“There is no doubt in my mind that Bethesda is the clear ‘winner’ of this E3.” — ICO CEO Thomas Bidaux, analysing the media coverage of E3 and finding Fallout 4 had more than 3500 articles, with Final Fantasy VII in second place with a little over 2000 articles.
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week…
STAT | 37 — Number of countries where Bethesda’s iOS game Fallout Shelter has been among the top five grossing games; the game has also been the #1 download in 48 countries, and #1 on the overall app chart in 25 countries.
QUOTE | “I think it’s the next big development in the history of civilisation.” — Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, talking about AR as opposed to VR, which he thinks is only a 150 million user audience.
QUOTE | “I’ve been pretty consistent in my belief that VR is a fad… I think it will generate some interest among the hardcore gamers… But for entertainment? I’m just not seeing it.” — Veteran designer and exec Warren Spector, talking about his take on E3 and the future of the games industry.
QUOTE | “I wouldn’t view it as a transitional year at all for us… We’re bringing a plethora of great games to the market this year.” — Nintendo of America executive VP of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt, downplaying the idea that the company was filling time in its E3 video before new initiatives come to market.
QUOTE | “If a series of bad shooters came out nobody would say that the whole FPS genre is worthless, so if a series of stupidly monetised free-to-play games comes out you can’t say that this way of presenting games is worthless.” — Gameforge CEO Carsten van Husen, talking about why quality is the key to success in a competitive market, regardless of how a game monetises.
QUOTE | “It’s pretty core to what we’re doing, and based on the response of fans, it does seem like there’s an awful lot of energy around it.” — Xbox chief marketing officer Mike Nichols, talking about the importance of offering Xbox 360 compatibility on the Xbox One.
QUOTE | “[Sony and Shibuya are] not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars.” — Shenmue designer Yu Suzuki, clarifying somewhat how his Ys Net studio is funding Shenmue III after some confusion and criticism over the game’s Kickstarter.
QUOTE | “Even if I didn’t care about diversity — which I do — I want everybody’s money, of all walks of life.” — Designer Cliff Bleszinski, explaining why he wants his new game to have a diverse range of characters people can buy.
QUOTE | “It’s as if there was some voice inside of me, that didn’t want to feel like a success, a big shot.” — Prince of Persia designer Jordan Mechner, explaining why he spent a year living small in Spain right after the release of Prince of Persia.
QUOTE | “It’s unbelievable how much I do get noticed and sometimes I can’t even go to the bathroom.” — Veteran Mega Man designer Keiji Inafune, talking about how he appreciates the impact his games have had on fans worldwide.
QUOTE | “We will bring together Xbox Live and our first-party gaming efforts across PC, console, mobile and new categories like HoloLens into one integrated play.” — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, writing in a memo about his vision for Microsoft’s future.
Comments
5 responses to “This Week In The Business: Bethesda And Fallout 4 The Win”
I really like Bethesda, I am not a massive fan of some of their cult games such as fallout or elder scrolls although I did play them. However they seem to constantly conduct themselves in a fashion that has the fans best interest at hand (as well as their own of course). They have had missteps but always seem quick to clean them up. As they grow it impresses me even more, I think EA and Ubi could learn a lot from them.
I also agree VR is a fad, although i would love for it to surge, I just don’t see it. Technology seems to be moving rapidly towards a compact/accessible style. mobile games are popular because you can play them everywhere, cloud gaming is surging, PC gaming is rapidly moving from full ATX builds to smaller form factors such as Mini-ITX or Mini-ATX, a lot of the more popular builds on tech sites these days are with cases no bigger then a shoe box, AMD’s Fury is using a smaller form factor and recognizes this trend. The consoles had to step up their game and try and make an all in one box to help decrease the clutter around the TV now you can do everything on them just about… Things like the Nvidia shield are taking off, your able to use PC hardware and play on a handheld anywhere, PlayStation I believe also has this tech.
However some of the VR tech seems too clunky, requiring almost a full room to setup, camera’s lasers or whatever for movement. Sleek compact technology is very in atm. And while this tech is cool I don’t see people dedicating the room for it when it will only support a few games. The biggest chance for success are those VR headsets that use your mobile, as mobiles these days are almost perfect platforms for indie developers who will most likely make up the bulk of content, that and porn of course lol.
None of them require a full room to set up. Yeah, they have the capability to track a full room if you want to set it up for that but it’s not at all a requirement. In fact one of the things popping up in a lot of E3 interviews is that devs aren’t targeting the full-room thing anyway, because VR gamers are already a small enough group without cutting it down to those bothering to go the whole hog and dedicate an entire room for it. For the most part you’ll either be sitting in your seat or you’ll kick the seat aside and be standing in the space that it formerly occupied.
But it’s not just a “series”. It’s all of them.
Fallout 4 can’t come too soon. I’ve finished Witcher 3, albeit not every single marker on the map, and after 70+ hours of the most awesome experience ever, I am left with other games that feel empty and shallow. I even tried to play Witcher 2 again and it felt clunky and out of date by comparison. There’s Skyrim, I suppose, which I haven’t actually finished.. but I need something new (genre-wise) to sink my teeth into.. Fallout 4 sounds about right.
I’ve been feeding my craving by playing through Fallout: New Vegas again. The game really hasn’t aged well graphically, but the gameplay is still just as fun. I never finished all the DLC last time I played so it’ll be an opportunity to go for a full clear this time around.