What's happened in the business of video games this past week ...
QUOTE | "Nintendo's on track to become primarily a software company."—Bing Gordon, investor and EA veteran, weighs in on the business strategy and future for the house that Mario built.
QUOTE | "PCs are far more user-friendly than consoles."—Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli talking about his new partnership with Trion for Warface and how the CryEngine company is preparing for the future.
QUOTE | "The PS3 even at $149 would be a compelling deal."—Steve Peterson, West Coast editor for GamesIndustry International, talking with other editors in a roundtable about the magic $99 price point and how and when the console makers can get there.
QUOTE | "The success of the 4GB Xbox 360 should have been emulated a long time ago."—Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter talking about the rumored PS3 super slim model, which is said to include just 16GB of storage but sell for a much, much lower price.
STAT | 17 million—The number of iPads Apple sold in the last fiscal quarter, representing a whopping 84 percent jump over last year's third quarter period for the company.
QUOTE | "There is absolutely no plan to replace John as the CEO."—Larry Probst, chairman of the board at Electronic Arts, talking at a shareholder meeting about John Riccitiello amidst concerns of the company's falling stock price.
QUOTE | "Zynga's cheerleaders may wave their pom-poms all they like, but ... this isn't a company that's going to be an industry leader."—Rob Fahey, veteran journalist and former GamesIndustry editor, talking about Zynga's massive share price collapse and disastrous earnings report.
QUOTE | "It's a shame you can't sell big numbers unless you make a shooter."—Enric Alvarez of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow developer Mercury Rising talks about a challenging, shooter-dominated marketplace.
STAT | $2.75 million—The amount that EA spent on Facebook advertising for the shooter Battlefield 3, which proved to be very efficient ad spending for the publisher.
QUOTE | "Mobile gaming is invading the last bastion of game consoles and PCs."—PopCap VP of Worldwide Publishing Dennis Ryan commenting on a new survey that shows mobile becoming the primary gaming platform used at home for many players.
STAT | $1.3 million—The approximate financial investment required to do a port from PS3/Xbox 360, to Wii U, according to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot who clarified that his company "doesn't have a huge investment" in Wii U.
QUOTE | "There is always going to be room for high-end games where you want the highest graphical fidelity or the biggest open world."—Harvey Smith, co-creative director on Arkane's upcoming Dishonored, talking about the growth of the market to include big budget games, mobile games and more.
Three collector's editions headline the usual summer clear-out of stock as we transit to August. Walmart gets really desperate with a three-for-one come-on—for PSP games. Sixty savings, bonuses and deals await below.
Artist Kogoro Kurata makes robots. Huge robots. In a shed.
