QUOTE | “I suspect that Apple would be ecstatic if 90 percent of game developers disappeared overnight. See also: Steam.” - Indie developer Jeff Vogel, explaining why he walked away from iOS development after his game Avernum 2 was pulled from the App Store.
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week...
QUOTE | “Companies don’t build games, people build games. And happy people build better games.” - Ignited Artists CEO and co-founder Danielle Deibler, explaining why they are developing mobile games while trying to maintain a work/life balance.
QUOTE | “Being able to start casting comets down from the sky and having dragons breathe fire on 10,000 men at once is a really interesting departure.” - Total War brand director Rob Bartholomew, talking about their upcoming game Total War: Warhammer.
QUOTE | “I firmly believe the days of the WoW-style MMO are over. And that means we have to change with the times.” - Daybreak Games (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) CEO John Smedley, talking about exploring a new business model with H1Z1 and other games.
QUOTE | “We actually need to do something to change the situation and stop talking about it over and over and over again.” - IGDA executive director Kate Edwards, talking about the ongoing issues of gender balance and harassment in the game industry.
QUOTE | “One of the most important takeaways from massively popular mobile games like Candy Crush Saga, is that the majority of all gamers span across many demographics and often prefer light-hearted vs hard-core games.” - Resolution Games founder and former King exec Tommy Palm, explaining why they will be developing “family-friendly” VR games.
QUOTE | “You can make a lot of money at number 20, and, by the way, two years ago that wasn’t the case.” - Warner Bros. Interactive’s senior VP of mobile Greg Ballard, talking about why mobile games are so important to the company.
QUOTE | “Having a modest, steady influx of funds can help you avoid one of crowdfunding’s biggest traps: selling a game faster than you can deliver it.” - Poppermost CEO Alexander Bergendahl, talking about why developers need to focus on making regular progress with crowdfunded games.
STAT | 14.8 million – Number of PlayStation 4 consoles Sony sold during its fiscal year 2014, according to its latest earnings report; Sony’s Games & Network Services segment has become the company’s biggest earner, growing 33% over last year to bring in $11.5 billion.
QUOTE | “I’m not fundamentally against free-to-play... But, for kids’ games, I think it’s out of the question.” - Joyful Works’ Basar Simitci, talking about why he thinks it’s important to be ‘pay once and play’ for kid’s games.
QUOTE | “Our north star is really simple. It’s just make life easy for developers and the rest will take care of itself.” - ID@Xbox games director Chris Charla, talking about how the initiative has changed and continues to evolve with Windows 10.