Gaming - Page 325

PlayStation 5 shipments have broken 32 million as Sony reports an incredible quarter for hardware sales.

Sony's console sales blitz is paying off big time. The company planned to ship up to 20 million PlayStation 5 consoles this fiscal year, the bulk of which were pushed during the critical Q3 FY22 holiday period. The results speak for themselves.

PlayStation 5 console availability propelled Sony's games business to new heights. The company delivered record PlayStation revenues of $8.8 billion, and hardware represented about 35% of total revenues. Sony shipped a whopping 7.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the Holiday 2022 period and pushed total PS5 digital and disc-based system shipments to 32.1 million. The PS5 has finally surpassed PS4 shipments during a Q3 period.

Sony asserts its dominance on the video games market with the best-ever quarter in PlayStation history.

Note: The following values have been converted from Japanese Yen to U.S. Dollar based on Sony's average conversion rates.

PlayStation delivered record-breaking results in Holiday 2022. During the Q3 FY22 period, Sony made nearly $8.8 billion from its PlayStation gaming ecosystem. These stellar results show the entire PlayStation platform firing on all cylinders and include full game sales, subscriptions/services, and hardware, which make a significant portion of quarterly earnings. Sony's fusillade of PS5s during the holiday quarter helped skyrocket console earnings past $3 billion.

Gaming's Big 3 will not attend E3 2023, sources have told IGN.

When I first started off writing about games many years ago, the Electronics Entertainment Expo was a kind of pipe dream for me. E3 was kind of a mecca for the industry. It was a part of the big endgame quest for a games journalist. Nowadays the show is not even a shadow of what it once was--the sun has set on E3.

Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft--collectively known as the Big 3--had always been the anchors for E3. They were the tentpoles that held the whole thing together as developers everywhere showed how their products run on the Big 3 systems. Now the triad of gaming have pretty much abandoned E3 for good.

Sony is shutting down the excellent PlayStation Plus Collection on May 9, 2023.

The PlayStation Plus Collection was one of the best surprises of the PlayStation 5's launch. The program is an added PlayStation Plus subscription bonus that gives PS5 owners access to a library of recommended PS4 games. Sony essentially gave all new PS5 buyers a head start with a pre-sorted games collection. It was also the best way to bridge the PS4 and PS5 generations.

The PS Plus Collection is coming to an end on May 9, but PlayStation Plus subscribers can still claim the games currently offered at any point up until then and keep them forever. Years ago, I said the PS Plus Collection was a golden ticket for subscriber retention, and Sony could use some other ways to spark PS Plus retention especially as subscribers fell by nearly 2 million last quarter.

EA has cancelled a new Titanfall singleplayer game in an effort to reduce spending and keep profits stable.

Following a $235 million reduction in holiday net bookings, Electronic Arts is tightening its belt so it can navigate the current volatile market with a more lean frame. The publisher announced that a new cost reduction plan was instituted during the holiday quarter that is expected to reduce spending by up to $140 million in the second half of the year.

EA management was vague on exact details of its new plan, but it didn't take long to realize where the savings would come from. The publisher is slashing its production spending to help stabilize revenues against costs. EA has cancelled three games altogether, including two mobile games like Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile. EA is also apparently shutting down the Industrial Toys studio that worked on the Battlefield mobile game. EA executives say that both Apex and Battlefield Mobile will be rebooted.

EA has taken "disciplined" cost-saving measures to help keep the company more slim during the volatile economic market.

The games industry is starting to reveal its holiday 2022 earnings reports, and it appears gaming's downward trend will continue. Like a few video game companies (and likely many more to come), EA has reported lower year-over-year earnings for the 2022 holiday period. There's a few reasons for this: one is that 2021 was a good year for gaming, and two, consumers are spending less on games content, titles, and services.

EA is responding to market contractions by reducing operational costs. This has led to game reboots and cancellations, and layoffs. during yesterday's earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson assured investors that the company had a plan to counter falling revenues and rising costs, but did not talk about employee layoffs.

Cyberpunk 2077 was prominently showcased during NVIDIA's big GeForce RTX 40 Series reveal last year. The visually stunning game was shown taking advantage of cutting-edge DLSS 3 rendering alongside the reveal of an RT Overdrive mode that will push the already intensive real-time ray-tracing in the game even further.

