This Week In The Business: What If The NRA Was More Like The ESRB?

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “Imagine if the NRA had the same relationship with the gun industry that the ESRB has with the game industry.” — Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford talking about the ongoing gun debate in America and how the NRA should behave like the game industry’s ESRB.

QUOTE | “I failed two big games, I probably lost €10 million between these two productions, but it’s OK because I did other things that went better.” — Pauline Jacquey, managing director of Ubisoft’s Reflections studio, talking about what it’s like at the studio working on Watch Dogs.

STAT | 58 per cent — Percentage of GDC attendees whose next games will be coming out for smartphones or tablets; this compares to only 14 per cent who say they are working on an Xbox 360 game, with even less interest in other consoles like Wii U.

QUOTE | “We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way.” — EA CFO Blake Jorgenson, talking about how all of EA’s games will be featuring in-game purchasing.

STAT | 500,000 — Number of subscribers that EVE Online now has, according to publisher CCP; the ten-year-old game has just launched in China and released their 18th free expansion.

QUOTE | “Certain developers view the ESRB as a censor … We feel that effective content labelling can actually foster creativity.” — ESRB president Patricia Vance, talking about fighting the image the ESRB has with some in the industry.

STAT | $US1.2 billion — Amount of money that Sony just sold their Tokyo office building for; Sony will remain there for five years under a lease agreement with the new owner.

QUOTE | “Console games are getting deeper, challenges are mounting and costs are rising.” — Mark Strassman, VP of entertainment industry strategy for Autodesk, talking about how Autodesk is trying to make their products more available to everybody.

STAT | 10 million — Number of visits the free-to-play game Aurora has had since its debut in 2011; the game is available in PlayStation’s virtual world Home.

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

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