QUOTE | “If these folks had their way, none of those people would be able to buy Grand Theft Auto.” – Take-Two president Karl Slatoff reacting to Australian protestors who got GTA V pulled from some retailers; ultimately Slatoff believes “if you don’t like it and it’s offensive to you, then you don’t buy it.”
Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “Why are there so few women in the industry? Does this really matter, and if so, why? What can we do about it? Is the industry sexist?” – Ella Romanos of the UK’s Next Gen Skills Academy talking about the importance of a balanced workforce in games and how to get more women involved in the industry.
QUOTE | “Mobile gaming has become stagnant…Our promise to our peers and our audience is to put forth original properties that shake the mobile scene out of its comfort zone.” – Lasse Seppänen, CEO of PlayRaven, a Helsinki-based studio formed by AAA vets from Remedy and Rockstar, on the need for the mobile market to start maturing.
STAT | 27 per cent — The dip seen at US retail in November for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare compared to last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson; in fact, Advanced Warfare’s first-month US retail sales were just 49 per cent of Modern Warfare 3’s.
QUOTE | “Several high-profile new IP releases, Destiny and Titanfall, have had massive financial success despite…average review scores that fell below industry expectations.” – EEDAR’s Patrick Walker, head of insights and analytics, discussing the shift in importance this console generation for reviews aggregator Metacritic.
QUOTE | “Mobile gaming has rapidly emerged as the brightest star in the gaming universe.” – Lewis Ward, IDC research manager, talking about the huge growth in the mobile games space; the global installed base for mobile gamers surpassed 1 billion players this year.
QUOTE | “I think it’s important to have a vision and know where you’re going, and I think that’s actually lacking in the game industry a little bit.” – Josef Fares, director of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, describing the lessons that game makers should be taking from filmmakers.
QUOTE | “We want people to get to know each other without judging what they look like.” – Raymond Walintukan, talking about his new app LovelUp, which brings people together on dates based on the games they enjoy.
QUOTE | “Our goal is to make better games. I don’t think we need more people, necessarily to do that.” – EA Studios executive vice president Patrick Soderlund on Battlefield developer DICE Stockholm relocating but also preparing for growth.
STAT | $US15 million — The amount of financing, led by Puzzle & Dragons firm GungHo Online, raised for Kamcord, a social network for mobile games that lets players record and share gameplay videos.
Comments
11 responses to “This Week In The Business: If You Don’t Like It, Don’t Buy It”
So true about GTA V. Their campaign was built on bullshit and lies. That sure didnt help. Thankfully Big W drew the line for us. Now Collective Shout is trying to bully them over their ‘sexist womens clothing’.
I think the guy from Take Two HAS to act like he’s upset about Target and K-Mart pulling the game. So what, two pretty average retailers (as far as gaming goes) have refused to stock their game, the upside being that their game is now in the spotlight! Seriously, a game that apparently SO bad that it’s being pulled from stores and is the cause of much debate … that’s publicity you can’t buy.
I think you’ve missed the point a little. Sales will always be made no matter what. What he and many others, are pissed about, is that a minority of self righteous assholes are doing, is pushing their core beliefs on others, getting them to do things under false pretences and using bullying tactics to accomplish this. It’s offensive and ridiculous.
I completely agree about the minority and the assholes. But let’s be honest, ignorant people who believe that games are kids toys and murder simulators … they’re in the verge of extinction. They won’t plague us forever. They’re not going to grow in numbers and they’re not going to become more successful.
Remember when EA hired a bunch of people to act like religious not jobs and protest against Dante’s Inferno because it would corrupt society? As far as I see it, the people who signed the anti-GTA petition are doing that job free.
Did Big W refuse to pull it? Good for them. Will go there for all my reasonably priced items that I need from now on. So long, Target and K-Mart.
Yep, they drew the line, essentially saying they believe consumers are mature enough to make their own decisions. Now that feminazi group is going after them, despite saying originally they were a great store, for apparently being a ‘sexist store’ lol.
Oh Karl, i wish it were that easy.
I think the biggest problem with GTA V, was this was the first R rated one (I think GTA 4 should have been R but all we had back then was MA15+) and now some parents are waking up to the fact that they shouldn’t buy GTA for their 8yo kids. Getting it pulled from the shelves means they don’t have to say no every week.
The fact that they where straight up wrong about the game is beside the point. (I don’t believe they where lying, I think they just assumed, made up or heard from another a friend of a person who once saw what they thought was GTA V. They actually genuinely believe what they said, the old lie long enough and loud enough and it becomes true.) Target’s main Demographic wanted it gone, Target didn’t want to lose customers. People like us go to buy cheap games on special we generally cost them money doing this, as that’s the only thing we buy from them.
Offending us the people who want GTA V, the people who think kids shouldn’t have it but us 18+ are mature enough to handle it. We don’t make them money, we’re superfluous to their entire buisness model. Pissing us off doesn’t cost them sales like pissing off the GTA V ban wagon would.
At the end of the day we’re the silent people, the people who mostly just shut up and don’t complain about stores selling the inferior other console to the one we bought. To putting games on the shelves that we don’t like. For selling clothes that don’t fit us. We are the ones who realise not everything in the store is aimed at us.
Surely GTA3 should have alerted parents that games aren’t just for kids?
Especially when it was discovered the game was refused classification and Take 2/Rockstar had just slapped MA stickers on them and sent them to stores anyway…
As for Target’s profits, they would have already made a pretty huge sum from the game. The PS4/Xbone versions were on the shelves for 3 weeks before it was pulled, and the 360/PS3 versions gave Target a whole year of profits.
Grand Theft Auto, The Original game (my favourite so far although I didn’t try 4 or 5 yet) should have told parents it’s not ok for kids. But most parents these days don’t pay attention until ACA or TT tell them they should. Why would you ever buy a kid a game called GTA?
Selling games under wholesale price does not make profit. $74 is under that price. They don’t get many games in so the majority of their sales are in that 2/3 week cheap window.
I seriously doubt they lost money on it. How do you know what their cost price was?
Dick Smith must be hemorrhaging money with all their cheap preorder deals. I got the Master Chief Collection from them for $60.