Gaming quotes that defined 2012

Talk of the Town

Writing about video games wouldn't be much fun if people weren't always saying such interesting things about them. Fortunately, we had no shortage of comments from the exciting to the infuriating this year. Whether you wanted sweeping statements about the future of the industry, gaffes to make any PR professional cringe, or overly optimistic mission statements, we had it all.

Were not going to patch the patch. Why not? Because Microsoft would charge us tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game.

"There's this sort of dynamic of 'I'm going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her When you see her have to face these challenges, you start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."

"We don't like it when people pay $60 for a game and feel cheated. We don't like it when developers can't work on a platform because it's too expensive."

"These days it seems like adventure games are almost a bit of a lost art form. They exist in our dreams, and our memories. And in Germany. What if there are a lot of adventure game fans out there who want an adventure game? I wonder if there's some way that I could talk to them directly, and cut out publishers all together."

"We actually got a lot of feedback from people who were playing [a demo for the game included with Ninja Gaiden 3], saying, 'We want bigger breasts. Make the characters more like that.' That was kind of surprising."

"It's crushing and devastating to see it fail the way it did I'm not asking for sympathy. It was my choice."

"I don't just want the whole chainsaw gun to be my legacy."

"There exists in this country a callous, corrupt, and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people."

Sure weve had our disagreements with the fans (and them with us), but frankly I understand how thats driven by passion and love of the games. Its exhilarating to consider how many lives weve touched with the entertainment weve created over the last 20 years.

"[I]t shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that, when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry."

"In this industry, you can't get too high or too low, because it moves very quickly. I think there's an acceptable number--and [the number] we've sold: That's acceptable. If it was triple that, I'd be happier. If it was one-third, I'd be disappointed."

You find out two executives are planning to break their contracts, keep the money you gave them and steal 40 employees. What do you do? You fire them.

I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think well lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people.

"..."

"I haven't really shown the world what else I might be capable of yet. This may sound pretentious, but I don't like being thought of as 'the Metal Gear guy.' There's a lot more I can do."

"The [Last Guardian] is still in development. Nothing new to report at this time."

"We think of ourselves less as a peer to our good friends at Take-Two, Activision, and Ubisoft and more as a peer, quite frankly, to the service companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon."

"Initially my Tropes vs. Women in Video Games project aimed to examine the patterns of stereotypical representations of women in video games, but given the intensity of the hate I've been subjected to for simply announcing the video series, the project will now be expanded to include a component about the epidemic problem of harassment in gaming spaces."

"[THQ has] good things. We are always interested in good brands. For sure, it's something we can consider, but I can't tell you more."

"We don't intend to be sad and mourn the separation from our beloved ones. We will call them and remember the good times in hope to be back home soon."

"[T]his will not be the last The Walking Dead game series that we do."

"You could say video games are a great grassroots expression of culture and in some cases art in our democracy. I guess what surprised me was just the sort of joyful excitement in the games."

"Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case. IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don't want our IP to hit the wall."

"Reviews of a system or review of a game really come down to the quality and capability of the reviewer. There has been a range of comments and commentary. But when I go on Miiverse and see how consumers are reacting to games like ZombiU or Call of Duty, that tells me we're doing something very, very positive."

"There are a lot of very talented creators in Japan, but often they aren't in a position to use that talent, or the developer they're working for hasn't noticed that talent. So I think there needs to be a system that allows them to be more creative in their work; that would help them a lot."

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You've read the quotes that had us gasping, laughing, and sobbing over the year. Think there are any notable nuggets of gaming wisdom (or otherwise) we left out? Let us know in the comments!