PAX 2010: GameTrailers.com Presents: Hello Fellow Babies! – Pach-Attack! LIVE

The only things I had heard about Michael Pachter, host of GameTrailers.com Presents: Hello Fellow Babies! Pach-Attack! LIVE, were bad. Comments such as “He’s a horrible person” “He cares only about money” and “Activision pays him to charge us more money” are littered throughout forums and game sites to try and form an evil image of Mr. Pachter. Although I do not agree with most of his views and predictions, I now feel I have a better idea of why he does it.

Every business needs money to survive; this panel was about how you should go about getting this money. Pachter explained the importance of school while interviewing for job, citing the edge that an extra education can give you. He then continued to explain his career, the jobs he had, like working for Activision and now as a business analyst. Pachter explained that the negative press and media he got from his analysis helped him the status he now enjoys. Saying the notoriety isn’t always a bad thing, it can be the thing that pushes your company up to the next level in the industry. I agree to a point with this but I also feel someone cannot rely on all bad press to get you to the top. Although what Pachter does is generally viewed as bad press, it does make him and the companies he works for, a lot of money. So he has to be doing something right.

The Q & A was filled with many questions asking about Michael Pachter’s predictions for the coming years and his opinions on different company moves. When asked about the Playstation Move and Kinect competing for the same audience of the Wii, he explained that the Playstation Move is being marketed as a Wii replacement. He then talked about how he thought the Playstation Move would win the war with the Wii, partially due to the HD quality found with the Move. Kinect was a different story; he explained it was a different technology that wouldn’t need to be a replacement for the Wii.

Overall, I found the panel to be much more entertaining than expected due to the high level of information and even a bit of comedy.

~Dew