Gaming - Page 394

The next Assassin's Creed game will be smaller in scope than Origins, Odyssey, and especially Valhalla.

Ubisoft is planning a new standalone Assassin's Creed game for 2022 or 2023 that will star Basim, sources tell Bloomberg. The game will be more compact with greater emphasis on stealth and a diminished focus on exploration.

The new game, codenamed Rift, was originally set to be an expansion to Assassin's Creed Valhalla and soon ballooned into a full game. Valhalla has already expanded with two years' worth of content to carry the franchise into 2022 with the new more recent Dawn of Ragnarok expansion.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise has now made over $7 billion since GTA V's release in 2013.

According to data provided by Take-Two filings, the GTA series has generated a whopping $7.3 billion since Grand Theft Auto V's initial release ($7.299 billion, to be more exact). GTA V's megaton launch in 2013 actually accounts for nearly 20% of these revenues--the game made $1.49 billion in sales in one quarter.

The holiday 2021 period spiked franchise revenues to their highest quarterly peak since GTA V's release. During Q3'22, GTA pulled in $310 million driven by three major things: GTA Online, the new GTA trilogy remaster, and continued GTA V sales. The series has managed to set two earnings records in FY22.

Zynga has started incubating blockchain games, sources tell Axios.

With more than $23 billion NFT trades in 2021, mobile titan Zynga wants in on the craze. The game developer is currently ironing out early details of new blockchain-based games with play-to-earn features. Zynga hasn't outlined exact plans, but the general idea is that gamers will be able to play, earn, and own digital assets that can then be re-sold on a marketplace for cryptocurrency.

NFTs have proven to be a wildly speculative market for major game publishers. Square Enix and SEGA have expressed interest. Konami and Ubisoft have both launched their own NFT line but the assets made less than $200,000 overall, which is a drop in the bucket to both companies who make mega millions from microtransactions.

Call of Duty and other Activision franchises will not be Xbox exclusive, Microsoft today announced.

Microsoft just dropped a megaton bomb on exclusivity and re-affirmed our predictions: Call of Duty and other major Activision games will still release on PlayStation consoles after the Activision-Blizzard buyout closes.

"Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision. And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love."

A new update for Dying Light 2 has been released onto the PC version of the game, with patch 1.04 now live for PC gamers -- but Xbox Series X gamers are in for a treat when the new patch arrives on their consoles.

Dying Light 2 developer Techland has already pushed out multiple hotfixes for the game, but now there's a big patch on the way for all platforms. The PC version of the game gets multiple improvements, with "DLSS improvements" for GeForce gamers.

But the Xbox Series X version of Dying Light 2 will be getting some lovin' with a new 60+ FPS Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) mode, exclusive to XSX and not the Xbox Series S console. Not the PlayStation 5 at this point.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise just hit its second-highest quarterly revenues since GTA V's launch in 2013, once again proving the power of the series.

Grand Theft Auto is still as big as ever. In holiday 2021, the GTA series hit 370 million copies sold to date. Rockstar also generated more revenue from Grand Theft Auto products and services since GTA V's gargantuan launch in 2013 (which made $1.49 billion).

During Q3'22, the Grand Theft Auto franchise made $310.13 million in total revenues. This was driven by a number of things including sales of two mainline games, strong GTA Online microtransaction purchases, and big player counts in all three games.

Sony's latest financial reports reveal how many PlayStation and PC gamers are buying first-party games.

With high production values, dramatic storylines, and blockbuster action, Sony's first-party games have traditionally been marketed as system-sellers. The reality is that while first-party games do sell respectable volume every year, most PlayStation gamers are buying third-party titles on the platform.

Based from numbers provided by Sony, we've compiled a list of first-party game sales from FY2018 through the current Q3'2021 period. The results are surprising; First-party game sales have capped out at 27% of total software sales and dropped as low as 10% through lull periods.

Sony is going all-in on live games and plans to release 10 new live service games by 2026. Here's what it needs to do in order to maximize revenues.

Sony is no stranger to the live games business. Although PlayStation focuses mainly on singleplayer blockbuster games, Sony's games division makes most of its money through live games--and most of these games it doesn't even own. Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warzone, and Rocket League have generated billions for Sony over the years (Fortnite alone has made Sony $6 billion, as per court documents from the Epic vs Apple trial).

Now Sony wants to break into the live games business. Luckily it has had years to learn from the best in the business. If Sony wants to make serious live games cash it needs to follow a few simple rules.

Nintendo announces a new Nintendo Direct showcase for tomorrow, February 9, 2022 at 5PM EST.

A new Direct was surprise revealed today with the game-maker's usual cryptic messaging.

"Tune in for a Nintendo Direct livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information mainly focused on Nintendo Switch games launching in the first half of 2022," the announcement reads.

Intellivision has raised at least $43 million for the production of its new Amico console, our findings indicate.

Yesterday, Intellivision opened a new funding round on Start Engine, an investment startup site. Intellivision is currently selling up to $5 million in SAFEs (simple agreement for future equity) directly to consumers for $0.72 per share with a $500 minimum investment. Investors aren't actually buying a product--they're buying actual stake in the company itself. The company plans to sell 13,888 securities and has raised $30,512 at the time of writing.

The Start Engine campaign's Form C filing also confirms Intellivision's financials. The company currently has $8.52 million in net assets, $7.19 million in long-term debt, $1.5 million in short-term debt, and has reported a loss of $3.2 million.

The Red Dead Redemption franchise has now sold-in more than 65 million copies worldwide.

Take-Two recently gave updates on Red Dead Redemption's sales numbers that shows consistent quarter-over-quarter growth. Franchise sales have now surpassed 65 million, with RDR2 at 42 million units and the original RDR hitting about 23 million copies.

Although Red Dead Redemption 2 pales in comparison to GTA V, the dramatic western has sold roughly 1-2 million copies per quarter since release. Q3'21 saw the biggest jump in sales with 3 million and Take-Two attributes the spike to holiday sales and price markdowns.

Rockstar's new re-release proves that nostalgia leads to heavy sales--especially in one of the most powerful franchises of all time.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy- The Definitive Edition has sold about 10 million copies to date. The data inadvertently comes from new Take-Two figures that say the GTA franchise has sold 370 million.

GTA V is currently at 160 million, and our previous figures show GTA had sold 360 million copies as of last quarter. So that leaves about 10 million for the remaster collection considering there aren't any other retail copies of GTA currently in mass circulation. That's a respectable 30% of GTA V's staggering 32.5 million copies sold at launch.

Grand Theft Auto V has now officially out-sold major franchises like Assassin's Creed.

Today Take-Two Interactive confirmed GTA V is still a sales monster. The mega-hit sensation has sold 160 million copies since releasing in 2013. That's more copies than the entire franchise sales of Resident Evil (123 million) and Assassin's Creed (155 million).

"Since its launch in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V has remained within the top five best-selling titles of each calendar year across the Americas including the U.S. and over 50 major worldwide territories," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said.

Sony's latest Q3 earnings show that digital absolutely dominates physical game sales.

Like Microsoft with Game Pass, PlayStation also thrives on its bustling digital ecosystem of products, services, and engagement. Sony's PlayStation division generated $4 billion from video games in Q3'21, but the overwhelming majority of this revenue was from digital channels.

In fact, 94% of all games revenue was from digital. Sony's Games & Network Services segment made $4.012 billion from games in Q3'21. The overwhelming majority of that, $3.755 billion, was from digital software and add-ons. Physical made just $257 million in sales revenues.

PlayStation Plus subscribers hit a record 48 million in holiday 2021, but most PlayStation gamers aren't subscribed to the service.

Sony's latest financials show the substantial growth of PS Plus and may give a taste on what's to come with PlayStation Spartacus. The service achieved 48 million paying subscribers as of Q3'21, a new all-time high for PS Plus, but most users are still non-subscribers and still enjoy access in games like Fortnite, Warzone, and Rocket League.

Using numbers provided by Sony, we've charted some of the major trends with PlayStation Plus over the last few years. We've been able to calculate the number of subscribers vs non-subscribers by subtracting PS Plus numbers from total MAUs. Then we compared PS Plus subscriber percentages to total MAUs to get a better idea of the overall percentage and quantity of subscribers versus users.

Sony's PlayStation platform makes more money from microtransactions than it does from full games.

Like most modern day games companies, Sony generates far more revenues from live services, microtransactions, and DLC than it does from actual video game sales. Based on data provided by Sony and charted by us, the company has consistently delivered more revenue from add-on content than it does from physical and digital game sales combined.

In the holiday 2021 period, Sony generated $2.18 billion from add-on content, which is typically from heavy-hitting third-party games like GTA Online (which helped GTA V make over $6.4 billion to date), Fortnite (which has made Sony $6 billion as of 2020), Apex Legends (will make $2 billion in two years), and Call of Duty Warzone (helped push 2020's COD revenues to a record $3 billion).

Candy Crush developer King has consistently made more revenues than Blizzard over the last 3 years.

Activision's latest financials give key insight on its three business segments: Activision, Blizzard, and King. Over the years the revenue pecking order has roughly matched up with its ABK namesake. Activision typically makes the most revenues thanks to annualized Call of Duty games, deferrals, and strong monetization, followed by Blizzard with its live games, and King usually ends up third place with its mighty F2P empire.

However Blizzard's presence has slowly fallen year-over-year. Now Candy Crush-maker King is overtaking Blizzard in terms of revenues. In fact, King has made more yearly revenues than Blizzard for the 3 consecutive years across 2019, 2020, and 2021.

From the NES to the Switch, Nintendo has sold over 5 billion games in the last 39 years.

Nintendo is one of the most powerful forces in the entertainment industry. Its booming games hardware business has delivered over $200 billion in revenues since the NES released in 1983. Other figure are just as surprising: Nintendo has shipped over 814 million devices in the last 39 years (it sold over sold 533 million handhelds alone).

Software is where the real numbers lie. Nintendo has sold an incredible 5.318 billion games to date across all of its reported hardware lines. That includes all systems from the original NES to the DS and the newer Switch.

Activision-Blizzard made more money from microtransactions in 2021 than it ever has before.

2021 was Activision-Blizzard's best year ever. The company delivered all-time highs in net revenues ($8.804 billion), operating income ($3.62 billion), and a whopping $2.7 billion in net income. Last year also delivered a bounty in microtransaction cash.

The company generated a staggering $5.1 billion from in-game purchases across its live service titles, which includes DLC, World of Warcraft subscriptions, and of course lootboxes and cosmetics. These purchases made up 61% of Activision-Blizzard's total $8.354 billion net bookings.

2021 was the best year ever for Activision-Blizzard with record-breaking net revenues, income, and in-game net bookings.

Activision-Blizzard's games business is remarkably resilient. Despite ongoing controversy from sexual harassment lawsuits, the major delay of big games like Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV, not releasing very may games, and a drop in Call of Duty game sales, Activision just reported its best year ever.

2021 full of milestone, mostly thanks to online-driven live services, digital content, and a hefty $950 million deferral + distribution deal stream. Activision-Blizzard hit new high points in 2021 across pretty much every trackable earnings metric.