This Week in the Business: What if the NRA Was More Like the ESRB?

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

QUOTE | “Imagine if the NRA had the same relationship with the gun industry that the ESRB has with the game industry.”—Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford talking about the ongoing gun debate in America and how the NRA should behave like the game industry’s ESRB

QUOTE | “I failed two big games, I probably lost €10 million between these two productions, but it’s OK because I did other things that went better.”—Pauline Jacquey, managing director of Ubisoft’s Reflections studio, talking about what it’s like at the studio working on Watch Dogs

STAT | 58%—Percentage of GDC attendees whose next games will be coming out for smartphones or tablets; this compares to only 14% who say they are working on an Xbox 360 game, with even less interest in other consoles like Wii U

QUOTE | “We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way.”—EA CFO Blake Jorgenson, talking about how all of EA’s games will be featuring in-game purchasing

STAT | 500,000—Number of subscribers that EVE Online now has, according to publisher CCP; the ten-year-old game has just launched in China and released their 18th free expansion

QUOTE | “Certain developers view the ESRB as a censor … We feel that effective content labeling can actually foster creativity.”—ESRB president Patricia Vance, talking about fighting the image the ESRB has with some in the industry

STAT | $1.2 billion—Amount of money that Sony just sold their Tokyo office building for; Sony will remain there for five years under a lease agreement with the new owner

QUOTE | “Console games are getting deeper, challenges are mounting and costs are rising.”—Mark Strassman, VP of entertainment industry strategy for Autodesk, talking about how Autodesk is trying to make their products more available to everybody

STAT | 10 million—Number of visits the free-to-play game Aurora has had since its debut in 2011; the game is available in PlayStation’s virtual world Home

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

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