Tue, Jan 11, 2011 | 19:23 GMT
Gameloft CEO believes massive App sales can possibly threaten innovation
Michel Guillemot, founder and CEO of Gameloft and brother of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, has criticized Electronic Arts over its $0.99 holiday App sale, claiming such markdowns threaten the market and pose a threat to smaller companies.
According to Guillemot, when a large publisher such as EA holds heavily promoted sales events such as these, innovation can suffer when prices are cut so low.
“There is a high uncertainty for the future anytime somebody can steal the market at Christmas,” Guillemot told IGN, and its something which he feels can cause developers to release titles which are just “good enough” and not very competitive or innovative.
Guillemot said that in 2011, the firm will continue to release experiential games on Facebook, and support the new Mac App Store with three new games: Brain Challenge, Let’s Golf 2, and Asphalt 6.
The firm has also signed a deal with Panasonic for an Internet TV initiative, which was announced during CES.
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Posted in: Development, Gameloft, Mobile
Tags: Michel Guillemot
4 comments
#1
freedoms_stain
11/01/11, 9:51 pm
Gameloft irritate me a bit.
So much of their business seems to hinge on hanging off the coattails of bigger entities, naming games and indeed services that in a manner that flies extremely close to trademark violation, then they whine about stifling innovation. Right…
#2
Superfrog
11/01/11, 9:58 pm
Exactly, they almost exclusively release shameless (though mostly decent to good) rip-offs of well-known games created by other companies. They DO release “titles which are just good enough and not innovative at all” all the time.
#3
Aimless
11/01/11, 10:05 pm
Maybe he meant to say “imitation”.
#4
Gekidami
11/01/11, 10:08 pm
Gameloft are pretty much the game industries version of ‘The Asylum’.