This Week in the Business: 'A Giant FU to a Large Number of People'What's happened in the business of video games this past week ...

QUOTE | Console and PC guys should learn [about] variable pricing ... $60 is a giant FU to a very large number of people."—Former EA CEO John Riccitiello, on what traditional game devs can learn from mobile and vice-versa.

QUOTE | "'Trying to feature positive female characters' is probably a mistake."—Jill Murray, Ubisoft director of narrative design, on why it's so rare to find good female characters in video games.

QUOTE | "I was a developer for many years before my current role, but I've never been a very good gamer."—Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, on why he was always confident the Wii would succeed because it was easy to use.

QUOTE | "Crunch time, duct tape, and the force all have something similar—they each have a light side and a dark side."—Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment on whether crunch time is necessary in game development.

STAT | 5-6 million—Number of Xbox One and PS4 shipments expected this year by analyst firm RW Baird; each console will sell 1.5 to 2 million units in North America, though Baird believes the Xbox One may sell more than the PS4.

QUOTE | "You can't judge this over the next six months, you have to judge this over the next decade."—Epic's Tim Sweeney, on Valve's SteamOS and Steam Machines plan to bring PC gaming to the living room.

STAT | $5 billion—Amount spent so far in 2013 on game company mergers and acquisitions, according to investment bank Digi-Capital; most of the activity comes from mobile, and buyers from China, Japan and South Korea.

QUOTE | "I figured there would be opportunities in free-to-play on console so we basically started pushing Microsoft."—Signal Studios founder D. R. Albright II, on bringing their F2P RPG Ascend to the Xbox 360.

QUOTE | "NetherRealms has made an undoubtedly better game, but a worse free-to-play product."—Game designer and consultant Ethan Levy on the mistakes Warner Bros. made with the mobile versions of Arkham Origins compared to Injustice: Gods Among Us.

QUOTE | "I used to joke with a friend that it was harder to get a good paying gig as a video game writer than it was to get into the NBA."—Casey Lynch, ex-IGN editor -in-chief, talking with other ex-journalists about transitioning to working at game companies.

This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International

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