Tag: gaming

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Nintendo’s Switch has now outsold the Wii

Take that headline in.

The Switch, Nintendo’s home console-portable hybrid system, has managed to outsell the Wii, a system that was a bonafide cultural phenomenon in the mid-2000s.

According to the Japanese gaming giant’s latest earnings report, the Switch’s lifetime sales now sit at 103.54 million units compared to the Wii’s 101.63 million. This also means that the Switch is now Nintendo’s top-selling home console of all time, though it still lags behind the DS line at 154 million and the Game Boy at 118 million.

Though many expected Nintendo to release a mid-generation update to the Switch earlier this year given the system is approaching the five-year anniversary of its release, the fabled more powerful console has yet to materialize. Instead, the company released the Switch OLED model, a minor update to the Switch that features an OLED display.

Switch sales currently break down as follows: the standard Switch sold 11.79 million, the Switch OLED model sold 3.99 million and the Switch Lite sold 3.17 million. In total, all Switch models sold 18.95 million units.

In its earnings report, Nintendo states that it expects to ship 23 million Switches for the fiscal year, down from its 24 million projected in November and its earlier prediction of 25.5 million. Regarding individual game sales, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl sold 13.97 million units, Mario Party Superstars sold 5.43 million units, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD sold 3.85 million, and Metroid Dread sold 2.74 million copies.

Looking to the future, Pokémon Legends: Arceus just released last week and Kirby and the Forgotten Land launches in March.

Source: Nintendo 

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PlayStation’s Critics’ Choice sale offers up to 60 percent off hit games

PlayStation has a kicked off a ‘Critics’ Choice’ on the PlayStation Store, offering up to 60 percent off acclaimed PS4 and PS5 titles.

See below for some of the most notable deals:

Altogether, there are 336 “items” featured in the sale (some are different versions of the same game) — you can see the full list here. Deals end on February 16th.

Image credit: Square Enix

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PS5, PC exclusive Ghostwire: Tokyo confirmed for March 25 release

Bethesda has confirmed that its upcoming PS5 and PC exclusive, Ghostwire: Tokyo, will release on March 25th.

While that date had been leaked by the PlayStation Store earlier this month, the publisher has now corroborated it. What’s more, a special Ghostwire-centric presentation has been set for Thursday, February 3rd at 5pm ET. Bethesda is promising “new gameplay and behind-the-scenes details” in the showcase.

Originally revealed back in June 2019, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a first-person action-adventure game from The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, the team overseen by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. The game portrays a Tokyo that has been overrun by paranormal Visitors, leaving Akito, one of the last living humans, to join forces with a spirit and save the city.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is one of many high-profile PS5 games this year, including this month’s Horizon Forbidden West, March’s Gran Turismo 7, May’s Forspoken and God of War: Ragnarök (TBA 2022).

It’s worth noting, however, that Ghostwire: Tokyo is expected to come to Xbox at some point down the line. As it stands, PlayStation has a one-year console exclusivity on the game, so it could, in theory, release on Xbox after March 25th, 2023. Interestingly, though, Xbox now owns Bethesda, which makes this the second Xbox Game Studios title to be published first on PlayStation, after last year’s Deathloop.

This will be PlayStation’s second showcase of the week, following February 2nd’s Gran Turismo 7-focused stream.

Image credit: Bethesda

Via: PlayStation

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PlayStation will use Bungie to help launch more than 10 live service games by 2026

Earlier this week, Sony made significant waves in the gaming space by announcing that it will acquire Bungie for $3.6 billion USD (about $4.6 billion CAD).

Now, the company has revealed more about its plans for the Destiny studio during its latest investor call.

“The strategic significance of this acquisition lies not only in obtaining the highly successful Destiny franchise, as well as major new IP Bungie is currently developing, but also incorporating into the Sony group the expertise and technologies Bungie has developed in the live game services space,” said Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki. “Through close collaboration between Bungie and PlayStation Studios we aim to launch more than 10 live service games by the fiscal year ending March 2026.”

