Prophetic Silicon Knights boss Denis Dyack has made one of his bold predictions, suggesting that a series of big mergers, similar to ActiBlizzard, is heading our way. Comparing the games industry to 1930’s Hollywood, the Nostradamus-in-glasses stated that big changes are coming and that there’s nothing that can stop them.
“I think the industry is going through a paradigm change. And it’s not just North American companies, it’s all companies,” stated Dyack, revealing that he knows the word “paradigm” and isn’t afraid to use it. “The economy worldwide is kind of in crisis; demographics are changing and birth rates are declining. So is it easy out there? No it isn’t. Is it getting harder? Yes it is. But, if a lot of groups are not going to survive the paradigm shift, hopefully we’ll be one of those that do.
“I think if you draw parallels with the movie industry, you’ll see a lot of mergers and acquisitions that took place as it was forming in the ‘20s and ‘30s, which resulted in the six major studios that are still around today. That seems to be happening in our industry, so mergers and acquisitions are going to continue and there’s nothing that can stop it. It’s all about making the economics work.”
A sobering reminder that as much as we talk about art and creativity, it’s the almighty dollar that drives, rules and dominates this industry. I don’t agree with everything that Dyack says (like when he says Too Human will be good), but this is definitely one of those times when he makes a lot of sense.
