This Week in the Business_ _Xbox 360's Massive Lead_

QUOTE | “Xbox 360’s massive lead.” – SCEA SVP of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer acknowledges Microsoft’s big lead in hardware but asserts that software sells better on PS3 holy rummy relative to the installed base STAT | 27% – The reduction in the number of games rated 80 or higher so far in 2011, as EEDAR notes that both game release frequency and quality have suffered this year(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); QUOTE | “Concerns about content looking better on 360.” – DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole believes Microsoft is sticking to a restrictive publishing policy because it doesn’t want games on PS3 to outshine their Xbox 360 counterparts STAT | $105 million – The estimated royally rummy cost for Rockstar’s Max Payne 3, which Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says is going to require 4 million units sold just to break even QUOTE | “Publishers getting the living crap kicked out of them.” – Sony’s Rob Dyer believes that Microsoft’s Content Submission and Release policy is completely unfair to publishers and Sony isn’t “demanding a pound of flesh” from game makers STAT | 23% – The decline the U.S. games industry saw at retail in a terribly slow August which suffered from a delay to Madden NFL 12. QUOTE | “No plans to charge for Battlelog.” – Despite comments from analyst Michael Pachter, who predicts that EA will “emulate” Call of Duty Elite and charge for a social service with Battlefield 3, EA says it’s keeping things free STAT | $81 billion – The size of the worldwide games market in 2016, according to DFC Intelligence, which forecasts that online game sales will surpass retail in 2013 QUOTE | “Only smart option is to apologize and fix it.” – Veteran journalist Chris Morris likens Square Enix’s handling and lack of a formal apology for the “racist” NPC in Deus Ex to Sony’s initial reaction to the PSN hack. QUOTE | “Our games are always on.” – THQ CEO Brian Farrell talks about the future of the industry, where he sees cloud gaming eventually killing off physical retail so that the next consoles won’t have disc drives QUOTE | “AAA retail model is crushing innovation.” – Ninja Theory creative chief Tameem Antoniades rallies against rummy 365 the current business model in the traditional games business which he believes is killing creativity This Week In the Business courtesy of IndustryGamers.com. Image: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock