STAT | $192 billion – The total value of the worldwide video game market in 2018, according to market research firm Newzoo. Mobile platforms make up the largest portion of that ($90) billion), followed by console ($54) billion) and PC ($47) billion).
STAT | 1.3 million – The Switch, PS4, and Xbox One all topped 1.3 million systems sold in the US last month. It was the first time three platforms have done that well in a November, and only the second time three systems broke 1 million for the month. (The DS, Wii, and Xbox 360 all reached 1 million in November of 2010.)
STAT | 3 million – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s US sales total after just 11 days, making it the fastest-selling Switch title to date.
STAT | 3 million – Number of people streaming on Twitch each month throughout 2018.
QUOTE | “The increased efforts to unionise the US games industry and the increased pressure on platforms to compete for developers’ mindshare might be the best developments of 2018 – and the way the recent announcement of the Epic Games Store was received among many mid-tier developers emphasises that.” – Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail joins a host of gaming movers and shakers in sharing their takeaways from the year that was.
QUOTE | “While we continue to advance our position on the console, you’ll see Xbox show up in more ways to gamers on all devices. For example, and as I’ve said before, we feel we can play a bigger role delivering for PC gamers on Windows.” – Microsoft’s executive VP of gaming Xbox Phil Spencer talks about what he sees in store for 2019 after being named one of the GamesIndustry.biz People of the Year for 2018.
QUOTE | “The machines are going to change every year. Those fields are very specialised and they evolve very quickly, but the psychology of our players is always going to be the same. And that to me, especially nowadays, is the trickiest part of the whole design process.” – SimCity and The Sims designer Will Wright says the hardest part of game design will always be understanding player psychology.
QUOTE | “Getting an audience into a game is very difficult in mobile. You could have the most high quality, original IP in the world, but if you can’t deliver an audience, you’re really nowhere.” – Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau explains why the company has focused more on established titles, acquired hits, and popular licenses than original IP in recent years.
QUOTE | “There have been so many cases, especially recently, of hype just ruining and building up a game… Especially in the case of Atlas, what we’re promising sounds so insane that you really have to play it to understand it’s real. It’s pointless to have six months to a year of people speculating about, ‘Is this vaporware?’ or ‘Is this just empty promises?’ “ – Studio Wildcard and Grapeshot Games co-founder Jesse Rapczak explains why the Ark: Survival Evolved outfit decided to announce its new pirate MMO Atlas just weeks before launch.
QUOTE | “We’ve actually replicated the Commodore 64’s character map screen in GameMaker’s tilemap system, because it’s still the most effective way of doing it.” – YoYo Games head of engineering Mike Dailly explains why the company’s GameMaker software still uses tricks popularised by the 30-year-old Commodore 64 shoot-’em-up Armalyte.
QUOTE | “We had to use this tool in order to stop the wave of misinformation.” – Escape from Tarkov developer Battlestate Games explains why it issued 40 DMCA takedown notices against YouTuber Eroktic, who spread “negative hype” and claimed personal information and passwords from the player base had been leaked.
Comments