This Week In The Business_ A 5.9 Billion Dollar Bargain

QUOTE | “…Activision got them cheaply…” – Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter giving his thumbs up to Activision’s $5.9 billion purchase of Candy Crush Saga maker King. Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… QUOTE | “Another near-term initiative for สมัคร winner55 เครดิต ฟรี 188 Activision Blizzard Studios will be the development of a robust cinematic universe based on the Call of Duty franchise.” – An Activision Blizzard press release announcing the company’s move into ทางเข้า winner55 ผ่านโทรศัพท์มือถือ​ film and TV production QUOTE | “I can’t just say some guy did this, snorted that, fucked that, then went home to his wife. I can’t do that, it’s not going to happen like that.” – Tim Chaney, former managing director of Virgin Interactive (publisher of Command & Conquer and The Lion King), explaining why he’ll use pseudonyms for former colleagues in his upcoming tell-all book Sex and Drugs and Video Games STAT | 42% – The percentage of adult women in the US who own a gaming console. Only 37% of men reported owning a console QUOTE | “Games are far too obsessed with technical innovation, and we end up recycling the same ideas and the same uses in the same contexts every handful of years or so.” – Game designer Ian Bogost, saying VR is a new novelty, just like Wii and Kinect interfaces were last generation STAT | 48% – The percentage of US gamers who self-identified as political conservatives in a recent survey. Only 38% considered themselves liberal STAT | $400 million – The amount of money Halo 5: Guardians brought in its first week between sales of the game, peripherals, and hardware bundles. Microsoft called it the biggest Halo launch to date QUOTE | “The transition between major projects is always challenging, especially for independent developers.” – Just Cause 3 developer Avalanche Studios, explaining why it was laying off about two dozen people who just finished working on Mad Max and Just Cause 3 QUOTE | “With the major creative and production decisions now resolved, and the team charging full speed toward completing the game, inXile and I have decided it is time for me to depart from the studio.” – Torment: Tides of Numenera project lead Kevin Saunders, explaining why he’s leaving developer inXile as the (once-again delayed) Kickstarted game enters the final stretch of development. QUOTE | “Brands need to realize this is something special and it’s here to stay.” – SuperData director of research Stephanie Llamas, noting the absence of big-time mainstream sponsors in the eSports scene QUOTE | “Note that this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers. There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance.” – Activision Blizzard, explaining why the 5.5 million subscriber Yono all app base number given for World of Warcraft this week may be the last subscriber number we ever hear for the game STAT | 1,900 – Number of game companies in the UK, according to the trade group Ukie. That number will likely grow as the group projects the UK market will see £1 billion in revenue growth by 2020. Top image via Shutterstock