbox consoles, though it did not say how many out of that total were Xbox Ones.
QUOTE | “Gamers just want transparency up front when it comes to spending their money.” – Berni Good, cyberpsychologist, talking about what psychology reveals about gamers and how to design for them.
QUOTE | “Although casual gamers are playing games they can find on their mobile device for free, it doesn’t mean they’re any less engaged or less fanatical about the brands.” – Ludia’s Philippe Ha, talking about his experiences as community manager for The Price is Right and Family Feud mobile games.
QUOTE | “The console market is still very robust for AAA products. The concern is losing that second tier audience.” – Analyst David Cole, explaining why his company DFC lowered its global forecast for games based on lower console game sales.
STAT | 42% — Amount that global revenue for mobile games will grow in 2014 over 2013, to $US25 billion, according to analyst firm Newzoo; the firm projects that total mobile game revenue of $US30.3 billion will beat console game revenue in 2015.
QUOTE | “We feel like this is the best way to make an uncompromisingly original game.” – Day For Night Games’s Joe Fielder, explaining why the ex-Irrational Games devs chose Kickstarter for funding rather than traditional funding routes.
QUOTE | “Anyone can make a game. Making a game that’s good, making the game you want to make, or one that affects people in a certain way, that’s something else.” – Tale of Tales co-founder Auriea Harvey, talking about how the indie studio is shifting to making games for gamers rather than non-gamers.
QUOTE | “More likely, Riccitiello is being brought on board to spur growth for a longer-term play, such as an eventual IPO or larger-scale buyout.” – Analyst firm EEDAR’s Patrick Walker, talking along with other analysts about why Unity made ex-EA head John Riccitiello the new CEO of Unity.
QUOTE | “What we want to do now is to create entertainment for the entire family.” – Amnem Rehman, Mind Candy’s PR manager, talking about the company’s move away from kid’s games to create a mobile game for a broad audience.
image via Shutterstock
Comments
2 responses to “This Week In The Business: End Of The Line”
I think it’s more that you can’t churn out a linear story game of good quality on a 12 month cadence (I say this as someone who still enjoys Ubi’s various open world franchises).
Enh. Sandbox is good, but we need some toys in it. I can see a few points in favour of the ’emergent experience’ thing, but I think they dramatically underestimate how many of us play games mostly for the ‘interactive narrative’ thing, or for fulfilling power fantasies, and prefer to avoid the interference of others in that.
There’s clear benefit to publishers in that player-driven-content is cheaper than REAL content, and the implicit multiplayer-heavy focus allows a great excuse for publisher-friendly/consumer-unfriendly ‘always online’ setups. So I can see THAT as a reason why makers might call it the future.
People play what’s available. And if you only make cheaper, more publisher-friendly games, that’s what people will play. Self-fulfilling prophecies and all that…