This Week In The Business: Predictable Problems

QUOTE | “I think some of that was predictable and preventable. If I’m just honest I would say that.” – Former Xbox exec Robbie Bach, talking about the initial problems the Xbox One had that have since improved.

Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week…

QUOTE | “At the end of the day it is all about the players. It’s important… to remember that they’re the folks making all the content that everyone is trying to figure out how to monetise.” – Hi-Rez Studios COO and co-founder Todd Harris, talking about why the gaming audience is so important to eSports.

QUOTE | “Kabam holds itself and its employees to a high standard of conduct, and we take any claim against us very seriously. The behaviour of one employee as described in the lawsuit is not representative of how we do business.” – Kabam COO Kent Wakeford, talking about the amicable resolution of the lawsuit between Kabam and Machine Zone regarding comments at an industry party.

STAT | 10 billion — The total number of YouTube views that gaming YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, AKA PewDiePie, has now racked up; this makes him the first person ever to score more than 10 billion views on YouTube, and he now has more than 39 million subscribers.

QUOTE | “At Electronic Arts we have some of our most powerful franchises overseen by women who manage hundreds of men.” – EA COO Peter Moore, talking about the progress women have made at EA.

QUOTE | “We believe that each game has a natural cadence…We don’t annualize our franchises. Two to three years between games is about right.” – Square Enix European CEO Phil Rogers, talking about why the company doesn’t come out with sequels more swiftly.

QUOTE | “When you’re in the content creation business, you can’t spend too much time worrying about what other people are doing. You’ve got to focus on what you’re doing and making it great in itself.” – Muti Labs founder Graham Hopper, explaining why Hearthstone didn’t scare the studio off from making its own strategy card game.

QUOTE | “You can make the best game in the world, the best game ever, and will it be discovered? Will there be retention? You just don’t know.” – Paul Hollywood, creative director of developer Starship, talking about the difficulties of being an independent game developer.

QUOTE | “It’s changed me from a scrappy indie who just wanted to make something really cool and arty, to wanting to make a business.” – Jeremy Wilkinson of Neon Souls, talking about how being in the PlayHubs game incubator has helped him.

STAT | 2% — Overall drop in US retail sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories for August compared to last year, according to NPD; software for new consoles was up 34%, but dropped 51% for older consoles.

STAT | 11% — Overall rise in US digital game sales for August compared to August of last year, according to SuperData; US customers spent $US973 million on digital games, down from $US1.03 billion in July.

QUOTE | “Dolphins and whales are more likely to play a single game. Once they convert and spend money, they are more likely to stay loyal to that game.” – Alison Bilas of GameAnalytics, talking about their study of how the biggest payers (“dolphins” and “whales”) spend on free-to-play games.

Top image via Shutterstock Photo