Gaming News - Page 290

Ubisoft's new video game releases have been delayed and pushed back farther than expected, sources have told Kotaku.

Ubisoft is a big publisher with even bigger value, but the company's long-term vision is potentially in jeopardy. Ubisoft's slate of upcoming premium games has reportedly been set back, with new entries in the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Ghost Recon franchises being farther away than Ubisoft would've hoped.

The absence of big game releases makes Ubisoft decidedly vulnerable. The company's live services aren't necessarily able to sustain long-term revenue growth; unlike Blizzard, who can make hundreds of millions every year from monetization, Ubisoft needs to release full games every so often to 1) make revenues from the sales and 2) establish new entry points for microtransactions and live services.

Activision promises that Call of Duty Modern Warfare II will be a spectacle unlike any other in the history of the franchise.

Call of Duty's last annual release is going out with a bang. Activision recently hyped up this year's Call of Duty and confirmed it was a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare. Apparently Infinity Ward has been working on true next-gen features, optimizations, and content to help push the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to new levels of immersion.

"This year's Call of Duty is a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare, the most successful Call of Duty title to date, and will be the most advanced experience in franchise history," Activision said in its recent Q1 earnings report.

Microsoft expects gaming to drop in Q4 and break Xbox's quarterly growth streak.

Xbox is currently dominating the market. Microsoft took over market share in key territories through January - March 2022. Console revenues are up 14% due to a supply surge, and Xbox Series X/S were the best-selling consoles in March 2022. Xbox just delivered another record-breaking quarter with $3.74 billion in Q3, which was the highest Q3 period in Xbox gaming history. Xbox has actually made record revenues for three straight consecutive quarters in a row.

Q4 2022 is a different story. Microsoft expects Xbox gaming revenues to drop as much as 9% through the quarter from April - June 2022, breaking the three-month growth streak.

Xbox dominated gaming's most important regions from January - March.

Xbox was the market leader in key territories like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe through its Q3 period (Jan - Mar 2022), Microsoft has announced. The update aligns with the NPD Group's March 2022 report that Xbox Series X/S consoles were the top-selling systems in the U.S.

"We have taken share quarterly for two quarters in a row, and we are the quarterly market leader in western Europe, UK, US, and Canada," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during a Q3 call.

SEGA plans to delist all existing digital versions of classic Sonic games ahead of its new Sonic Origins remaster collection.

Sonic Origins will soon be the only way to buy old-school Sonic games on modern hardware. According to Games Press, SEGA is removing existing standalone digital versions of Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD from all platforms. Anyone who currently owns these games will still be able to download and play the games, but new users won't be able to buy them.

The games will still be accessible on SEGA Ages and any games released on the Nintendo Switch Online+ Expansion Pak will still be playable.

Microsoft's games division just had its best Q3 of all time, driven by a substantial spike in hardware revenues.

Xbox gaming is bigger than ever. Microsoft sets another new record-breaking quarter for Xbox with $3.74 billion earned in Q3'2022 (January - March 2022), up $207 million year-over-year.

The growth was driven by an uptick in content & services (+6%) and hardware sales (+14%). The Xbox console sales jump coincides with NPD Group's March report that confirms Xbox Series X/S was the top-selling console in the United States.

Activision-Blizzard has lost a total of 63 million monthly active users in one year, signalling that gamers are moving on to other titles.

Activision's latest financials show a significant decrease in active players. According to the company's financials and data compiled by us, Activision-Blizzard had 372 million monthly active users (MAUs) in Q1 2022, down a whopping 63 million users from Q1 2021.

Activision made up most of this loss, which could indicate Call of Duty has lost tens of millions of users since last year.

Valheim is officially one of the most successful indie games ever released.

Iron Gate's Nordic survival sensation Valheim has sold over 10 million copies in little over a year, new data shows. This is a nice 2 million bump in sales from August 2021's figures, which pinpointed 8 million sales.

The milestone puts Valheim firmly in the top echelon of indie games like Stardew Valley (15 million), Rust (12.4 million), and Fall Guys (11 million). Valheim is even hitting AAA numbers, beating out big games like Final Fantasy XV (8.9 million) and brushing shoulders with Resident Evil 7 (10.6 million).

CD Projekt has adjusted the sales figures for Cyberpunk 2077 on all platforms.

Cyberpunk 2077's platform split has been revised following new data from CD Projekt RED. The company previously released figures suggesting that PC game sales were much higher than PS4 and Xbox One, but those numbers were erroneous. A new report filed by CD Projekt reveals updated data.

The numbers are estimated sell-through on PC, PS4, and Xbox One corresponding with 2020 and 2021. Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 18 million+ copies to date, with 13.7 million sold in 2020 and 4.3 million sold in 2021.

Ubisoft officially confirms it's working on Project Q, a wacky battle arena shooter coming to the free-to-play market.

Ubisoft's latest game Project Q was recently leaked by NDA-bound playtesters and inside info from Tom Henderson, and now Ubisoft has made the news official.

"Introducing codename "Project Q", a team battle arena letting players truly own the experience! The game is in early development and we will keep testing," Ubisoft said in a Tweet announcement that prompted players to sign up to playtest.