This Week In The Business: Smells Like No Team Spirit


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

QUOTE | “At almost all game companies, there’s almost no appreciation at all for the team dynamic. ‘They’re just replaceable meat puppets,’ and that’s never, ever true.” — Gordon Walton, veteran game company executive, talking about the way most game companies view developers and why it’s wrong.

QUOTE | “As we prepare for E3, the pace of launches for Wii U is going to dramatically increase.” — Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, talking about the prospects for the 3DS and the Wii U.

QUOTE | “There are times where you just have to sunset a game and there are fans still playing that game.” — EA senior VP Nick Earl, explaining why EA shut down its social games despite still having millions of players.

QUOTE | “The total amount of developers shifting focus to solely mobile and tablet titles is frightening.” — EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, concerned that developers may be missing a great opportunity on next-gen consoles.

QUOTE | “If the rules of the game aren’t working, change the rules.” — Telltale Games VP of publishing Steve Allison, talking about the company’s approach to marketing The Walking Dead game.

QUOTE | “People are playing games of quality wherever they come from.” — Kellee Santiago, head of developer relations for Ouya, talking about how they now have 10,000 developers for Ouya.

STAT | $US104 million — Profit that Finnish mobile game developer Supercell made in the first quarter of 2013; the company is making about $US2.4 million per day from its two games on iOS.

QUOTE | “What we have now is just the best next step of a long march.” — Will Luton, free-to-play game designer and consultant, explaining why free-to-play games aren’t evil.

QUOTE | “More companies operating in this way will stimulate the market further.” — Pixel Toys CEO Andy Wafer, talking about how the company managed to release their 3DS game in only 6 months of development.

STAT | 10 per cent — Amount video game hardware and software sales dropped in US retail stores for March versus March 2012; software was actually up two per cent, but hardware dropped 32 per cent.

QUOTE | “Everybody says that the game is the ultimate goal. The game is not. The team is.” — Ru Weerasuriya, head of PSP God of War developer Ready at Dawn, talking about the importance of team in game development, as his studio prepares its first next-gen IP.

QUOTE | “Layoffs are fueling way more development in the small, independent space.” — Klei Games founder Jamie Cheng finding the good news amidst all the high-profile layoffs from companies like EA, Activision and Disney.

STAT | 9 million — Number of people playing Crytek’s freemium FPS Warface; the game has reached that mark in 12 months mostly in Russia.

QUOTE | “For us as a company, it does not matter which of our games you play. As long as you’re having a good time, we like you.” — Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi, explaining why he’s not worried about their next game.

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

Image by Shutterstock


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