Gaming - Page 504

The PS5 didn't have enough stock to beat the PS4's initial holiday sales, Sony confirms.

Demand for Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 has far exceeded supply, and limited availability has hampered console sales. Sony reveals the PS5 has only been able to match the PS4 during a year of unprecedented sales potential.

In Q3'20, which stretched from October through December 2020, the PS5 sold-in 4.5 million units--the same sales volume as the PS4 during its holiday 2013 launch. The numbers are actually pretty good as the PS4 was no slouch at launch, but Sony could've hit much greater thresholds if production and console stock hadn't been so restricted.

Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) now owns a whopping 244 IPs and franchises, the company today confirmed.

Today Embracer bought some big companies, including Gearbox (Borderlands), Easybrain (mobile games), and Aspyr Media (known for ports). These acquisitions bumped Embracer's IP treasure trove by 22 franchises, and right now the media titan has 244 IPs at their disposal. This number includes Gearbox's mega-hit Borderlands series--a franchise so powerful that Embracer gave Gearbox its own unit division.

The company also updated its game studio count to 137 external and internal teams. Most of the teams are external (73) versus internal (64), and THQ Nordic is the largest with 41 studios, followed by Koch Media's 35 studios.

Gearbox, the devs behind Borderlands and the dreaded Aliens Colonial Marines, has been purchased by The Embracer Group (aka THQ Nordic).

Gearbox is now part of Embracer's massive arsenal of talent, and the acquisition is so big that Gearbox is getting their own operating division. Gearbox will sit at the head of its own table similar to Deep Silver and Saber Interactive. Right now, Gearbox leads its own internal companies--Gearbox Software, the dev team, and Gearbox Publishing, the publishing firm--but that could change as more studios are acquired.

Embracer paid $363 million upfront, of which $188 million was in cash and the remainder will be paid in 7.4 million Embracer Class B shares worth $175 million. Gearbox could earn a bonus worth up to $1 billion across a six-year timeline if it can fulfill specific sales revenue and operation targets.

PS4 worldwide shipments hit 115.5 million to date, but the console is winding down as the PlayStation 5 aims to replace the 7-year-old console.

Sony just released its holiday Q3'20 revenues, and recorded the best gaming earnings in its history. Despite the record earnings, which was driven primarily by an astronomical 103.7 million software sales, hardware has slumped. PS4 consoles sales in particular are winding down--FY2020 is currently the slowest year for PS4 sales.

In Q3'20, Sony sold just 1.4 million PS4 consoles, down a substantial 77% year-over-year. The PS5 buying frenzy was the culprit and next-gen PlayStation 5 consoles remain sold out worldwide. Despite the slump, total hardware sales revenues are up 61.3% to 239.54 billion yen ($2.92 billion) driven primarily strong PlayStation 5 adoption and somewhat-consistent PS4 console sales.

EA has made over $3 billion from Star Wars games and the publisher has no plans to abandon the franchise.

EA has a rocky history with Star Wars games. The publisher has cancelled three high-profile titles to date; Project Ragtag, an ambitious bounty hunter/Uncharted game that died alongside Visceral Games; Project Orca, an open-world game from EA Vancouver; and Project Viking, a Battlefront-style spin-off also from EA Vancouver.

As a result, Disney has now given other studios like Ubisoft the rights to make their own Star Wars games.

EA says Battlefield 6 will feature "all-out military warfare" and all but confirms the massive 128-player rumors we've been hearing about.

According to EA, the next Battlefield will be bigger than ever before. EA CEO Andrew Wilson teases absolutely huge maps, more players than ever before, and big next-gen console upgrades. No specifics on perf targets were revealed, but EA did confirm Battlefield 6 is farther along than any other previous game--which signals DICE has been working on it for some time.

This is good news considering the game is set to release Holiday 2021 on next-gen systems and PC. A full reveal is coming sometime in Spring, the company said.

Nintendo Switch sales hit a new all-time high in Q3, leading to the third consecutive record-breaking quarter in a row.

Four years in, the Nintendo Switch is more popular than ever. 2020 has been monumental for Nintendo, and the vital holiday period is no different: In Q3, which ends in December, Nintendo sold an astronomical 11.57 million Switch consoles. These results weren't just a new high for Q3 sales, but historical quarterly volume: Q3 had more console sales than any other quarter since the Switch launched in March 2017.

