15 Dumb Quotes From Video Game Executives
The disconnect between the people who make video games, and the people who play them, have for years been a bridge too far to gap.
You'd think people at the helm of the world's biggest gaming companies would have a better understanding of what exactly their audiences want, but no, sadly, the guard watching over the realm of video games has been slow to change.
So here are some quotes from people who get paid way too much money to be saying things as stupid as this, or maybe that's exactly what they're paid to do, piss you off!
You'd think people at the helm of the world's biggest gaming companies would have a better understanding of what exactly their audiences want, but no, sadly, the guard watching over the realm of video games has been slow to change.
So here are some quotes from people who get paid way too much money to be saying things as stupid as this, or maybe that's exactly what they're paid to do, piss you off!
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1.
Don Mattrick - Former Senior Vice President of Xbox once said: “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity. It’s called Xbox 360.” Back in the days before the Xbox One launched, Xbox’s next generation of gaming was going to be completely online. Gamers that lived in remote areas weren’t happy and Don Mattrick basically told them to go pound sand. -
2.
Mike Wilson - - Devolver Digital and Good Shepherd Entertainment co-founder said: "Whether you think these are drugs -- and by the way, I'm not against drugs at all -- but if we're going to be drug dealers, let's offer people psychedelics. Let's offer people something that's going to help them expand and grow. Let's not offer them crack-cocaine. Let's not offer them meth. Let's not literally mine for addicts." It’s actually a pretty cool (kidding) thing to say, comparing video games and their developers to drug dealers and claiming their customers are addicts. -
3.
This quote from an un-named CD Projekt Red developer: "'Ready when it's done' is not just a phrase we say because it sounds right, it's something we live by even when we know we'll take the heat for it. At the same time, we are fully aware that making such a decision costs us your trust, and trading trust for additional time is one of the hardest decisions a game developer can make." Talk about eating your words! Yikes. -
4.
Lorne Lanning - Oddworld Developer once said: "The audience is absolutely ruthless, and we should never suspect for a second that they're not. They're absolutely ruthless. They don't care how many people died making the product. I mean literally. They don't care." Well isn’t Lome just a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, painting gamers as cruel narcissists that don’t care about anything but getting a game in their hands. -
5.
"Anything negative you’ll see about this game is an overreaction of personal preference. For what it is, it is flawlessly executed and endlessly entertaining." Former Bioware employee Avanost. Being proud of your work is one thing, but outright telling people that what you’ve created is perfect and basically saying that gamers have to like it is as lame as it gets. Let us enjoy what we like, you’re not the judge here Mr. Avanost! -
6.
"They're very comfortable moving the discussion towards how we make connected gameplay – be it co-operative or multiplayer or online services – as opposed to fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours – and you're out. I think that model is finished." EA president Frank Gibeau pretty much said single-player games were dying. And considering how strong single-player games have been since he made that statement, he looks like a real genius among us mortal men. -
7.
Remedy CEO Mattias Myllrinne said this about the future of gaming. “The sooner we go digital as an industry, the better for everybody. Maybe it’s not so good for retail, but then again if you’re selling our games as used copies and incentivizing people to do that, then I don’t really feel sorry for you.”
Gaming is expensive, Mattias, gamers have every right to try and find cheaper copies of the games they’re playing. As long as we aren’t pirating, it shouldn’t be an issue. But if games in the future are download only, you run the risk of promoting which you want to suppress. -
8.
"There will be no playable female characters because of game lore and more importantly—the huge amount of work needed with animations, gear fitting, etc." - Escape from Tarkov Community Manager - Really dude? What kind of lore are you crafting that can’t have women in it? Is it really that hard to write or mocap a female character? -
9.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick: "We are convinced that we are probably from an industry view under monetizing on a per-user basis.”
Strauss is literally saying that even though GTA charges out the a** for things like Shark Cards and draws in over half a billion dollars worth of revenue every year, they aren’t charging enough. Give me a break. -
10.
Andrew Wilson Former CEO of EA once said: “Building games is very hard… when you push innovation, you miss other things.” And what are those other things Andrew? The failure of EA to meet customers' expectations, while launching games that actually worked, is all due to their push for innovation! Gotcha. -
11.
Shinya Takahashi - Senior Executive Officer at Nintendo: "It will be a long road until the next time we will be able to update you on the development progress, and development time will be extensive." Shinya was talking about the delays of Metroid Prime 4 and giving an explanation for why we haven’t seen any gameplay. It's been over a decade since Metroid Prime 3 and all we’ve gotten is a teaser for Prime 4. Maybe companies should stop announcing games before they’re ready to be shown. Regardless, we are still waiting. -
12.
Phil Spencer - Head of Xbox: "It became clear that the time needed to grow our own live streaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now..." Microsoft launched Mixer with a bark that was much bigger than its bite, by luring streamers over to its platform before they were able to scale and serve their audience. They managed to take viewers from more lucrative and established sites like Twitch, only to abandon them after a few months when people realized they didn't know what to do next. -
13.
"The intent is to provide gamers with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. "DICE Community manager for Battlefront II
EA really tried to sell gamers on the idea that having to grind out for dozens of hours to unlock a single character to use in multiplayer would be fun. Give me a break, if that doesn’t make you cringe, I don’t know what will. BOOO! -
14.
Cory Barlog developer of God of War, in conversation with his boss: "He kinda just shook his head and walked out the door," Barlog said. "He never told me how he felt. In fact, he only told one of my friends, who he saw at a party. He [Yoshida] said, 'Oh, you're working on God of War? I just gotta say, I played the game the other day. I was horrified.' Cory Barlog
Cory was talking about Shuhei Yoshida’s impressions of God of War before launch. Finding out that your boss is horrified by what you’ve created isn’t a good sign. Or maybe it is? -
15.
"We don't call them loot boxes... We call them surprise mechanics." - Electronic Arts vice president of legal and government affairs Kerry Hopkins, really hit this one out of the park. There not loot boxes, their surprise mechanics. This is some doublespeak that would give some people on capitol hill a run for their money. "Oh, look someone left some "surprise mechanics" in my underwear! Lucky me.
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