Exclusive to GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs (RTX 4090, RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti), DLSS 3 is a combination of DLSS Super Resolution, NVIDIA Reflex, and Frame Generation. The latter needs the new GeForce GPUs because it is an intensive AI process involving specific hardware that can generate new frames to boost performance. As per the video posted by NVIDIA above, we're talking about the sort of leap that has made DLSS 3 one of the most talked about bits of PC gaming tech in the past year.

EA teases new Apex Legends content, modes, and expansion onto other platforms.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson displayed surprising candor in a recent earnings call. During EA's Q3 FY23 conference call, Wilson discussed a few key points about the Apex brand and where it's going. The megaton free-to-play shooter helped define battle passes and the current FPS market, innovating on both monetization and gameplay. As a result, Apex managed to make over $2 billion in lifetime revenues.

This level of investment should continue. EA isn't about to abandon the Apex series any time soon. Wilson says that Apex is a 10-year franchise that's rife with possibilities including new games, gameplay modes, and inter-connected services.

Jedi Survivor has been delayed a few weeks and will now release in April on all platforms.

Respawn has been given clearance to delay Jedi Survivor to April 28 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, Electronic Arts today announced. The publisher is incredibly bullish on Jedi Survivor's success and EA CEO Andrew Wilson believes the game will add significant value to the Star Wars brand.

Jedi Survivor's dev team will use the extra few weeks to make the interstellar adventure game shine brighter while also squashing bugs, glitches, and issues. Respawn confirms that Jedi Survivor has been 100% completed insofar as content and the final stage will be optimizations and adding an extra layer of fine tuning to the experience.

Microsoft may be forced to permanently delist nearly 50 classic Xbox 360 games from the digital Xbox marketplace.

Microsoft has warned gamers that a significant number of Xbox 360 titles may soon be removed from its online storefront. The list of games was published on the Xbox support site and can be found in a drop-down menu that varies on region.

The list of affected games in the United States includes some very high-profile Xbox 360 games. Affected titles include Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, and The Orange Box, the landmark RPG Lost Odyssey, the original Dark Souls, Mass Effect 2, Skate 2, Star Wars KOTOR 2, The Witcher 2, four Assassin's Creed games, Blue Dragon, and Call of Duty Advanced Warfare and Ghosts. There's also some Xbox LIVE Arcade games that may be delisted too including Daytona USA and Jet Set Radio.

Sony's new $199 DualSense Edge PS5 controller offers many upgrades over the stock PS5 DualSense, but battery size is not one of them.

Sony is currently selling a vastly upgraded PlayStation 5 controller called the DualSense Edge. Almost everything is better on the new DualSense Edge, which features new back paddles, swappable analog sticks, custom button combos, and a more advanced adaptive trigger setup. There's just one thing that has consumers worried: Battery life.

For $199, which is half the price of a disc-less PlayStation 5 console, you'd expect everything on the DualSense Edge to be better than the base $70 DualSense controller. According to multiple teardowns, the Edge's battery has a capacity of 1050mAh, which is 33% smaller than the 1560mAh battery found in the basic DualSense.

Sony has not adjusted its PSVR 2 production forecast and delivers an official statement refuting recent claims.

With games industry earnings falling and consumers spending less on games and content, now is not a great time to launch a high-priced gaming peripheral set in a relatively niche market. That's exactly what Sony will do next month with its $549 PlayStation VR 2 headset, which also requires a PlayStation 5 console in order to play.

Sources recently told Bloomberg that Sony is reducing its outlook for PSVR 2 shipments over the next year. Bloomberg reports that Sony has adjusted its internal PSVR 2 shipment target and now expects to ship 1.5 million PSVR 2 headsets from now until April 2024. The original target may have been closer to the 2 million PSVR 2 headsets that Sony plans to produce.

Embracer Group has reportedly licensed out the Tomb Raider franchise to Amazon for $600 million, which is more than double for what it paid to secure a treasure trove of IPs and developers from Square Enix.

In 2022, Square Enix made one of the most controversial business deals that gaming has ever seen. The Final Fantasy publisher sold big franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex alongside game developers Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal. That these properties were sold wasn't the confusing part. What perplexed gamers was how much they were sold for.

Decentralized games industry Embracer Group snapped up the IP franchise rights and these studios for just $300 million. We've outlined why Square Enix sold the assets, but a recent bit of news really underlines just how much Square Enix wanted to turn a page and be done with these game franchises and teams (after losing over $200 million from failed Marvel games, who could blame them). However, with 95 million sales, the Tomb Raider series was certainly worth more. Right? Amazon apparently think so.

Xbox gaming revenues drops by over $500 million as recession economics disrupt the video games market.

