This Week In The Business: Have Those Opinions

QUOTE | “I know a lot of people are going to have some strong opinions about that. Cool. Have those opinions.” – Coffee Stain Studios community manager Jace Varlet explains why the company ditched a planned Steam launch for its first-person building game Satisfactory and will now release it exclusively on Epic Games Store.

QUOTE | “Such a figure is equivalent to months of funding and running a studio; that’s a decent marketing campaign to bring in more players, an esports event and modding prizes, hiring talented new staff, or bringing in community managers to engage with the people paying the money. It’s huge.” – Bulkhead Interactive CEO Joe Brammer talks about the additional $US350,000 the Battalion 1944 studio could have re-invested if had to pay the Epic Game Store’s 12% cut of revenues instead of Steam’s 30% cut.

QUOTE | “We believe if we iterate and work with developers, we can reverse platform fragmentation in the game industry while connecting developers and players closer together.” – In announcing that it will let developers keep 90% of revenues from games sold on its store, Discord finds an interesting euphemism for running the competition out of business.

QUOTE | “Preston’s actions are damaging to the Fortnite community because they have spoiled the game for millions of people who play and/or watch Fortnite, and negatively impact those who work hard to create and update Fortnite. The fact that he is a teenager makes this no less true.” – A letter from Epic Games threatening legal action against the owner of FNBRLeaks for data mining the game’s updates and revealing some of the company’s plans before they are properly announced.

QUOTE | “Now, as part of the IWGB, we will have the tools to fix this broken sector and create an ethical industry where it’s not only big game companies that thrive, but workers as well.” – Dec Peach, founding member of the UK Game Workers Unite branch, explains its decision to become an official branch of The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain.

QUOTE | “I find it funny people are thinking, ‘When’s the point where everyone gets bored of this subject?’ It’s going to be keep being extremely relevant to game workers until our conditions improve. And without unionization, I really don’t think our conditions are going to improve significantly.” – Game Workers Unite organiser Emma Kinema talks about the organisation’s progress to date, and the long road ahead.

QUOTE | “During our recent inquiries, the committee has heard repeated concerns about the impact to society of the increasing amounts of time that people spend immersed in online worlds, and the potentially addictive nature of social media and gaming. We want to explore these concerns during this inquiry and consider what the right response should be in setting public policy for the future.” – The UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport committee chair Damian Collins explains why the government is launching an inquiry into immersive and addictive technologies.

QUOTE | “The team at Voodoo is constantly looking at the market for ideas and inspiration. There are many games that are very similar to proven mechanics that then take them a little bit further and are able to identify the fun element a little bit better than the original.” – Voodoo Berlin general manager Alexander Willink defends the company’s development practices after its Hole.io was called a “cheap clone” of Doughnut County by the latter game’s creator, Ben Esposito.

QUOTE | “For whatever reason, people are still really excited for us — or really angry at us. We haven’t experienced a ton of apathy. Apathy is how games die. Projects fail not because people think they are bad, but because people don’t know or care that they exist.” – Capybara Games’ Nathan Vella discusses Below and the game’s five-year journey from its announcement at Microsoft’s E3 2013 press briefing to its release this week.

QUOTE | “There is a legacy of Until Dawn in everything that we do now. But it would be dangerous if we decided to follow that formula indefinitely.” – Supermassive Games’ co-founder Pete Samuels explains why the studio is trying something a little different with its upcoming Dark Pictures Anthology.

QUOTE | “I think the big question now, and the exciting question for me, is how does that experience become social? How do players not only get to create their own story, but how do you have those stories be social, and how do you share them in the meaningful way? I don’t think we’ve answered that yet, and I think that’s the exciting stuff to look into.” – Former EA and Ubisoft executive Jade Raymond talks about where she sees the industry heading next.