What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “I don’t think they should have had a physical drive on Xbox One — it’s like having a dead body handcuffed to you.” — David Darling, founder of Codemasters, discussing the revolution of digital distribution.
QUOTE | “What I don’t like in the games industry today is that there are too many opportunists who are there to make money.” — Former Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, on mobile games, next-gen, and the future of games.
QUOTE | “Nintendo is going to be here in 100 years. I have no doubt.” — Oddworld Inhabitants founder Lorne Lanning, praising Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata for declining to lay off employees even though revenue is down.
QUOTE | “No company is perfect, but Steam is by far the gold standard in digital distribution.” — Tommy Refenes, Team Meat developer, commenting along with others on the greatest things in the last era of gaming.
STAT | 945 per cent — Percentage by which GungHo Entertainment’s mobile game Puzzle & Dragons rose in the first six months of 2013; the game has daily sales of nearly $US5 million and has brought in $US763 million so far this year.
QUOTE | “How many people really want to walk, run and jump to navigate a virtual world?” — Veteran designer Warren Spector, explaining why the HoloDeck and VR is a blind alley leading to a dead-end future for gaming.
STAT | 160,000 — Number of Wii U consoles sold worldwide over the period from April to June, 60,000 of those in the US; that compares to over 400,000 Xbox 360 sold in the US in that same period.
QUOTE | “We’re just putting our shoes on to get to the start line of a long distance race.” — Electronic Arts’ chief operating officer Peter Moore, talking about whether the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One will sell more consoles.
STAT | 37 per cent — Amount by which Take-Two’s sales dropped in the April-June quarter compared to the same quarter in 2012, when the company shipped Max Payne 3 and Spec Ops: The Line.
QUOTE | “We’re moving our entire company toward the concept of emergent content.” — Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley, describing the new direction EverQuest Next is headed.
QUOTE | “I’d like to see other shooter developers take up the spirit of what we’ve done.” — Scattered Entertainment head Ben Cousins, talking about his new shooter The Drowning that he hopes will revolutionise mobile FPS titles.
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
Image by elnur [Shutterstock]
Comments
12 responses to “This Week In The Business: ‘Like Having A Dead Body Handcuffed To You’”
Ah, John Riccitiello, the irony.
I believe hypocrisy is the word you’re looking for.
“I don’t think they should have had a physical drive on Xbox One — it’s like having a dead body handcuffed to you.”
And I think the “cloud” is something that will kill me if I hold my breath waiting for the damn game to load.
My connection, whilst certainly not horrible at 2.2mbit/s, is not fast enough to stream games – heck, it hardly streams video clips these days thanks to increasing bitrates and the assumption that everyone has a 10mbit+ connection.
Agreed, hurry up with the NBN roll out we want to use cloud labor!
Even with the NBN, exchanging physical hard drives for ‘the cloud’ is easily the _dumbest_ idea of the past few years.
He doesn’t mean Hard Drive he means Blu-Ray Drive as in all games should be distributed digitally.
Probably a great idea for everyone outside Australia, we’re already getting screwed on game prices with digital only there would be no way around it. All game $120 until the end of time. No thanks.
Agreed I import all my games from the UK to save a few dollars, if no (disk) drive then I would also want a decrease in price.
Haha funny stuff.
Also, Codemasters, if you don’t like harddrives, go back to making games with invisible walls for PS1.
Those with their head in the clouds will fall.
And that’s why COdemasters is the most successful— OHHH wait they aren’t
“…it’s like having a dead body handcuffed to you. [Who sometimes talks to you and tells you things you need to know. OK, so maybe the guy isn’t actually dead, I just wish he was. Because he’s old and slow and I want my inheritance.]”
“…there are too many opportunists who are there to make money. [It’s cramping our style – we were here first, they’re farming our putzes!]”
“Nintendo is going to be here in 100 years. I have no doubt [that they will probably have gone the way of Sega, not making any hardware and be whoring out their IP for others to work on].”
“How many people really want to walk, run and jump to navigate a virtual world? [That’s way too much effort. Kids and adults alike hate exercise. Fuck, I don’t even walk to get to the fridge these days,]” said Spector, reaching for another rare twinkie with his grabbing stick.
“We’re moving our entire company toward the concept of emergent content. [It’s easier than real work.]“
I thought Sega still made Arcade hardware, since they develop the hardware for Namco Bandai too.
Yeah, but that’s kinda like saying that after being the President of the USA, you still work in the whitehouse… as a tour guide. 😛