The handheld-console hybrid has now sold over 79 million units worldwide, including the Switch Lite, which has now sold nearly as much as the Wii U.

The new Mass Effect trilogy remaster looks absolutely epic in 4K with HDR enabled, and BioWare also confirms next-gen optimizations for the new re-release.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition drops on May 14, 2021 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and will a free next-gen boost on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Every game in the trilogy will hit a solid 4K 60FPS with HDR on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but perf is reduced on PS4 and Xbox One.

Sadly there's no ray tracing, but that's to be expected. Although EA and DICE have been helping Microsoft push its new DXR ray-tracing tech on Xbox and Windows 10, the Mass Effect games are built on a different BioWare engine with rasterization, and are pretty old games to boot.

Blizzard is commercializing its 30th anniversary with a series of microtransaction packs that "celebrate" decades of gaming.

Blizzard has tried to monetize practically every facet of their games using tactics like cosmetics, lootboxes, and even Diablo III's dreaded Real-Money Auction House. Now the billion-dollar developer is monetizing its own 30th anniversary celebration.

In a recent blog post, Blizzard outlined key details on the free BlizzCon event going live on February 19-20. In the post they mentioned gamers can scoop up some in-game goodies to commemorate Blizzard's 30-year legacy of gaming. In 2021, Blizzard will indeed by 30 years old.

On the heels of 2020's successful Sonic the Hedgehog film, SEGA and Netflix are teaming up for a new TV show.

After 27 years, the Blue Blur is finally coming back to the small screen. Netflix today announced Sonic Prime, a new 3D animated series that will premiere on the service sometime in 2022. No exact details on the show have been revealed, but we do know Ben 10 creation/production studio Man of Action Entertainment and Canadian animation studio WildBrain Studios are involved in the project.

The new show is a big move for SEGA, who's been hit especially hard by COVID-19 lockdowns. SEGA's arcade gaming business has suffered significant losses as more people stay home away from large crowded areas, forcing the company to sell off 85% of its arcade division shares. The Sonic movie helped revitalize the series and push game sales up, while also grossing more than 3x its production budget.

Google is done investing in Stadia, and will soon relegate the service into a third-party streaming and storefront platform.

Today, Google announced that it will no longer put money into new first-party Stadia exclusives. Google has ceased funding for its Games & Entertainment projects, and both of Stadia's two game studios will be closed. Sources tell Kotaku that roughly 150 people will be affected by the closure. Division head Jade Raymond, who has commanded key roles in the industry, has also left Stadia.

Google will now use Stadia to exclusively sell subscriptions and full-priced third-party games--an unpopular business model in a landscape that's dominated by Project xCloud's tremendous value. It's also worth noting that the entire digital gaming industry is seeing significant surges in revenues, sales, and earnings, so this timing suggests Stadia is (and was) didn't live up to Google's expectations.

Starbreeze Studios needs Payday 3 to save it from financial doom, but the company still hasn't found a publishing partner for the sequel.

Payday developer Starbreeze is in trouble. The company has lots of debt and needs to stabilize its balance sheets with a big new game. Payday 3 is the company's only hope, and Starbreeze's Overkill division has been developing the sequel for years now. There's just one big problem: The game still doesn't have a publisher.

Starbreeze is in a position where it can pay millions to fund Payday 3's development, but it doesn't have the cashflow to publish and distribute the game. It needs the backing of a bigger company like 505 Games, WB Games, or even EA to properly release Payday 3.

Unlike GT Sport, Gran Turismo 7 will be a more traditional racing game that goes back to the franchise's roots.

Gran Turismo 7 should set a new high watermark for the PlayStation 5. Developer Polyphony Digital plans to use GT7 to fully exemplify and flex the PS5's power with high-end performance targets like 4K 60FPS, high-fidelity textures, and enhanced lighting effects via ray-traced visuals. Now we know more details about the next-gen racer.

In a recent interview with Octane Japan, Polyphony CEO Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed GT7 won't follow GT Sport's online-driven esports focus. Instead, GT7 will be a more mainline game similar to the original Gran Turismo.

Twitch viewers watched over 1 trillion hours for the first time ever, breaking new grounds for the billion-dollar streaming titan.

