QUOTE | “You could market research any product to death if you’re not careful.” — DICE GM Karl Magnus Troedsson, talking about how DICE has to filter fan feedback to help make the best game.
Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “We devote so much energy to the negative aspects of serving a technologically savvy audience — hacking, piracy, etc. — that it’s easy to overlook what a wonderful resource having a community that’s talented and passionate can be.” — Overwolf CEO Uri Marchand, arguing that modders are developers and should be treated that way.
QUOTE | “We made a difficult game, and the fact that it was free made people suspicious, and rightfully so.” — Kitfox’s Tanya X. Short, developers of Shattered Planet, talking about how free-to-play isn’t always the best option for mobile games.
STAT | $US1.04 billion — Amount of revenue World of Warcraft made in 2013 worldwide, making it the #1 MMO; Lineage 1 was #2, TERA: Online was #3, and EA’s Star Wars: The Old Republic was #4 with $US165 million in revenue.
QUOTE | “Developers will see mobile as a revenue stream they can only ignore at their peril.” — Olivier Voirin, VP of Sales in Europe for Mad Catz, explaining how “mobile is being taken very seriously as a platform for core gaming.”
QUOTE | “Most of our digital revenue comes from our brick-and-mortar stores.” — GameStop president Tony Bartel, talking about how GameStop took in $US724.4 million in digital revenue for 2013.
STAT | 106 per cent — Amount that US retail sales of video game hardware jumped in June 2014 compared to June 2013, according to NPD; software declined three per cent due to fewer new releases than last year.
QUOTE | “A lot of that audience felt almost insulted that a company like Harmonix would be turning to Kickstarter.” — Alex Rigopulos, chairman and CCO of Harmonix, talking about how Kickstarter has become more difficult, perhaps especially for established developers.
STAT | $US3 billion — Amount that mobile game company Machine Zone is valued at as it raises a new round of funding; the company projects $US600 million in revenue this year from its hit title Game of War: Fire Age.
image via Shutterstock
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2 responses to “This Week In The Business: Battlefield Market Research”
Contents of the post aside. Given the state of the last few battlefield releases, “Battlefield: Marker Research” is accurate enough to be a believable name for the next series.
You’d think with all the market research they do that “working servers” would have come up as something that a lot of customers would be interested in.