This Week In The Business ‘There Is Strong Purchase Intent For The PS4’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week, brought to you by Steve Peterson of GamesIndustry International.

QUOTE | “[There is] strong purchase intent for the PS4.” — Tony Bartel, president of GameStop, talking about the interest that GameStop’s already seeing for PS4 at this early stage, as well as “disappointing” Wii U sales.

QUOTE | “I can’t imagine that we would do Hearthstone and never do another free-to-play game.” — Blizzard Entertainment chief creative officer Rob Pardo, talking about the company’s new game Hearthstone, a digital, free-to-play collectible card game.

QUOTE | “The reality seems to be is we keep adding types of games and finding new player groups for those.” — Arkane Studios’ Harvey Smith talking about why single-player games are not on the way out at all, despite what some say.

QUOTE | “Core gamers on average own more than one console … I think they’re going to want Ouya too.”–Julie Uhrman, CEO of Ouya, talking about why the $US99 console can find a market even against the PS4.

QUOTE | “It’s really important for us to make sure it’s as easy as possible for them to get the content out there.”–Adam Boyes, SCEA’s vice president of developer and publisher relations, talking about working with developers on PlayStation content.

STAT | $US5.9 billion — Value of digital game content sold in the USA in 2012, according to NPD; this includes full game downloads, DLC, subscriptions and mobile games.

STAT | Five million — Number of units of Tomb Raider Square Enix needs to sell for the game to be profitable, according to analyst Billy Pidgeon; so far the game has sold in the three million unit range.

QUOTE | “There is always an appetite for more beautiful, better animated games.” — Xavier Poix, head of Ubisoft France Studios, talking about next-gen consoles and Ubisoft’s drive to keep pushing both gameplay and graphics.

QUOTE | “We’re definitely taking this one about as far as we can go.”– Saints Row IV senior producer Jim Boone, talking about what to expect in the next Saints Row game.

QUOTE | “When you say ‘Elder Scrolls’, we don’t have a problem getting the message out, which helps us immensely.” — Bethesda game director Matt Firor, talking about Elder Scrolls Online and why he thinks it will get plenty of attention.

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