This makes a lot of sense for PlayStation. While the studio has built up a reputation for delivering massively successful single-player games like The Last of Us, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ghost of Tsushima, it hasn’t had a major standout multiplayer title. By contrast, rival Xbox has lacked the same strong single-player output but has had multiple ongoing popular multiplayer titles, including Sea of Thieves and, most recently, Halo Infinite.

To compensate for that, PlayStation has largely relied on exclusive content and marketing deals with popular multiplayer games like Destiny or Call of Duty. Therefore, Bungie’s extensive history in creating successful online titles should prove invaluable in PlayStation’s efforts to expand its catalogue.

As for what those 10-plus live service games will be? Well, we have a few ideas.

In terms of Bungie, job listings from last year suggested that the developer’s new IP will be a multiplayer “character action” game, although it’s not expected to come before 2025.

Meanwhile, Naughty Dog is confirmed to be working on multiple projects, including a standalone multiplayer suite for The Last of Us Part II. The 2020 action-adventure game was originally supposed to have multiplayer like its predecessor, but it was scrapped in favour of focusing on the campaign.

And finally, Horizon Zero Dawn developer Guerrilla and PlayStation VR Worlds developer London Studio have been hiring for unknown online games.

Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Mobile brought in $93 billion in revenue in 2021, more than console and PC combined

While it’s no surprise that the mobile gaming market is massive, a new report sheds light on just how much it contributes to overall games industry revenue.

According to research firm Newzoo, mobile gaming made up 52 percent of the market in 2021, bringing in over $93.2 billion USD (about $118.2 billion CAD) in revenue last year alone.

To put these numbers into perspective, the mobile gaming market made more in 2021 than consoles and PC combined. Specifically, consoles generated $50.4 billion USD (about $63.9 billion CAD) in revenue, while PC accounted for $36.7 billion USD (about $46.5 billion CAD). That works out to a total of $87.1 billion USD (about $110 billion CAD), which is $6.1 billion USD (about $7.7 billion CAD) short of the mobile earnings.

Of that $93.2 billion USD, $16.4 billion USD (about $20.8 billion CAD) came from North America — a five percent growth from 2020. Asia-Pacific, meanwhile, dominated the market with $59.8 billion USD (about $75.8 billion CAD), which was a 7.9 percent year-over-year growth.

Interestingly, the report breaks the mobile figures down further by noting that $11.7 billion USD (about $14.8 billion CAD) was earned on tablets, while the remaining $81.5 billion USD (about $103.4 billion CAD) came from smartphones. However, there is no mention on the breakdown of Google Play vs. App Store revenue.

All of this data came from a larger Newzoo report commissioned by TikTok on the video-sharing platform’s efforts to reach mobile gamers. The full report can be found here.

Via: Android Police

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Nintendo’s Gold Points Special Offer offers double Gold Points on select digital games

Nintendo’s website is offering a variety of deals to Canadians. Some of the offers include a Valentine’s Day Sale, an Unpacking Sale, a Cyber Shadow Sale, and most importantly, a ‘Gold Points Special Offer.’

Nintendo’s ‘Gold Points Special Offer,’ allows users to earn double the Gold Points on select digital games, which means you can earn 10 percent in Gold points on select digital games. These titles include Metroid Dread, Smash Bros Ultimate, New Pokémon Snap and more.

Ubisoft’s Valentine’s Day Sale runs until February 9th

You can find the other deals below:

Ghost n Goblins Resurrections is $26.39, was $39.99 and is on sale until February 7th. Cyber-Shadow one Year Anniversary Sale is offering the title for $17.49 and normally $24.99. Unpacking is now $21.27 but returns to its regular price of $26.59 on February 7th.

Source: Nintendo Via: RedFlagDeals

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Former Journey, Spider-Man, Skyrim devs form new studio

A team of gaming industry veterans has formed a new studio called Gardens.

Based primarily in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, but functioning as a fully remote studio, Gardens was founded by Chris Bell (Journey), Lexie Dostal (Dustforce) and Stephen Bell (What Remains of Edith Finch). Other members of the team, meanwhile, have worked on the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank (lead artist Ryan Benno), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (principal engineer Rose Dale) and The Hobbit (art director Leighton Milne)

In a press release, Gardens described the types of games it aims to make, and they certainly sound in line with the likes of Journey.

