What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “We need to curb [used games] on the retail side. We’re putting the consumers in an awkward spot and we shouldn’t have to.”—Ready at Dawn boss Ru Weerasuriya, saying that GameStop and other outlets exploit developers and consumers QUOTE | “Publishers rock. They can be awesome. … But allow us the choice to self publish, or work with a publisher we choose for ourselves.”—Mike Bithell, indie developer, discussing Microsoft’s move to open up the Xbox One to indiescnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"931910753","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"culture","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"culture","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); STAT | 7.7 million—Number of current subscribers to World of Warcraft, down 600,000 from last quarter; the MMORPG hit its high point in 2010 with 12 million subscribers HUC99 QUOTE | “Microsoft may have the benefit of a 2-3x unit advantage at launch compared to Sony’s PS4.”—Analyst Colin Sebastian, saying info from the supply chain suggests the Xbox One may outship the PS4 QUOTE | “If a game is really good, it should be all word of mouth, in a perfect world.”—Paula Cuneo, VP of transmedia marketing for Meteor Entertainment, explaining why they’re not spending money on Hawken advertising STAT | $8.2 billion—Amount it cost Activision to buy itself back from Vivendi; the company is now owned 63% by the public, 12% by Vivendi, and 24% by an investment group headed by CEO Bobby Kotick QUOTE | “Just because we have Bejeweled or Plants vs. Zombies w88 doesn’t mean we can do a crappy job.”—PopCap founder John Vechey, describing the need to keep constant pressure on making a good huc game STAT | 2 million—Number of copies of SimCity Online that EA has sold so far, despite initial troubles, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said “SimCity is a success.” This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International Image by auremar | Shutterstock