INTERVIEW: Mary Beth Haggerty – Autodesk

Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 09 December 2008 10:52

Opinion and Analysis

iTWire: Do you see many of those technology changes as threats to the Autodesk business, in the light of the financial crisis, and the possibility of large game developers opting for safer markets?

M-BH:  “I have my favourite statistic, a compete decimation of financial markets over the past few months; everybody was biting their nails as we learned of October consumer sales.  In the U.S. it plummeted 5.6 percent year over year, a drop never before measured.  The games industry, in the U.S. grew 18 percent.  If I want to be in any industry during this turmoil, it is the games industry and it is growing.”

“Much of this goes back to our demographic expansion, family games in 2007 grew 141 percent.  People are buying games to spend time in with their families.  And now people are spending more time at home, they are buying more games.”

“If you are looking for a silver lining to the financial crisis, it may be that there will be no saturation of the marketplace for games.”

iTWire: Do you think there will be continued rise in garage game development that might be able to tap into tools such as Autodesk?

M-BH:  “We are already seeing it with Xbox LIVE arcade and PSN development as well as in the casual and browser based field.  Korea has a huge free-to-play industry, and I don’t think they are officially ‘garage’, but it is interesting to see how Western companies are looking to copy their success.”

“And as far as a fear of companies hunkering down and becoming safe, the games industry was not founded by safe people, it was founded by renegades, so have no fear.”