"Facebook didn't even exist when we started the company. The iPhone didn't exist. We've adapted and changed and rolled with everything that's come our way. We've constantly integrated our approach to games."
Evolution is one of the most important words in business.
Being a game developer (though in the "old-style" console/PC part), I thought this was the money quote:
We don't track the resources that go into each game.
If it's a great game, it's worth a lot of money.
If it's a B+ game, it's essentially worth zero.
Troll through the average list of new releases in a week and you can clearly see that most people/groups/publishers either don't agree, or don't get this.
If it were that cut and dry, Wii shovelware-type games wouldn't be made. Clearly there's money to be made, just perhaps not AAA level returns to be had.
The story title is currently "CEO of PopCap games". Vechey isn't the CEO, but a founder. He actually left PopCap for a few years to pursue his interest in film (before returning to the company).
When Dave started, we were focused on creating new games instead of supporting revenue streams from each game. Dave changed that.
Part of the reason why PopCap has been so successful is that they have properly branched their games into new devices and areas, from Facebook games, to iPhone, in-flight entertainment, etc.
I think that is a good lesson for hackers. If you aren't making enough money from your app, perhaps you just haven't expanded enough horizontally. Many of the best apps these days have iPhone/iPad/Blackberry versions so they can be easily accessible at all times.
"Facebook didn't even exist when we started the company. The iPhone didn't exist. We've adapted and changed and rolled with everything that's come our way. We've constantly integrated our approach to games."
Evolution is one of the most important words in business.