Gaming saw a big boom during the pandemic. The interactive entertainment industry hit record-breaking highs during COVID-19 lockdowns, but the market is now contracting under economic pressure. Consumers are spending less on games than they were a year ago and companies like Microsoft are feeling the changes.

That's why Xbox gaming revenues were down by some $684 million during the critical Holiday 2022 period. Microsoft reported its Q2 FY23 revenues and outlined the earnings drop to investors. Total Xbox earnings were $4.76 billion from October - December 2022, down 13% and "driven by declines in Xbox content services and hardware."

The next Far Cry game will be split between a campaign and multiplayer component, sources tell Insider Gaming.

Far Cry 7 may not be a single game. Ubisoft is reportedly working on two new Far Cry titles: The first is a more traditional story-driven singleplayer experience, and the second is said to be a multiplayer-only game that may or may not blend or connect to the campaign game.

The dual-game approach follows Ubisoft's current plans. The publisher is facing numerous roadblocks in its aim to offer a diversified selection of titles across both

Microsoft's latest performance metrics clearly illustrate that it has successfully expanded onto multiple platforms and devices.

Xbox isn't just a console any more. Microsoft's gaming brand is now an ecosystem of services and content delivered over all kinds of devices including consoles, Windows PCs, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and games can even be delivered directly to smart TVs via the cloud. Microsoft has a vision to grow Xbox's reach to every digital platform to transform everyday consumers into gamers.

Microsoft's latest Q2 FY2023 report has confirmed this plan is working well. Very well, in fact. In the earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed an incredibly important bit of data to investors regarding the Xbox brand. The Xbox ecosystem now has 120 million monthly active users, which means this many people are engaged with the Xbox ecosystem across the myriad devices where it is available. Xbox is finally beating PlayStation MAUs...but there's some critical context needed with this info.

One of the most famous games to release on the Nintendo 64 is heading over to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox.

Rare has taken to its official YouTube channel to announce that GoldenEye 007 is coming to the Xbox Game pass on January 27. The Xbox version of the classic Nintendo 64 title is a HD remaster of the game that was originally released in 1997. The remastered version of GoldenEye 007 features support for 4K resolution, faster frame rates, and split-screen local multiplayer.

As for the Nintendo Switch version, which will also be released on January 27, Switch users will experience the original game with no improvements besides general game support. Notably, Nintendo is releasing GoldenEye 007 as part of its Nintendo Switch Online service, which comes with several Nintendo 64 titles. The inclusion of Nintendo 64 titles in Nintendo's online service began in 2021 and features several golden-age games such as Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Yoshi's Story, and more.

It's the end of an era as Electronic Gaming Monthly shuts down for good.

Remember video game magazines? They've gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to the infinitely-cheaper delivery of news blogs and social media micro-blasts, but back in the day these mags were a primary way to get new info on games. Electronic Gaming Monthly was a godsend to nerds like me who grew up in the 90s.

Sadly, EGM has closed down. The news was confirmed by former EGM associate editor Michael Goroff on Twitter: "I received word on Monday that EGM NOW has shut down, which means I've been laid off. The last five years have been a rollercoaster ride of the highest and lowest moments of my career, but my editors Josh Harmon and Mollie Patterson were constant professionals through it all."

Redfall's official Xbox store page confirms the game will feature in-app purchases, possibly hinting at a microtransaction store page.

Redfall might have some sort of monetization after all. The Xbox store page specifically confirms as much, but we don't know the exact scope of what's included. Redfall presumably lets gamers upgrade to the Bite Back version of the game that includes a Hero Pass with two extra heroes that will be added over time. This upgrade and/or the Hero Pass itself would technically count as an in-app purchase.

From what we've seen before, it could also mean the game has microtransactions of some sort. And they're likely to be cosmetic-only if they're included at all.

With current economic market conditions squeezing consumer wallets, now is not a great time to make unsafe bets in the gaming world...and there's nothing riskier than a live game.

Live service games are the riskiest video games to make. They're also the most lucrative. As the world navigates an extremely volatile economy with constant shifts in exchange rates, rising costs across the board, and job insecurity, modern consumers are adjusting to the "new normal." This typically means consumers are spending less of their disposable time and money on leisure activities like video games.

Gaming and tech in general saw a record boom during COVID-19 lockdowns, leading to mass expansion in many tech firms. Rising costs have forced companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter to lay off tens of thousands of workers combined. This displacement of workers has also affected gaming, with layoffs happening at Xbox.