Pachter Factor Questions July 2018

There seemed to be a few surprise and delight moments when games were announced for release within 2 months of the E3 press conferences. In Microsoft's case, the last 3 years have felt the announcements are too far in advance and forgettable when it comes to the final release. Would publishers and Microsoft, in particular, benefit from only announcing games that are to be released within the same year of the press conference or would the shareholders get nervous that there aren't long term plans?

benjameshodges

Pach predict (educated guess) me the future: Who will win the game streaming service war? Which company can offer the best deal, the biggest variety of content? And which company will close their gaming division?

Yakov Verch

Hey Pach, will the recent furrow over cross-play for games such as Fortnite hurt Sony's next gen hardware popularity? Nintendo and Microsoft have been attacking them, the lastest example being Minecraft cross-play trailer. Could all of this effect PlayStation long term?

Heyo Pacho, Many companies outside the games industry have tried to break in and failed. Now, Netflix and Google want in on the sweet gaming dollars. What is the likely hood they can succeed? What the best path for these companies to succeed in the gaming industry?

Aaron Grimshaw

Hey Pachterino, it seems like multiplayer was a huge focus this year for titles or developers that were traditionally more single player focused. I've noticed a good deal of hemming and hawing from a vocal sect of each entity's respective fanbase. I personally am willing to see how the final product(s) shape up and actually play before screaming doom and gloom and grabbing my pitchfork. What's your take on games like Fallout 76 basically going completely online and multiplayer, especially since they've been single player only in the past, and especially after Bethesda made a pledge to stay single player focused just one year ago?

Julian Watkins

The recent release of Mario Tennis Aces has many people complaining about its full retail price, which has led to rants about how Nintendo never lowers the price of their games, even for their smaller games. If they followed the typical industry standard of lowering prices over time, would the increase in sales be high enough to warrant a drop in price. Would a happy medium approach make more sense, lowering prices over time for smaller titles, but not for the bigger sellers, like Zelda?

Hey Pach the discussion on cost of games has been around for a long time about a move up from $60 to $70 or more do you think Cyberpunk 2033 could be that game that moves up the base price just based on the most likely massive amount of content that will be in the game since it will be larger than Witcher 3 according to some reports?

Eric S

Hey Pach. I saw a conversation between Cliffy B & Robert Bowling about video game residuals on Twitter that I found interesting. Robert mentioned that video games aren’t treated the same financially as movies, music, and TV. He joked that Activision is rereleasing/remastering some of the Call of Duty games he worked on but he isn’t receiving any money from them. Can you give insight as to how this works and when residuals for developers are appropriated?

NeO JD

Hey Pach. With publishers and manufactures moving towards subscription models like EA Access, Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now, how many of these subscriptions do you believe the market can bear? Also will there always be an option to buy the game instead of paying for a subscription?

Nick Kearney

I eat lunch many days next to Sony of America. I often listen in on some interesting conversations. Some time ago I heard a developer talking with a publishing rep about how everyone was clearing the calendar for Red Dead May/June 18. It never happened. Which publisher or developer best took advantage of this hole in the calendar? Was it management, planning or luck? Things seem pretty slow this summer.

Greetings Pachter. Amy Hennig's departure from EA means that she will not have completed a project Since 2011. (Battle Field: Hardline does not count). Do you think that this will significantly effect EA as they have shelved her game and now there looks like there will be no other use of the Star Wars licences? Do you have a theory about what Happened? I feel we will learn as much about Hennig/EA, as we did Kojima/Konami.

Mikey "MyxeQ" Novak

Thats a great question! From a market perspective, there's evidence it can with examples of Fortnite and Rocket league, suggesting multiple console/platform support is possible regardless of capability. However, as a first party, what can Google bring to the table? (Currently, all 3 major consoles makers have 1st/2nd party software development making exclusive content).

Alen Milic

Hi Pach, Do you think there is room for a 4th console in the market? there is a rumor about a Google gaming console, lets assume it will run on Android - do you think its feasible for game makers/publishers to port games to one more OS? i'm talking graphically demanding games like Assassin's Creed, Cyberpunk 2077 & Call of Duty. And if it's a game streaming console (also rumored), do you think it will succeed where others failed? considering internet infrastructures and data caps.

Yakov Verch

Hi Senpai, now with e3 being over do you notice things winding down for this current generation of games? with less announcements and games being called out for the future dates past 2019 is this current generation over for the most part? what do you see Microsoft and Sony doing to win the next generation, does it involve vr or HoloLens?