This Week In The Business_ The Conscience Of The Developer

QUOTE | “Only the developers’ conscience should define what type of game they want to make, and its level of cruelty, indecency and moral corruption.” – The Astronauts’ Adrian Chmielarz, talking along with other developers about whether there are lines that games shouldn’t cross(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “It’s the software that matters. That’s it. There’s nothing else that’s going to convince you to play other than how good it is.” – Fireproof Games’ Barry Meade, talking about mobile game The Room’s success and how they never spent a cent on PR or marketing QUOTE | “Making something personal as the intent yono business sbi of the creator is the ultimate journey through the glitter and doom of development.” – Media Molecule head Siobhan Reddy, talking about the game industry’s “strange and very transitional time.” STAT | 3.3 million – Number of PS4s that Sony sold in the last quarter, pushing the Game Division revenues up 84%; however, Sony lost $1.22 billion overall (seven times more than last year) due mostly to its mobile unit STAT | 1.12 million – Number of Wii U consoles sold worldwide in the last quarter, according to Nintendo; the company turned a profit of $131.5 million on $1.6 billion in revenue, with revenue up 12.8% over last year QUOTE | “Our industry seems to be afraid to really speak their mind. Scared blank check journalism appears to be the status quo.” – Asif Khan, new owner of Shacknews, talking about why he decided to buy the gaming website QUOTE | “We can communicate things that could never be communicated before.” – Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, talking about why games are the most interesting medium of our time, and why confidence is critical to game design and marketing QUOTE | “This data suggests that, far from being a threat, the trend towards diversity is to the industry’s overall benefit.” – Analyst firm EEDAR’s Dr. Heather Nofziger, yono business talking about research showing how the platform, not gender, drives gamer differences QUOTE | “With Oculus we’re making a long-term bet on the future of computing.” – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, explaining why the company is very excited about the prospects for the Oculus Rift STAT | 90.4% – Amount Ubisoft’s digital revenues grew in the last quarter; the company’s revenues for the last two quarters were $611.2 million, up over 65% from last year, with over 9 million copies of Watch Dogs sold QUOTE | “We’re not trying to make it a success in any way. We’re not rummy meet trying to make a game that will please our players.” – Pastagames designer Nadim Haddad, explaining why the company, which earns its money from contract programming, makes games as passion projects STAT | 90% – Drop in Take-Two’s revenue ($135.4 million) for last quarter compared to the previous year’s quarter when it launched Grand Theft Auto V ($1.27 billion); the company raised its forecast for its full year to $1.4 to $1.5 billion in revenue image via Shutterstock