This Week In The Business: Making Money Making Games

“I feel people just don’t want to associate making games with making money. It sort of breaks the taboo of making art for art’s sake, which I think is kind of stupid.” — Game Theory president Marguerite Dibble, talking about how many indie developers seem to “romanticise poverty”.

Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “Skyrim changed the landscape for role-playing games completely.” — Mark Darrah, executive produce for Dragon Age: Inquisition, talking about how the RPG audience has changed tremendously since the last Dragon Age.

QUOTE | “We see purchase intent well above last year and we see engagement with the brand in social media channels all being markedly up, so I’m still optimistic.” — Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, responding to questions about whether the new Call of Duty will sell better than last year’s version.

QUOTE | “Kill Shot is effectively a complete rip-off of our game Deer Hunter 2014.” – Chris Akhavan, Glu Mobile’s president, talking about the lawsuit the company filed against Hothead Games alleging copyright infringement.

QUOTE | “Removing the barriers of the anti-circumvention provision will allow players to continue to explore and play games they already own.” — From the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s statement, asking the US government for six DMCA exemptions, including the right to run games the publisher has abandoned.

STAT | 6 per cent — Amount of US mobile gamers that provide 51 per cent of mobile game revenues, according to a study from EEDAR; those heavy spenders contribute $US293.70 each, the company says.

QUOTE | “I certainly wouldn’t characterise the community of fans I know and had the pleasure to engage with as toxic or misogynistic.” — Michael Condrey, director of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, talking about his experience with offensiveness and abuse in the game community.

STAT | $US116 million — The amount of profit Disney Interactive made last quarter, on revenues of $US1.3 billion; this is the first time the division has posted a profit since Disney started announcing those numbers separately in 2009.

STAT | $US1.17 billion — Amount of revenue Activision recorded for last quarter, a record for that quarter; the company said 43 per cent of its revenue was from digital sales and the company raised its overall revenue forecast for the full year.

QUOTE | “We’re all hungry for it to happen… It’s months, not years away, but many months… We’ve gone out there and set this bar and said, ‘We want to get it right.’ We don’t want it to be four or five years.” — Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, talking about how close Oculus Rift is to being a consumer product.

QUOTE | “It is very smart to build your community during the development of the game… If you already have a community involved, then they will be that initial critical mass to try your game and tell their friends.” — Former Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo, talking about the importance of social media for game development.

Top image via Shutterstock