The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

[Henroid]

I'm on a strict diet of no-Penny-Arcade-Report but the digital distribution side of the business doesn't quite rival the traditional method yet. I'm sure the DD numbers are more significant and will continue to be more so, but they don't out-do hard-copies of software yet.

[Henroid]

It's showing up on NeoGAF that Index, the parent company of Atlus, has filed for bankruptcy.

 

Atlus is a substantial company. I mean, look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlus_games

 

I hope this doesn't mean automatic doom for them. If they can continue to operate and not have to change, I'll be happy. It's kinda depressing enough just having the idea presented that we won't get anymore games from them.

[Sno]

Can you share the full story?
 

Losing Atlus as a publisher and developer would be devastating, they've consistently flown the flag for creative, new things that nobody else would take the chance on.

[TheLastBaron]

The idea that there is a very real possibility that Dragon Crown will be the last Atlus game ever is weird. I don't play a lot of their games but I really like Persona. Funk.

[Roderick]

If Catherine doesn't get a spiritual successor, the future of video games is bleak.

[Sno]

It was also Atlus that brought Demon's Souls to the west.

[melmer]

Microsoft’s Entertainment Head Don Mattrick Leaving to Take Top Role — Possibly CEO — at Zynga

http://allthingsd.com/20130701/exclusive-microsofts-entertainment-head-don-mattrick-leaving-to-take-top-role-possibly-ceo-at-zynga/#

[Roderick]

Well, there's surely a large paycheck in there for the top dog.

[Dewar]

Hmm, with the "charisma" he showed at the last couple of MS press conferences, I'm sure he'll do fine.

[elmuerte]

Zynga is still alive?

[Lu]

Would definitely be a big win for Zynga if they got him, I think. At the same time, if it is indeed Zynga, it'd really surprise me that anyone wanted to join that sinking ship. (They are still sinking, right?)

[Zeusthecat]

Would definitely be a big win for Zynga if they got him, I think. At the same time, if it is indeed Zynga, it'd really surprise me that anyone wanted to join that sinking ship. (They are still sinking, right?)

 

This is the exact conversation me and a co-worker just had (we even used the term 'sinking ship'). I'm pretty damn sure it's still sinking.

[Lu]

Dave!?

 

It has been indeed confirmed that he's heading to Zynga.

[Henroid]

Confirmed that Mattrick is going to be Zynga's CEO in like a week. The question is, why would he join a sinking ship? I kinda have a cynical view of this. I think Mattrick was going to retire and this door opened to him, so he'd rather retire as a CEO and with its retirement package than the position he had at MS.

 

Also that Atlus news, according to Atlus USA they won't be affected by what's going on.

[Dewar]

Maybe he was in danger of getting fired from MS?

[Henroid]

There was some talk elsewhere on the net (it wasn't sourced but I trusted the people saying this) that he had also been in talks to join Electronic Arts. It set off this chain reaction of thought in my head that it would explain why the XB1, up until like a week or two ago, was pretty much built on EA's online business plans. But that's very tinfoil hatty.

[Nachimir]

It makes quite a bit of sense to me. Mattrick is insanely rich, and has a reputation for having turned the xbox division around. He probably sees Zynga as a challenge rather than somewhere his career can die, but if that does happen, he doesn't exactly need to worry.

[Sno]

uPlay's been hacked, time to change passwords!

 

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/everyone-should-change-their-uplay-password/1100-4682/

[Dewar]

Ug, I hate uplay.

[Gormongous]

Didn't uPlay already have one hacking scare? I guess they didn't learn.

[Gormongous]

Oh! Meanwhile, Ballmer is taking over the Xbox until they can replace Mattrick. The upshot for everyone else is that Microsoft had no plans to replace the latter, but we here at Idle Thumbs know that it's all an excuse for some premium Ballmer DLC to start landing now.

[Justin Leego]

Ohhhhh if they'd done this sooner we could have had Ballmer at E3. We'd all still be recovering from the aftershocks.

[Merus]

We would have heard about how the Xbox One was for developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, <gasp> developers, developers, developers, developers!

[shammack]

I can imagine a realistically rendered Ballmer.

[R3miel7]

Didn't uPlay already have one hacking scare? I guess they didn't learn.

The more services there are, the more break points there are for hackers to get in to. Steam and other services actually give us something (games, sales, etc) so the risk makes sense but this DRM for DRM's sake puts the consumer at risk unneccisarily, I think.