This Week In The Business: Free-To-Play Failure

QUOTE | “It will start to tail off because the people who play the games will recognize when they’re about to be nickled and dimed, and stop playing them.” – MMO pioneer Richard Bartle, arguing that free-to-play games have a “half-life” and will soon start to fail

Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “We look at [the free-to-play business model] as the future.” – Anil Dharni, COO of mobile game giant Gree, laying out all of the advantages the company sees with free-to-play games.”

QUOTE | “I don’t think we did a particularly good job marketing it or talking to fans about their expectations for what Dungeon Keeper was going to be or ultimately should be.” – EA Mobile head Frank Gibeau, just before suggesting EA “innovated too much” with the controversial free-to-play reboot

QUOTE | “At the end of the day it’s the content that sells. We need developers to start making games for it.” – Shuhei Yoshida, head of Sony Worldwide Studios, explaining why Project Morpheus VR is still far from a launch date

STAT | 374% – Amount Ubisoft sales rose in the last quarter over the same quarter last year; that’s due mostly to Watch Dogs, which has shipped 8 million copies worldwide so far

QUOTE | “With frequent updates; good and convenient services; that’s how we fight piracy. I hope it works.” – Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester, talking about his company’s alternative to using anti-consumer DRM

QUOTE | “We used to launch 30 games on smartphones on tablets [annually]. This year we’ll launch 12 to 14 games.” – Gameloft VP of publishing for the Americas Baudouin Corman, explaining how mobile games are requiring more time and resources to make

QUOTE | “While the feedback is appreciated, certain ideas would require us to ask for extra budget.” – Megaman developer Keiji Inafune, talking about his Kickstarter-funded project Mighty No. 9 and why he can’t implement all the feedback.

QUOTE | “We are fortunate to have Xbox in our family to go after this opportunity with unique and bold innovation.” – Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella, affirming Microsoft’s commitment to the Xbox as a key element in the company’s future

QUOTE | “There is no reason why inclusivity should come at the expense of an amazing game experience.” – Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, responding to a fan letter criticizing the company’s stance on diversity in its games

STAT | 84.9% – Percentage of the top 50 grossing apps on Apple and Android app stores worldwide that are games; of the 700 apps surveyed, just 50 companies were responsible for 81% of them

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