This Week in the Business: The Good, the Bad and the Medium

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …

QUOTE | “I do think we have to address the good and the bad our medium might do to consumers.”—Renowned designer Warren Spector, on how the game industry should take a balanced view towards what it does

QUOTE | “I think about … where I’m going to see a lot of the most disruptive and innovative gaming, I don’t see it in the $250 million budgeted game.”—Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski on why he thinks Steam Box and Oculus Rift will define the next-gen era of games more than PS4 and Xbox One

QUOTE | “I think it would be really fascinating to see them create a deeply flawed and amazing woman.”—Siobhan Reddy, studio director of Little Big Planet creators Media Molecule, on GTA V

STAT | 8.6%—Drop in worldwide PC sales in the last quarter, according to the latest info from Gartner; a consumer shift to tablets was cited as the main reason despite steady business demand

QUOTE | “It’s good to be bad.”—EA Mobile senior producer Jeff Skalski, on the attitude embodied by the re-invention of ’90s PC hit Dungeon Keeper for smartphones and tablets

QUOTE | “Ultimately the game designer’s job is to be the advocate for the player.”—Chris Swain, head of the New York Film Academy’s game design program, on why game designers should get formal training

QUOTE | “We also think that [Coca-Cola’s] involvement is going to help convince other sponsors.”—Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck, on the rising number of big corporations like Coca-Cola, AmEx and Nissan sponsoring eSports

QUOTE | “The risk and the time and the cost have been going up and up and up, and that has been reset dramatically.”—Veteran designer Richard Garriott, on how Unity has improved game development

STAT | 90%—Percentage of the population of China that said they couldn’t live without a smartphone, from a study by Frank N. Magid Associates; only 43% of Americans said the same thing when surveyed

QUOTE | “They’re not just marketing partners. They’re partners in helping you optimize and tune the game experience.”—Scopely CEO Walter Driver, on the new role of game publishers in mobile games

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

Image by auremar | Shutterstock