Gaming - Page 324

Rockstar Games' mega-hit Grand Theft Auto franchise has now generated over $8.33 billion since GTA V's launch in 2013, new figures from Take-Two Interactive indicate.

Take-Two just published its 10-K SEC filing that gives a complete picture of its Fiscal Year 2023 results, and in those reports we have updated metrics for Grand Theft Auto franchise revenues. According to the data, GTA products made up 14.6% of the company's total net revenues of $5.349 billion during FY23, which amounts to about $781 million.

The results push total Grand Theft Auto franchise earnings in excess of $8.33 billion from GTA V's launch in Q3 FY14 (September 2013), and includes earnings from multiple console and PC iterations of GTA V, sales of the newer Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster collection, and revenues made from Grand Theft Auto Online's in-game purchases.

Nintendo has released a new software update for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that fixes one of the most widely-abused glitches in the game.

If you're currently playing Tears of the Kingdom and very much enjoy your treasure trove of ill-gotten diamonds, zonaite charges, and anything else you decided to exploit, then you may want to avoid updating your game.

The latest TotK software update version 1.1.2 is said to fix the popular duplication glitch. Yes, the very glitch that has been used to accrue thousands of rupees and scarce resources appears to have been cut and patched out. TotK is notorious for its myriad of collectibles that have infinitesimal creative uses, and the glitch was pretty much the equivalent of GTA 3 cheat codes from back in the day.

Bungie's new game Marathon won't have any sort of singleplayer campaign, but it will tell a story through its PVP multiplayer.

For the first time in a decade, Bungie has announced a new game. It's called Marathon, and no, it's not a sequel to Bungie's old-school 1990s shooter that predates Halo. It's a colorful and vibrant re-imagining of the series that's entirely focused on PVP. Marathon will have some "deep cut" lore nods to the original game, but this time around the revamp is an extraction shooter.

Instead of relying on a traditional storyline that unfolds through missions and progression, Bungie is leaning more on its core strengths for Marathon's storytelling: Atmospheric worldbuilding, environmental mystery and discovery, gameplay, and evolving world states that unlock as players do certain things in the game.

Capcom's fan-favorite fantasy series is back with Dragon's Dogma 2, a new chapter built in the powerful RE Engine.

Yesterday, Capcom made a splash in PlayStation's gaming showcase by heralding the triumphant return of its Dragon's Dogma series. The game looks to be a premiere highlight in Capcom's pedigree for high-quality games, delivering impressive visuals, visceral-looking combat, and a nice mix of mythical creatures and sword-and-sorcery tropes.

Interestingly enough, the game appears to be developed using artificial intelligence. Nestled in the official gameplay reveal on the PlayStation channel is the following line: "All of these elements are elevated further by the latest in graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics technology to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon's Dogma 2."

Remedy promises to deliver some mind-bending horror with Alan Wake 2, but it won't all be doom and gloom.

During yesterday's PlayStation showcase event, Remedy Entertainment was finally able to show off Alan Wake 2 gameplay. There's some distinct Resident Evil horror vibes going on, and rightly so considering Remedy says AW2 is a survival horror game. The new trailer highlighted some important story beats, like the classic 'writer's story comes true' that we've seen in Stephen King stories like Word Processor of the Gods, or The World of His Own episode of the old Twilight Zone series.

Less predictable is the psychological and positively cerebral transition sequences that were shown in the video, which underline the influence of Remedy's previous Control game. Things are certainly much more dire and horrifying this time...but Alan Wake 2's creative director Sam Lake says the game will have distinct contrast points to break things up.

Sony seeks to disrupt the PlayStation brand with the introduction of live service games and expand onto PC and mobile, but this could lead to identity issues with gaming's largest platform-holder.

Note: This is an opinion article based around specific trends, data points, and observations of the games industry.

Yesterday during its PlayStation Showcase 2023 stream, Sony announced three first-party live service titles:

Alan Wake II has sparked an interesting discussion in the gaming world: Are digital-only games okay if they are cheaper?

