What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “Strong franchises like Call of Duty: Ghosts tend to benefit from a halo effect, but no game is ‘review proof.’” — Analyst Billy Pidgeon, explaining with other analysts why poor reviews might hurt Call of Duty: Ghosts and sales of the franchise long-term.
STAT | 18 per cent — Amount Activision’s sales dropped last quarter over the same quarter the previous year; Activision noted that last year had Mists of Pandaria in that quarter, and also cited “uncertainties surrounding the console transition”.
QUOTE | “This is a console that will last you, conservatively a decade, if I had to put a bet down today.” — Microsoft Canada’s director of Xbox marketing Craig Flannagan, on how the Xbox One is “built for the future”.
STAT | 80 million — Number of PlayStation 3 consoles sold worldwide since 2006, according to Sony; so far 4332 games have been released for the console, with another 300 coming before the end of the year.
QUOTE | “For Ubisoft Montreal, it’s really different, so everybody was surprised when I made that pitch.” — Ubisoft creative director Patrick Plourde, on making his “prestige” project Child of Light inside the AAA studio.
QUOTE | “We’re more like a high-performance engine. You build the car around it.” — Oxide co-founder Dan Baker, on their new 64-bit, multi-core game engine they intend to licence to developers.
QUOTE | “Starting to create video games is the perfect introduction into software engineering.” — Project Spark‘s Soren Hannibal, on their game creation tool intended to encourage new game programmers.
QUOTE | “Sometimes being part of Ubisoft makes us feel more independent than we used to be.” — Antti Ilvessuo, co-founder and creative director at Trials HD studio RedLynx, on the opportunities and creative freedom Ubisoft gives the developer.
QUOTE | “You have to stop thinking about it in a romantic way.” — Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin, on the harsh realities of becoming an indie game development studio after leaving a big publisher.
QUOTE | “I don’t think there’s really anything that new with this set of consoles.” — Will Harbin, CEO of hardcore social game publisher Kixeye, on why he’s not that excited about the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One.
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
Image by George Dolgikh [Shutterstock]
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