DICE Europe Chats With Michael Pachter & Greg Essig

Many of you longtime RPadholics know that the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ DICE Summits are my favorite events in the videogame business. I’ve been helping out the Academy with some interviews in preparation for DICE Europe 2015. The first two are live! First up is a chat with Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. Next is an interview with FunPlus head of business development Greg Essig.

A lot of you know Pachter as the most quotable analyst in videogames and from his Pach Attack show. He talks about his upcoming DICE Europe 2015 session, as well as some general nerd stuff. Learn about Pachter’s session, as well as his thoughts on the upcoming Star Wars movies and his view on A Song of Ice & Fire vs. Game of Thrones, by clicking the interview linked above.

While not as “game famous” as Pachter, Greg Essig is just as charming. Formerly with Apple and Creative Artists Agency, Essig has taken a new position with FunPlus. At DICE Europe 2015, he’ll be talking about “defining value in mobile gaming.” He told me a bit about his session, as well as his love for Sigur Ros and the Avenger he identifies with the most.

So yeah! Please do me a favor an check out the two interviews linked in the last two sentences of the first paragraph. You’ll be my favorite person in the world if you do!

5 thoughts on “DICE Europe Chats With Michael Pachter & Greg Essig”

  1. I disagree with the untapped audience aspect of the interview. I believe he is buying into mobile without admitting that the interactive aspect of a touchscreen vs tactile buttons is being overlooked. Not too mention that game consoles have been cheap for a while now. If the games he mentions are to find the other half of their audience they will need to be considerably cheaper. Doesn’t cod cost nearly $100 per installment with the map packs?

    1. Fair points, as always. I understand both arguments, but also understand that I’m not smart enough to call Pachter out on anything…and also because he has the best E3 parties. :p

  2. Wow, I never knew Pachter was predicting the end of the “traditional consoles” era. In a way, I can see where he’s coming from. If you view the price of the console as a barrier to entry and the software (game) can be streamed/downloaded to any type of computer, then it would make sense to deliver that content directly to the consumers and cut out the middle man (consoles). However, I have a feeling it’s not going to be as simple as that. I really think that even if console gaming declines, it could still live on as a “niche” market like it has in the past. Ultimately, though, the future of this prediction will rest upon the shoulders of the big publishers and developers. If both EA, Ubisoft and Activision (along with a few others) collectively decide not to develop on consoles anymore in favor of streaming/selling content directly to the consumer on their device of choice, then that would pretty much kill the console industry (with the exception of Nintendo, of course).

    My favorite quote from the Essig interview: ” I’ve seen a lot of developers create great free-to-play games that were too content heavy. They felt they had enough content for launch and for a month or two afterwards. The most skilled players went through that content in 48 hours and the developers were left not knowing what to do to serve those users. That situation is a result of a lack of communication and a lack of testing.”

    Ha, ha! Dumbasses.

  3. @iceman

    Before you buy completely into the console is dead future just remember that the PC market is growing. His prediction also excludes the very real factors of bad Internet infrastructure and the limitations of the battery on a mobile device.

    I’d also like to add that I buy all gaming machines and support the industry with my wallet and not with Internet posts. That said I haven’t played or purchased a mobile game since the first week that the iPhone 4 was out and for a brief time when puzzles and dragons came out. Mobile games try to monetize my time which is appalling. The interface is horrible as well. In contrast I just purchased puzzles and dragons (f2p on the App Store) for $30 on my 3DS. The content, methods of playing, and factors that streaming only require are make his vision far from certainty.

    Full disclosure: I like Michael Pachter and enjoy his insight. He’s a nice guy who wishes me luck once via Twitter DM.

  4. @ SG

    The PC market isn’t “growing” as much as it’s “maintaining”. It’s always been there, alive and well. I sell people on why almost daily. In this instance though, when talking about the games instead of the medium, piracy is much more rampant on the PC than on either consoles or mobile. Sure, you can jailbreak an iPhone or root and Android, but it’s much less common and a bit more challenging than grabbing a torrent.

    The current gen of consoles made it much easier to stream. That’s actually a BIG step forward and we have yet to see the true impact of that.

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