During yesterday's PlayStation showcase, Remedy revealed gameplay footage of Alan Wake II and confirmed an October release. The Finnish developer has been incredibly transparent about Alan Wake II and has confirmed the game will be 100% digital and won't have a physical disc-based version.

Alan Wake II becoming a digital exclusive comes as a shock to gamers and preservation enthusiasts, but Remedy justifies this in a number of ways, including the cost of the game. Alan Wake II will cost $59.99 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which is $10 cheaper than the new $70 baseline price of games for these platforms. The game is also much cheaper on PC and will be sold at $49.99 exclusively on the Epic Games Store.

Sony has officially confirmed the existence of a new PlayStation handheld, but it's a far cry from the PS Vita.

During its PlayStation Showcase, Sony confirmed and revealed its new Project Q (aka the Q-Lite) handheld device. Project Q is coming out later this year, and features an 8-inch HD screen (this could mean 720p or 1080p, it depends) and a split DualSense controller. No release date or pricing was announced.

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan did confirm Project Q is meant to stream games from your PS5 via Remote Play, so we may not see any kind of PlayStation Plus streaming functionality on the handheld.

Bungie's next game is a new iteration of its old classic Marathon series.

Bungie is going back to the past and tapping one of its old IPs. Today during the PlayStation showcase, the Destiny developer announced a new PVP extraction shooter based in its Marathon series. It'll be a fully cross-platform shooter across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, complete with cross-saves and cross-play.

Here's what we know about Marathon:

New data revealed by Sony indicates that most PlayStation Plus subscribers have yet to upgrade to the more expensive Extra and Premium tiers.

In a recent business strategy meeting, Sony highlighted quite a bit of info about the PlayStation brand. One interesting presentation slide revealed a breakdown of PlayStation Plus subscribers by each of the more premium tiers.

Sony confirms that its PlayStation Plus Premium tier is actually doing well, with 8 million Premium subscribers versus 6.1 million Extra subscribers. The Premium subscription, which offers access to hundreds of games as well as cloud streaming on consoles and PC, represents 17% of the total PS Plus userbase, with Extra making up 13%.

PlayStation's peripheral business is growing alongside record-breaking hardware and software earnings.

Accessories are typically an overlooked part of the games industry. Hardware sales and content revenues are at the forefront, but the peripherals market is surprisingly profitable for gaming's largest platform-holder.

Sony's efforts to expand the PS5's lineup with a range of optional accessories are paying off. The company says that its PlayStation 5 accessories range, which includes the $199 DualSense Edge controller, has become very profitable.

Sony is highly confident that the PS5 ecosystem will become the most profitable console generation in PlayStation history.

Sony Interactive Entertainment executive management has lofty ambitions for the PS5. The console remains the central anchor point to Sony's games business, and the company is accelerating its plans to provide significant worldwide console availability and deeper content expansion across the board. Sony is aggressively bullish on the PS5's success, and based on the system's performance, they have every right to be.

In a recent business strategy meeting, SIE exec Eric Lempel had very strong words to describe the PlayStation brand and the PS5 ecosystem itself.

It's official: Sony's second-gen PlayStation VR2 is drastically outpacing the original PSVR headset.

The PlayStation VR2 is off to a good start, at least when compared to first PlayStation VR headset. In a recent business stream to investors, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Epic Lempel confirmed that PSVR2 launch numbers have not only exceeded that of the PSVR1, but the new PS5-powered headset has sold nearly 600,000 units worldwide.

For reference, it took the PSVR1 headset five months to achieve 915,000 unit sales.

It sounds like Bungie is helping guide Sony on which live games could make the cut and which games should get the axe.

Sony acquired Bungie for $3.7 billion in 2022 specifically to help lead the new PlayStation live games initiative. Sony has seen other companies make billions of dollars from games like Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Call of Duty Warzone, and Apex Legends for many years and now Sony wants in on the action.

The acquisition has created a symbiotic relationship between the two: Bungie is helping Sony with its live service games, and Sony is helping Bungie market its lucrative IPs, including efforts to expand Bungie IP to Europe and Asia. In a recent investors briefing, Sony gives a better idea of how Bungie is assisting with PlayStation's new online-driven segment.

