What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “Sony has had a miserable generation in the console market.” — Rob Fahey, former editor of GI.biz, talking about the harsh lessons Sony has learned and what they need to succeed.
QUOTE | “Consoles have become a barrier to creativity.” — YoYo Games CEO Sandy Duncan, developers of GameMaker, talking about the effect of the massive development costs and closed ecosystems of consoles.
QUOTE | “I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last traditional console generation.” — Rob Pardo, Chief Creative Officer of Blizzard Entertainment, talking about game design and the future of gaming.
QUOTE | “You won’t be seeing our profit being spent on Ferraris and shit like that. Our profits are going back into games.” — Lorne Lanning, CEO of Oddworld Inhabitants, talking about an attempt by EA to acquire his studio and why he said no.
QUOTE | “We wish Lorne luck on the game and recommend Lithium for the paranoia and Tourette Syndrome.” — Jeff Brown, EA spokesman, commenting on Lorne Lanning’s profanity-laced diatribe about how EA tried to buy his company, which EA says never happened.
STAT | One billion — Number of monthly Facebook users actively using the service; Facebook has also seen about 230 million Facebook users playing games in the last month.
QUOTE | “I’d written things being slightly grumpy about the way Lara had become. Big boobs and etcetera etcetera.” — Rhianna Pratchett, narrative designer on the Tomb Raider reboot, talking abou her work on Lara Croft.
QUOTE | “That’s the beauty of the internet; now people instantly broadcast how wrong your opinions are all over the world .” — Frank O’Connor, Halo 4‘s franchise development director, talking about how Halo 4 development had to deal with an enormous amount of advice.
STAT | $US2.30 — Value of one share of Zynga’s stock after it dropped 20 per cent overnight on news of poor third quarter results; the stock has dropped over 80 per cent from its high point back in March of this year.
QUOTE | “Ubisoft pounces on every market where it can gain ground.” — Mike Williams, writer for GamesIndustry International, talking with other journalists about the best video game companies in a fantasy sports style draft.
STAT | 10 million — Number of World of Warcraft subscribers after the release of Mists of Pandaria, up from nine million before; the expansion has sold 2.7 million copies so far.
QUOTE | “25 years ago I never really imagined that game hardware would evolve this far so quickly.” — Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid, talking about the game series, how it evolved and where it’s going.
STAT | 12 million — Number of units sold of the Left 4 Dead franchise, according to Valve; Valve continues to support the series, now through Steam Workshop.
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
Image from Shutterstock
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