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Sony Europe says the indie revolution is over, and it helped change Sony
Indies have won their revolution, and Sony is now an active part of the new world that emerged in its aftermath, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's head of strategic content Shahid Ahmad said during his keynote speech at London Games Conference this week. "People say the indie revolution is only just beginning," Ahmad said. "It's not. It's over. When the power structure shifts to the content creators, the old buildings might still be standing but there's new people in there. New content creators, with new ways of doing things. That's what's happened to PlayStation." Ahmad added: "It's through the experience of the last few years that PlayStation is emerging. We realize we have to be focused and passionate about embracing that new space." Ahmad explains that the indie movement helped define the PlayStation Vita in particular, establishing its current developer-focused approach to content curation after a rocky start. "I found myself asking: 'was PlayStation even relevant any more?'" Ahmad stated. "There was a whole generation of developers that didn't even know what Vita was. And it wasn't just indies we had trouble getting behind Vita - even our favorite partners like Sega and Sports Interactive." "You don't change the course of supertanker by saying you want to go another way," Ahmad explained. "You have to take radical action. [...] In an era of massive fragmentation, the old rulebook doesn't work. Operating in an environment of trust was the only way to work. We've forged open and friendly relationships with developers - in fact our relationship with developers are better than they have ever been."
Football Manager 2013 was pirated over 10.1 million times, once in the Vatican
Sports Interactive studio head Miles Jacobson revealed that Football Manager 2013 was illegally downloaded over 10.1 million times in a talk at the London Games Conference, MCVUK reported. He explained that the cracked software featured a "Home" flaw, which let the developer track the IP addresses of all pirates. Among the regions Jacobson discovered the illegal downloads in, China led the group with 3.2 million downloads followed by Turkey with 1.05 million copies of the game. Jacobson added that one person in the 547,000 that illegally downloaded Football Manager 2013 in Italy was located in Vatican City. While the developer said it would "be ridiculous to think" that every illegal download equated to one lost sale of the game, he estimated that 176,000 sales were lost to pirating, and that 1.74 percent of downloaders would have potentially purchased Football Manager 2013 had the cracking software not been available. Putting it in tangible terms, Jacobson equated the lost sales to $3.7 million in revenue that Sports Interactive and publisher Sega won't see. Jacobson was previously optimistic in November 2012 about the new anti-piracy measures placed in the game, noting that Football Manager 2012 wasn't pirated until two weeks after release. By comparison, Football Manager 2013 went 119 days without being cracked, the official LGC Twitter account noted during Jacobson's talk.
PlayStation Home no longer a priority for Sony?
Opinions on PlayStation Home seem to differ -- it doesn't have the kind of flexibility and user created content that's made Second Life successful, but it does provide social spaces and content linked to the games and other media we enjoy. For others, like writers at our parent site Joystiq, it's a brave new virtual world where the fine art of Quincying can thrive. Now that PlayStation Home has gained some traction with its install base and users are making microtransaction purchases, does Sony intend to develop the marketplace further? Not immediately, according to PlayStation Home's Pete Edwards. Edge Online quotes Edwards, speaking at the London Games Conference this week: "It's been a long road. We've proved there is a market out there and we've got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It's not a priority right now but there is a business model there." [Via G4tv's The Feed]
London Games Conference to examine downloadable transition
Speakers at the upcoming London Games Conference will be discussing the game industry's impending shift to digital distribution. And by that, we mean that certain speakers are espousing the belief that the industry will soon be run solely via digital distribution. One such speaker will be Nick Parker, of Parker Consulting, who expects new consoles from Sony and Microsoft by 2014 and that the sale of games in boxes will start declining in 2010. According to another unnamed speaker, 40 percent of the industry is not yet prepared for the transition. Taking place on October 27 at BAFTA, the London Games Conference will address this bleak, dystopian future, and will feature speakers from Sega, Microsoft and Sony. In the meantime, you might want to invest in Mylar sleeves for your games, as they'll soon be collector's items. [Image: Penny Arcade]
