This Week In The Business: ‘The Most Overtly Sexist Environment Ever’

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

QUOTE | “When I first started playing in 1999, it was the most overtly sexist environment ever.” — Linda Carlson, SOE director of global community relations, on EverQuest and how online communities are changing.

QUOTE | “You don’t force anything, you don’t drive anything, you just provide it.” — Andrew Wilson, EA’s new CEO, talking about how FIFA built a very successful set of products and services.

QUOTE | “The games are hopefully getting good enough … that it’s not just about shooting anymore.” — Rockstar VP of creative Dan Houser, recounting the evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series of games.

QUOTE | “He is generally well respected by those he works with, he has credibility with the studios, and from the board’s perspective, he isn’t likely to shake things up.” — Analyst Colin Sebastian sizing up EA’s choice of Andrew Wilson as the company’s new CEO.

QUOTE | “Personally, I find it an empty, silly way of measuring anything.” — Raphael van Lierop, Hinterland founder and industry veteran, on the game industry tradition of working amazingly long hours.

STAT | 40 per cent — Number of Xbox Live users that are female, according to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner; “That’s a giant change from when we launched our platform,” said Turner.

QUOTE | “We’re going from $US60 games to free. From proprietary hardware devices to any hardware device.” — John Schappert, ex EA and Zynga exec, explaining why his new startup is going to focus on mobile games.

STAT | 5 million — Target number of PS4 units that Sony expects to sell by the end of March 2014, according to SCE head Andrew House; that would outsell the PS3 by 1.5 million units in the same time period after launch.

QUOTE | “There’s a lot of distrust of publishers, but a lot of them do genuinely hard work.” — David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, in a discussion of Unity’s foray into game publishing.

STAT | $US1.5 billion — Lifetime revenue generated at retail by Activision’s Skylanders franchise so far; the last instalment, Skylanders Giants, sold 500,000 copies in its first two weeks.

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

Image by Elnur [Shutterstock]