This Week in the Business: &#39;PS Vita is an Utter Flop.&#39;


QUOTE | "PS Vita is an utter flop."—Rob Fahey, veteran game journalist, talking about Sony's losses with their games business.

QUOTE | "The Old Republic was sold as a story; very soon, it will have to double as a shop."—Matthew Handrahan, staff writer for GamesIndustry International, talking with other journalists about Star Wars: The Old Republic's risky transition to free-to-play.

STAT | 214.8%—Amount that Namco Bandai's profits increased for the quarter that ended June 30th versus the same quarter last year; Namco Bandai made a profit of $130 million on sales of $1.39 billion in sales.

QUOTE | "We have significant concerns that Call of Duty may have peaked in 2011."—Ben Schachter, analyst with Macquarie Securities, talking along with other analysts about the likelihood that the new Call of Duty will sell less than last year's.

QUOTE | "Until games are photorealistic, it'll be very hard to open up to new genres."—Christoph Hartmann, head of 2K Games, talking about why we need better graphics to do more than action and shooter games.

QUOTE | "The skillsets are very similar to a game like StarCraft II or League of Legends."—Playhem co-founder Keith Swan, talking about online poker and how it should be brought into the e-sports world.



STAT | 100 million—Number of times the hit game Temple Run has been downloaded, according to developer Imangi Studios; 68 million downloads have been on iOS and 32 million on Android.

QUOTE | "EA made it clear that they don't consider the Wii U a hot product for the holidays."—Steve Peterson, West Coast Editor for GamesIndustry International, talking about Electronic Arts' comments about the Wii U when questioned by analysts.

STAT | $45 million—Amount of money that Sony's games division lost in the quarter ended June 30th on revenues of $1.49 billion; Sony's sales were down 10% over last year, when they made a profit of about $50 million.

QUOTE | "There are no credible studies that show any causal linkage between games and violence."—Michael A. Stackpole, best-selling author and game designer, talking about the media and their reports trying to connect games and the Aurora shootings.

STAT | 50 million—Number of monthly players that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks that Star Wars: The Old Republic could attract once it goes free-to-play.

QUOTE | "Nintendo has still managed to shift over 19 million 3DS systems worldwide in 16 months. What Sony would give to be in a similar position with Vita this time next year."—Johnny Minkley, veteran games writer, talking about the challenges for Nintendo's 3DS.

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
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