Exclusive: Gaming Companies Primary Goal is to Make Money

by Barry Ungary

We at the Daily Rager believe whole heartedly in the gamers’ experience being the primary motivator in the industry.  We pull no punches in critiquing and exposing the torridness of the gaming industry.  That said, even we were shocked to find that the gaming industry, as an absolute whole, puts one thing at the top of its priorities: making a profit!

It all started at a party where we ran into Riot Bubobubo, we asked what he understood the primary goal of Riot Games to be.  He floored us by saying, “To make money by providing an awesome gaming experience.”  When asked to clarify he stated, “Yeah, well, if there’s no profit, we can’t make the game.  So, we need to make money to make games.”  He tried to back pedal some by adding, “So you provide an amazing experience, and things they want, and gamers pay for it.”  When asked why he put profits above gamers he became defensive and stated, “Look, we are gamers, we love the game.  But in the end, if we can’t pay the bills, we can’t spend the time building the game.”

Shocked, we started on a journey to uncover whether this mindset extended beyond Riot.  When we reached out to Activision Blizzard, a spokesman told us, “We are committed to providing gamers with world class games for a fair price.  Making profits enables us to continue making games, and keeps Activision Blizzard in the development and production game, pun intended.”  When asked to confirm or deny that watching the bottom line was the number one priority, the spokesman stated, “Well, yes, obviously if our games are not making a profit that’s a concern.”  Like the Rioter we spoke to, they also defended their stance, stating, “No profits means we are failing to meet the demands of the gaming community, and so profits become a way to benchmark how successful we are at providing gamers an enjoyable experience.”

We asked some developers, and in an off the record interview with an Rockstar Games executives, we were told, “Of course its ultimately about the money, why the h*** else would we be called a game development ‘company’?  You want charity, go to the d*** Salvation Army.”  He added, “Look, people buy what they like.  If they want 67 iterations of driving over hookers and blowing up cars, they’ll buy it and we’ll keep making it.  When they stop wanting that, we will quit making it.”

We thought about contacting EA, but then realized we already knew their answer.