Sony's transmedia focus has paid off big time, with The Last of Us TV show on HBO driving up game sales of Naughty Dog's grisly survival epic.

The Last of Us television adaptation was a massive hit. Millions of people signed up to HBO Max and tuned in to watch the show every week, but the engagement didn't end there. Every new episode was also accompanied by an incredible surge in The Last of Us game sales on PS4 and PS5.

In a recent company strategy meeting, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Jim Ryan confirmed that The Last of Us TV show led to a significant spike in franchise game sales.

Sony is prepared to raise prices of its gaming hardware, software, and services if the company believes an increase is "justified and necessary."

Back in August 2022, shortly before the holiday season, Sony decided to raise the price of its PlayStation 5 console in nearly all worldwide markets except for the United States. The price hike helped Sony earn a record-breaking $8.3 billion from hardware, driven by a strong 19 million PS5 shipments made during Fiscal Year 2022. Sony had also been instrumental in raising the retail price of new PS5 games to $69.99.

It's possible Sony could raise the prices of its products once more. In a recent PlayStation gaming business meeting, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan was asked if management could raise prices of its content, hardware, and services in an attempt to drive up the LifeTime Value (LTV) of PlayStation 5 owners.

Sony's games division is doubling-down on cloud gaming in an attempt to help guide this nascent market using its tried-and-true technologies.

Cloud gaming makes up about 1-3% of the global games market, but it's been a major hurdle for the Microsoft-Activision merger. Regulators like the CMA and FTC have found that Microsoft combining with Activision could produce anti-competitive effects in the cloud gaming segment.

With all eyes now on cloud gaming, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan now says that PlayStation has some interesting new strategies for the early cloud sector.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick uses the age-old "a rising tide lifts all boats" aphorism to describe how AI will affect the interactive entertainment market, but says any efficiencies may be short-lived as devs re-define what is capable in terms of quality.

The AI gold rush is upon us. Everyone is getting into AI, especially Microsoft and Google, who have spent billions to accelerate this new data-scraping market in the hopes of revolutionizing tech industries and ad-delivery. While AI poses a threat to specific existing jobs, it can theoretically ease the burdens of traditionally cumbersome jobs like game development for studios, including those under Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two Interactive.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick shares his thoughts on AI and says that artificial intelligence could indeed help streamline games production in a number of ways. That being said, the effects may be short-lived as developers simply double-down on trying to push the quality bar as high as possible.

Intellivision's new CEO Phil Adams delivers an update on the company's controversial Amico games console...and things don't sound great.

After record highs during the pandemic, the games industry is being hit by a great contraction point that has led to mass layoffs across multiple companies and entertainment sectors. Digital giants are laying off thousands of workers, and gaming has also been hit hard by current inflation-driven market economics, leading giants like Electronic Arts and Microsoft to make staff reductions.

The current market is making it harder for new entrants to break in, especially those that aspire to make their own video games console like Intellivision. Much like the Atari VCS, the Intellivision Amico always sounded like an iffy bet, and it didn't help that Intellivision had also made significant layoffs while also previously delaying the Amico console refunds.

The video games industry boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic as more consumers bought games and interactive entertainment during lockdown periods, but those record highs have cooled due to inflation.

Driven by pandemic spending sprees, the global video games market hit new all-time highs in 2021...but it didn't stay there. Data created by IDG and presented by Take-Two Interactive indicates that the global interactive software market delivered $216 billion in 2021 (excluding hardware), and then dipped to $204 billion in 2022, representing about a -5.5% year-over-year decrease.

Throughout 2022 and 2023, we've seen entertainment companies tighten their belts against the economic shifts that have occurred due to rising inflation costs. Consumers in particular are choosing to spend more money on necessities than on things like entertainment, which has led to a reduction in overall game sales on Sony's PlayStation platform, and the trends have prompted multiple CEOs to comment that consumers are choosing to buy blockbuster titles instead of riskier unknown games.