Gaming News - Page 322

The Nintendo Switch has enjoyed five years of success, and here are the numbers to prove it.

The Switch is the ultimate union of handhelds and consoles, and as such, the system has generated tremendous profits for Nintendo. As the system turns five years old today we're taking a look back at some of the most important milestones the platform has achieved in half a decade.

In the last five years, the Switch has helped Nintendo generate nearly $60 billion in revenues. From March 2017 to December 2021, Nintendo made $59.8 billion in revenues. While those numbers do include 3DS hardware and software sales, the majority of those earnings were from the Switch itself.

Games titan The Pokemon Company is donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to Ukrainian relief efforts, joining other games-makers and publishers providing relief.

The Pokemon Company has publicly lamented the "heartbreaking" Russian invasion in Eastern Europe. The war sees nearly 1 million Ukranians fleeing the war-torn country as refugees, including children.

The Pocket Monster creator has responded with a $200,000 donation to the GlobalGiving foundation to provide humanitarian relief for Ukrainian families and children.

Babylon's Fall may be a flop for Square Enix, a publisher that needs more hit AAA titles.

Based on extremely lower player counts, Babylon's Fall could be the next Square Enix game to deliver "disappointing results." Babylon's Fall, the online-only hack-and-slash RPG developed by PlatinumGames, had less than 1,000 concurrent players on Steam on its launch day. Right now the game has roughly 4,000 Twitch viewers which indicates low curiosity for the game.

There's a few general reasons for this:

CD Projekt RED has cut off Russia and Belarus from its entertainment products.

Polish game developer CD Projekt RED will no longer sell its games, media, and other content to Russia and Belarus following the ongoing war against Ukraine. The sales ban includes games like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, and the countries are also restricted from the GOG.com game sales marketplace.

The decision will have a surprising impact on CD Projekt's sales revenues. The company warned investors that Russia and Belarus combined made roughly 9.1% of its total-year 2021 revenues. CDPR has yet to announce its Q4 earnings but based on a quick conversion, these regions may have made $12.8 million in sales--that effectively means CD Projekt will potentially lose millions of revenues a year from the ban.

Doomlord John Romero created its first Doom II level since 1994 to support Ukrainian relief.

John Romero, co-founder of id Software and co-creator of the legendary Doom franchise, is raising money for Ukrainian relief efforts in the best way: With a new custom Doom II level.

The level is called One Humanity, it costs 5 euros, and is available on Romero's official website. The FPS guru tells gamers that 100% of all revenues go directly to the Red Cross and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to help with the brutal Russian invasion on Ukraine.

Intellivision has enacted a new quiet period as it negotiates with new investors and potential business partners.

Gamers and investors will have to wait for updates on Intellivision's business. Company CEO Phil Adam confirms Intellivision has gone quiet so it can reach an agreement with its new investors, who are presumably interested in the Amiico console platform.

This is a common business practice made by companies who need time compiling data or negotiating contracts. Intellivision has used third-party funding to raise over $39 million on paper (but the real value is lower because not all of those funds were collected) to produce and ship its family-friendly Amiico system. The latest campaign on Start Engine has raised less than $50,000 so far.

A World of Tanks developer is fired for controversial support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A bit ago, World of Tanks creative director Sergey Burkatovskiy wrote on Facebook that he agrees with Russia's unprovoked strikes on Ukraine. Shortly afterwards WoT parent company Wargaming terminated Burkatovskiy and confirmed he is no longer working on the game.

The Belarusian developer, who operates multiple war games including World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, and World of Warships, says these aren't the views it has on the escalating conflict. "Sergey Burkatovskiy expressed his personal opinion on social media which categorically does not reflect the position of the company. He has been let go and is no longer at the company," the Wargaming tells PC Gamer.

Netflix has acquired Next Games, the developers behind Walking Dead and Stranger Things mobile games.

Netflix has announce an offer to buy outstanding shares of Finnish game developer Next Games. Under the deal Netflix will pay 65 million euros ($72 million) for Next Games in an effort to bolster its growing video games production arm. The streaming giant has added mobile games into existing Netflix subscriptions free of charge to help boost value and continued engagement.

Next Games is the mobile dev responsible for two Walking Dead games, including The Walking No Man's Land that has generated 131 million euros in revenue across 23 million downloads, as well as a Stranger Things puzzle game.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer has halted work on the game as it faces war against Russia.

Ukrainian game dev GSC Game World has paused development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 due to the Russian invasion. Russia is currently trying to capture the capital city of Kyiv, which is GSC's HQ. The game is set in irradiate Chernobyl, which was captured by the Russian military five days ago.

The developer says work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will continue "after the victory."

Sony's European division has shipped multiple "console prototypes" overseas to the United States, import records show.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has made some interesting shipments lately. The company has sent thousands of development kits from all over the world to Oakland, California. These devkits are presumably modified PS5 systems specifically for software creators. They might also be PSVR2 devkits, or perhaps even early units for a new upgraded PS5 Pro.

Now Sony is apparently shipping prototype units overseas. According to international shipment records, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe shipped 1,500lbs of video game console prototypes from its London, UK headquarters over to Norfolk, Virginia on November 16, 2021. The shipment was made in 4 CTN (cartons) weighing 694 kg (about 1,532 lbs).