By Nadia Oxford on Dec 19, 2011 in Business, Video Games
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The video game industry is bouncing along with a level of vigor it hasn’t seen since the day the business was born. It is, however, human nature to look at a healthy animal and wonder about the possibilities of plague and death. So we talk a great deal about the Video Game Industry Crash of ’83 (Or Thereabouts), and wonder if it can happen again.
In fact, some of us insist it will happen again, and when you take a quick glance at the industry as it...
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By Nadia Oxford on Dec 7, 2011 in Business, Publishing, Retail
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Open communication via the Internet has brought gamers and developers quite close, and for the most part, we’re all good buddies. However, one issue still divides us like a katana through a cake: the used games debate.
Game developers generally do not harbor warm feelings about the used game trade. They believe it takes money directly out of their pockets, and, by extension, food out of their children’s mouths. Gamers, by contrast, think the pre-owned...
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By Nadia Oxford on Nov 18, 2011 in Business, Game Development, Nintendo 3DS
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Given the rising popularity of the 99-cent app and the free-to-play game genre, it seems logical that publishers of triple-A games would do everything in their power to keep prices as low as possible. Obviously, nobody should expect to walk away with Super Mario 3D Land for $10 on launch day, but it’s in the best interests of games sold at retail to stay at a low price point.
As it happens, the era of the high-priced retail game is not over and done with...
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By Nadia Oxford on Nov 16, 2011 in Business, Nintendo, Publishing
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Nintendo is currently nursing a big “ouch,” courtesy of a projected loss for its fiscal year ending in March 2012. The loss, forecast at 20 billion yen (or about $264 million USD) would be its first annual net loss since 1981, when the company started reporting its numbers.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata encouraged investors not to panic and freak out by reminding them that Nintendo’s sales strength has always been the holiday season–and...
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By Nadia Oxford on Nov 15, 2011 in Business, Free Games, Game Design
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Sony Online’s massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) DC Universe Online switched to the free-to-play model at the end of October. Not surprisingly, the game’s business and player base has since exploded.
“We are over 1000% of our pre-F2P concurrent numbers,” Tweeted John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), on the social blogging service early in November. Smedley also acknowledged that the surge of players has brought on...
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Scott Steinberg is the CEO of video game consulting firm TechSavvy Global, and founder of GameExec magazine and Game Industry TV. Hailed as a top technology and video game expert by dozens of publications from USA Today to Forbes and NPR, he’s covered the field for 400+ outlets from Playboy to Rolling Stone. A frequent on-air analyst for networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, he’s also the author of Video Game Marketing and PR.