Episode 354: E3 Swag Bag Part 2

The E3 Swag Bag contest is still going on, while Paul, Jordan and Jonah discuss the latest in videogame industry news.

This week’s news includes:

  • Nintendo loses Wii patent lawsuit to Philips
  • PlayStation Now beta gets six new games, but those high prices remain
  • Crytek claims it’s doing fine, despite rumors
  • Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty heading to Xbox One with ID@Xbox
  • Google announces virtual reality app Cardboard

All this and Listener Feedback. The contest question is still up: “What was your biggest takeaway from E3?”

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Phil Harrison’s Building a 100 Million Dollar FranchisePhil Harrison’s Building a 100 Million Dollar Franchise

Once upon a time, Activision Blizzards CEO Bobby Kotick kicked a few franchises to the curb: Riddick and Ghostbusters. No doubt, this was a result of the Activision and Blizzard merger requiring some resources to the merged together while others were cut from the lineup. Phil Harrison, the new big suit at Atari/Infogrames has raised these little birds from the ashes with a dream to build them into 100-million dollar franchises.

While Bobby Kotick said the titles, “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises,” Phil Harrision sees it as a personal challenge to prove him wrong.

“What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels. If that’s his benchmark, then fine — and we’d love to aspire to the same benchmarks. But you know what? I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100m franchise, just to prove him wrong.” (1up)

In many ways, this is the difference in attitudes from a large firm compared to a smaller firm with strong goals and a vision for success. Activision Blizzard is big now, perhaps the biggest publisher in the industry, they can’t be bothered with minuscule 80-million dollar franchises. Others, like Atari, strive to take a title from nothing to something of greatness. Granted, Atari’s failed in a lot of franchises, but with their new ex-Sony executive behind the helm things could turn around and this might be the first step.

Most of the best game franchises in existance today started from nothing but a dream. Big publishers don’t have time to dream, they’re too busy making money off the fanboys of their current franchises.

Activision and Blizzard LayoffsActivision and Blizzard Layoffs

If you’ve ever been through an acquisition or merger you’d have expected this news to come, but for those new to the concept it’s simple: you can’t keep everyone. After a complete merger you end up with two sales departments, two IT departments, etc.

Do you really need them all? No, not really. You’ll need to keep some on board in order to “brain dump” your job onto others and hopefully stick around for the long hall. Some employees will probably be shuffled to other job responsibilities while some get packages and a thank you card.

These are some of the growing pains when working towards a successful merger, so don’t be surprised or start spreading rumors when a few people are let go. As someone who’s gone through it in two big mergers I can say that certain departments already know their fate ahead of time. Many IT and sales folk start looking for new jobs the minute the merger is announced.

Episode 339: Defective EarsEpisode 339: Defective Ears

This week’s episode is chock full of very industry-specific news, dealing with sales and numbers and other stuff that would bore Paul.

The news includes:

  • Microsoft acquires Gears of War IP from Epic
  • Sony issues invites hinting at ‘Slimmest’ product launch
  • Apple sells record number of iPhones, iPads
  • Surface and Xbox One hits with buyers during the holidays
  • Japanese newspaper says Nintendo is about to unveil its approach to mobile development
  • Kerbal Space Program lands on various schools’ curriculum
  • Sony’s credit rating cut to “Junk”

Sadly, no reader mail this week.