QUOTE | “Some of those sharp edges are sometimes the very thing that makes the game compelling. Games aren’t really supposed to be easy at all times.” – Former Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo, talking about how to get the right balance of frustration and reward in games
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week…
QUOTE | “I think we can have a completely magical experience if we limit it to a living room.” – CastAR’s Jeri Ellsworth, talking about why she thinks Augmented Reality (AR) is going to reach a larger audience than VR
QUOTE | “It was just this epic slug-fest between MTV and Activision…They both wanted commanding market share… Thinking about that, I still have PTSD from that.” – Harmonix creative director Alex Rigopulos, talking about why the studio took a break from doing Rock Band for five years
QUOTE | “The Escapist, notwithstanding Cloud Imperium Games’ notice and posting, stands by its coverage of Star Citizen and intends to continue to investigate the developing story.” – Statement by The Escapist, explaining their stance in their controversial ongoing coverage of Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen, after CIG sent The Escapist a letter threatening a lawsuit
QUOTE | “We’re out of our league – by far – but I think we’ve been out of our league for a while.” – tinyBuild’s CEO Alex Nichiporchik, talking about how the small developer is forging ahead despite the “indiepocalypse” some indies declare is near
STAT | $3,000 – Price of the first Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition, scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2016; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated he wants to “push a lot more of the enterprise usage” rather than gaming at first
QUOTE | “The big indie boom we’ve seen has reminded everyone that what we’re doing is very simple.” – Ubisoft Toronto studio head Alexandre Parizeau, talking about his philosophy of how to make great games
QUOTE | “At Zynga we believe the next wave in mobile advertising will be Sponsored Play.” – Zynga VP of sales Julie Shumaker, talking about the company’s new unit designing custom levels for advertisers within games like FarmVille
STAT | $1.8 billion – Amount that competitive gaming will bring in by 2020, according to analyst Colin Sebastian; last year, eSports brought in $200 million from tournaments, ads, sponsorships, broadcasting, betting, and fantasy eSports
STAT | 30% – Percentage of League of Legends audience that is female, according to a survey by research firm EEDAR; this compares to the less than 25% female audiences of games like DotA 2, Counter-Strike GO, and Smite
Top image via World of Warcraft
