What should have been a rare technology victory for European business soon turned into a farce, however. The game was launched while still littered with bugs, much like the actual euro. Performance was so poor on older consoles that Sony, the world’s biggest console manufacturer, took the rare step of pulling the game from its stores. One scene gave an unfortunate reviewer an epileptic seizure.Projekt issued grovelling apologies. Its share price halved as complaints and refund demands poured in.
Start with the positives. Had a Polish film studio put out a film that grossed the best part of $1bn in just a few weeks, as “Cyberpunk 2077” managed to do, it would be churlish to complain if some of the acting was clunky and the plot had holes.Projekt is far from alone. Ubisoft, its French peer, is behind popular series such as “Assassin’s Creed”, which allows players to vent their bloodlust across the rooftops of historic Europe.
Yet Europe’s success in the sector has its limits. European companies are dwarfed by American and Chinese rivals. The two biggest American competitors, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard, are roughly three and six times bigger respectively than their largest European peer. Any company showing signs of growing to a serious size is swiftly gobbled by an American or Chinese rival. Microsoft bought Mojang, the maker of “Minecraft”, for $2.5bn in 2014.
Just as Europe failed to produce its own Amazon or Facebook, so too has it failed to control the platforms that dominate video games. These are controlled either by hardware sellers, such as Microsoft and Sony, or American distributors such as Valve, which owns the world’s biggestgame store, Steam. The companies that did succeed in these previous land grabs, such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, can be ambitious in a way that European rivals are simply unable to match.
Yet this attitude jars with the goals of Europe’s leaders, who are desperate to make the union a proper superpower. Thehas proved capable of regulating businesses, but incapable of helping to build them. It should start by paying future-proof industries more attention. Instead of being cherished, sectors like video games are forgotten: eclipsed by traditional industries, which have the ear of national politicians; dismissed as too nerdy by the luvvies who give the creative sector its clout.
I think that you need a video games industry writer. Looks like an economist writing about something they vaguely understand... Especially comparing to the NA equivalents that were hitting all those issues years before.
why is the link not working?
Its strange but I love the game and have had very few issues with its performance.
this is terrible news
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