Review of the industrial press (26.03.2014)

The main topic of today, of course, is Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Rift developers. The material on Re/code leads to the fact that if six months ago the authors of the project put games in the center, now they already look differently at the place of their product in the ecosystem of digital devices. However, according to Antonio Rodriguez, one of the Oculus board members, it will take from 5 to 10 years to unlock the potential of the device.

http://recode.net/2014/03/25/under-facebook-oculus-will-still-focus-on-games-for-now/One of the main mistakes of current game developers is to run to where it is “fashionable”, while denying other markets that can still generate a lot of money.

The same browser project market is still very profitable against the background of reduced competition. This is evidenced at least by the fact that it allows Chinese developers to enter the mobile market. One of such companies is Manyougu.

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/GMGC+News/news.asp?c=58492&territory=asiaAt the Chinese Global Mobile Game Conference 2014, a report was published (based on data from Umeng, TalkingData, App Annie and Analysys), according to which the Chinese mobile games market was estimated at $2.2 billion.

Based on these data, analysts have made an assumption: in 2014 it will grow to $3.8 billion.

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/GMGC+News/news.asp?c=58489&territory=asiaPrecedent: in Florida (USA), two men were convicted under the article “piracy” for the illegal distribution of more than 1 million applications in the amount of $ 700 thousand.

It is not specified how long the 21-year-old and 26-year-old pirates will have to spend in prison.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-03-25-feds-get-first-us-convictions-for-app-piracyA little more about Oculus.

Dean Takahashi from GamesBeat claims that the guys are working to bring games out of the niche (as if smartphones haven’t already done it): “Oculus is developing technology that turns everyone into a player.” It’s mainly about combining the experience of playing hardcore games with the social functionality of modern mobile phones. The union of Facebook and Oculus is just going to work in this direction. 

http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/26/the-oculus-facebook-deal-could-marry-tech-social-and-gaming-once-and-for-all/Well, a little more about Facebook: Zuckerberg’s social network now has 1 billion mobile users.

Mark also said that Instagram’s MAU has reached the 200 million mark. Instagram Facebook had only 20 million users when it bought the service two years ago.  

http://www.mobileworldlive.com/facebook-hits-1b-mobile-users-makes-long-term-bet-augmented-realityAnd we also really liked the interview with Viktor Kisly on GamesBeat.

To the question: why have you been making the mobile version of World of Tanks for so long, he answers that Wargaming decided to stir up a full-fledged MMO, and not just a game about tanks based on motives, so everything drags on slowly. It also turns out that out of 3,000 people working in the company, only 45% are directly involved in development. 50% of the team lives in Minsk. In general, read it, there are a lot of interesting things there. 

http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/25/victor-kislyi-interview-2