Twitch's SVP Damian Burns just announced the service's new metrics for 2020, and they're absolutely crazy. Viewers watched an astronomical 1 trillion minutes of streams in 2020, up 78% from the 560 billion minutes streamed in 2019.

The other numbers are equally as impressive, with DAUs hitting over 30 million.

PS5 console scarcity is making people go wild--violence ensued in a U.S. Walmart when a woman brutally stomped on another woman's head to get a console, and now crowds in Japan cluster dangerously during a worldwide pandemic.

PS5 consoles are so rare that Japanese retailers are raffling purchase rights in a random lottery. Hundreds of consumers show up at stores for the chance in buying a console, and sometimes chaos ensues. That's what happened at Yodobashi Camera in Japan's Akihabara shopping area a few days ago.

Tons of Japanese consumers arrived and eventually started to crowd and push each other, eventually pressing hard into the protective barriers that separated the workers from possible COVID-19 contamination. The PS5 lottery was eventually cancelled, and the police were called to break up the massive grouping.

We might be seeing the entire mainstream media trying to make anyone connected to GameStop shares and WallStreetBets into whatever slur of the day they can use -- but there is some real good happening, too.

I don't think the good gets anywhere near as much headlines as it deserves, so here we go: u/Lunar033 posted in r/WallStreetBets that he went out and purchased 6 x Nintendo Switch consoles as well as a heap of games and is donating them all to the Children's Minnesota Hospital.

In his post, u/Lunar033 said: "I am proud to do my part in paying forward our good fortune with a donation of 6 Nintendo Switches and games to go with them to the Children's Minnesota Hospital. Cant Stop. Won't Stop. GameStop. (Still long 50 shares I WILL NOT SELL)".

IO Interactive isn't done with the Hitman franchise, and new games could be in development. But post-launch Hitman 3 DLC comes first.

Right now IO Interactive is on a roll. Years after separating from Square Enix, the company self-developed and self-published Hitman 3. In less than a week on the market, Hitman 3 is already profitable and will help fund IO's massively ambitious new Project 007 James Bond adaptation.

Even with the new James Bond game on the horizon, IO says it's not entirely finished with Hitman. A new mainline game could be in the works at some point--which makes sense considering IO wholly owns the Hitman publishing and development rights.

Sea of Thieves can now break the 120FPS threshold on the Xbox Series X console, Rare confirms in a new game update.

Sea of Thieves adds a new performance target to its repertoire, and can now hit 1080p 120FPS on the Xbox Series X with HDR enabled. This is in addition to the other perf targets that include native 4K 60FPS on the system, as well as the base 1080p 60FPS on HDTVs.

"On the Xbox Series X console, a performance mode is available supporting 120Hz at 1080p. Some TVs do not support 120Hz and HDR simultaneously, so HDR may need to be disabled from the Console Settings," reads the update.

Halo Infinite's new grappling hook is a game-changer that adds unprecedented mobility and verticality to PVP and campaign. It's a new multi-dimensional utility with lots of uses, and offers diverse creativity for chaos creation; pulling enemies towards you, yanking explosive barrels or even weapons to you, and uses it to scale high precipices. Even still, 343i is more excited about another unannounced bit of equipment.

In a recent Halo Waypoint update, Halo Infinite sandbox developers tease a new mysterious equipment that can fling players across the map. From the sound of it, the equipment is probably an updated version of the grav-lift from Halo 3; the equipment is physics-based, it depends on timing, and it can send enemies flying.

"The Grappleshot is definitely a favorite of mine, but I'm equally excited about an equipment item we haven't shown yet. It's highly physics-based, has TONS of interactions across our sandbox, and will leave you laughing or yelling, "Did you see that?!" Proper timing is everything with this equipment, and if you position correctly, you could very well send your enemies flying!" said Sandbox Designer Elan Gleiber.

The Securities Exchange Commission has pushed back Roblox's big public offering so it can clarify its financial reports.

Roblox is set to start public trading with a billion-dollar IPO, but the stock can't debut onto the New York Stock Exchange until the SEC gives its blessing. Right now the SEC wants more clarification on Roblox's income, specifically its digital revenues earned from in-game Robux purchases.

The SEC wants Roblox to separate revenues from in-game consumables and the paid subscriptions, specifically how the revenue is amortized over a period. Roblox originally combined these revenues together. The company says this new adjustment will force a re-write of its financials, which could take a while.