“These artfully-crafted, living environments will be designed to foster rich multiplayer interactions while relying on care by their communities in order to thrive,” said Gardens of its planned game worlds. “They are games that aspire to cultivate lasting friendships (like Journey, Sky, or Way before them) while encouraging players to be considerate of each other and the world they inhabit together.”

The studio is currently hiring for a number of positions — those interested in applying can do so here.

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Mobile Syrup

Xbox has a bunch of deals right now, including Lunar New Year and Ubisoft sales

Xbox has kicked off multiple promotions on digital games, offering discounts on Asian-made games for Lunar New Year, titles from Ubisoft and Warner Bros., and more.

See below for some of the most notable deals. Note that all of the listed original Xbox and Xbox 360 games are playable on Xbox One/Xbox Series X and S via backward compatibility.

The full list of deals can be found here. Note that the sales are valid through February 7th, though individual promotions have different end dates.

Image credit: Game Mill

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What’s new on Xbox Game Pass on console, PC and mobile in early February 2022

Every month, Xbox adds new games to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Typically, new games join the catalogue in two waves every month, and now, Xbox has revealed the first half of February’s lineup.

Notably, Infernax from Quebec City-based indie Berzerk Studio (which we just featured this week), and Contrast from Montreal-owned Xbox studio Compulsion, are among the new Game Pass titles.

  • Contrast (Cloud and Console) — February 3rd
  • Dreamscaper (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 3rd
  • Telling Lies (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 3rd
  • Besiege (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 10th [Game Preview]
  • CrossfireX (Console) — February 10th [only includes the first single-player campaign, “Operation: Catalyst”)
  • Edge of Eternity (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 10th
  • Skul: The Hero Slayer (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 10th
  • The Last Kids on Earth and the Staff of Doom (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 10th
  • Ark: Ultimate Survivor Edition (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 14th
  • Infernax (Cloud, Console and PC) — February 14th

Meanwhile, here’s what’s leaving Game Pass on February 15th:

  • Control (Cloud, Console and PC)
  • Code Vein (Cloud, Console and PC)
  • Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age (Console and PC)
  • The Medium (Cloud, Console and PC)
  • Project Winter (Cloud, Console and PC)
  • The Falconeer (Cloud, Console and PC)

Xbox Game Pass is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Android and iOS in beta. Game Pass for Console and PC Game Pass each cost $11.99 CAD/month.

Meanwhile, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $16.99/month and is required for streaming (which Xbox refers to as ‘Cloud’) to mobile devices and browsers. On top of that, this tier includes Game Pass for both Console and PC, as well as subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold and EA Play.

Find out what came to Game Pass in the second half of January here.

Image credit: Focus Home Interactive

Source: Xbox

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This exclusive launch team Stadia controller is listed on eBay until Feb. 7

Following the November 2019 release of Google Stadia, all launch development team members were gifted an exclusive clear Stadia controller. The controller wasn’t meant to be used for gaming, and even if you wanted to, you couldn’t, as it lacked crucial internal components and is meant to be used as decorative memorabilia only.

Now, over two years later, one of these clear controllers has made its way to eBay, as first shared by Twitter user @OriginaIPenguin.

What’s noteworthy, however, other than the gamepad’s scarcity, is that ‘delvalled_15‘ (the person who listed it) has taken apart the controller and added all internals from a Founder’s Edition Stadia controller, turning the memorabilia into a fully functioning controller that supports charging, vibrations and connectivity.

“This is a collectors item and will likely never be on the market again,” reads the listing’s description.

Stadia fans and collectors would likely love to get their hands on a clear controller, especially one that works and houses internals from the Founder’s Edition controller.

As of right now, the controller is bidding for $435 (roughly $552 CAD), though expect the bidding price to increase as the listing nears its end on Monday, February 7th, at 11:43am ET.

Image credit: eBay 

Source: eBay Via:@OriginaIPenguin