This Week in the Business_ 'PS Vita is an Utter Flop.'

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “PS Vita is an utter flop.”—Rob Fahey, veteran game journalist, talking about Sony’s losses with their games business QUOTE | “The Old Republic was sold as a story; very soon, it will have to double as a shop.”—Matthew Handrahan, staff writer for GamesIndustry International, talking with other journalists about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s risky transition to free-to-playcnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"5931820","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"culture","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"culture","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); STAT | 214.8%—Amount that Namco Bandai’s profits increased for the quarter that ended June 30th versus the same quarter last year; Namco Bandai made a profit of $130 million on sales of $1.39 billion in sales QUOTE | “We have significant concerns that Call of Duty may have peaked in 2011.”—Ben Schachter, analyst with Macquarie Securities, talking along with other analysts about the likelihood that the new Call of Duty will sell less than last year’s QUOTE | “Until games are photorealistic, it’ll be very hard to open up to new genres.”—Christoph Hartmann, head of 2K Games, talking about why we need better graphics to do more than action and shooter games QUOTE | “The skillsets are very similar to a game like StarCraft II or League of Legends.”—Playhem co-founder Keith Swan, talking about online poker and how it should be brought into the e-sports world QUOTE | rummy meet “If you don’t keep experimenting you are dead.”—Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King.com, talking about the need to keep innovating with game designs QUOTE | “The industry itself is undefeatable.”—Seamus Blackley, co-creator of the Xbox, talking about how the gaming industry is the greatest industry out there STAT | 100 million—Number of times the hit game Temple Run has been downloaded, according to developer Imangi Studios; 68 million downloads have been on iOS and 32 million on Android QUOTE | “EA made it clear that they don’t consider the Wii U a hot product for the holidays.”—Steve Peterson, West Coast Editor for GamesIndustry International, talking about Electronic Arts’ comments about the Wii U when questioned by analysts STAT | $45 million—Amount of money that Sony’s games division lost in the quarter ended June 30th on revenues of $1.49 billion; Sony’s sales were down 10% over last year, when they made a profit of about $50 million QUOTE | “There are no credible studies that show any causal linkage between games and violence.”—Michael A. Stackpole, best-selling author and game designer, talking about the media and their reports trying to connect games and joy rummy the Aurora shootings STAT | 50 million—Number of monthly players that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks that Star Wars: The Old Republic could attract once it goes free-to-play QUOTE | “Nintendo has still managed to shift over 19 million 3DS systems worldwide in 16 months. What Sony would give to be in a similar position with Vita this time next year.”—Johnny Minkley, veteran games rummy new app writer, talking about the challenges for Nintendo’s 3DS This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International (Image from Shutterstock)