Gaming - Page 553

Nintendo's Q1 profits skyrocket by over 500% as COVID-19 lockdowns surges hardware and software sales.

Nintendo just reported historic results for Q1'21 with triple-digit increases in net sales, operating profit, and net profits. Nintendo made $989.21 million in total profits (+541%) on $3.32 billion of sales revenues (+108%). These astronomical earnings were driven by strong jumps in both hardware and software sales.

Nintendo sold a record 5.67 million Switch consoles in Q1, up 166% year-over-year and more than double than any other Q1 period since the system's launch. These figures also beat every Q2 period and stack up closely against Nintendo's mighty holiday Q3 numbers. Switch hardware generated 47% of total Q1 net sales, or $1.51 billion.

If you are a huge DOOM fan and want one of the best accessories for the game, then you should be pumped to see noblechairs releasing their official HERO Gaming Chair - DOOM Edition. Check it out:

The new noblechairs HERO Gaming Chair - DOOM Edition will be avail;able to purchase online and through retailers across the world, with noblechairs teaming with Bethesda Softworks on the chair -- the second in their partnership after the Fallout Edition gaming chair.

Noblechairs put some work into the DOOM Edition chair, to make sure it was good enough for Satan himself to sit on. This means we're talking about the chair being pretty much all black, with massive blood red accents all across the chair. I'm pretty sure you're doing some Satanic ritual while sitting on that chair with all of the symbols all over it.

Hitman 3 was announced in June 2020, with IO Interactive saying that in Hitman 3 you play once again as Agent 47 in the "most intimate and professional contract in his entire career". Well, now Agent 47 is entering the world of virtual reality, check it out:

IO Interactive announced the news during Sony's recent State of Play event, that Hitman 3 would have the entire modern Hitman trilogy available for the PlayStation VR when the game launches in January 2021. We don't know much outside of the trailer, which starts off outside of Agent 47 before you take control, and have to assassinate someone.

The developer did confirm that every single mission from Hitman, Hitman 2, and the new Hitman 3 will be included and playable in PlayStation VR. We don't know if you'll be able to jump in and out of Hitman in VR and back to the regular TV or display, or if you start Hitman in VR if you have to finish that mission "in VR" or not.

Rockstar Games is knee deep in development of Grand Theft Auto 6, but where will the next entry in the GTA franchise be located? Vice City, according to the latest leaks.

Grand Theft Auto was last rendering the city of Vice City back with GTA: Vice City in 2002, nearly 20 years ago now. The new information on GTA 6 being based in Vice City comes from synthwave musician Pete Brian Rice, who tweeted that "music rights clearing people" working with Rockstar had talked to him and other synthwave artists for a "radio station".

Rice of course quickly deleted his tweet, but not before sites spotted it and began running with the story.

The ancient ones are back to restore cosmic balance in Doom Eternal's newly announced Ancient Gods expansion.

Doom Eternal's deep lore is about to amp things up to 11. When we left Eternal, Doom Slayer had basically upended the entire realm of Creation with his actions. He brought fury to both Heaven and Hell, and massacred everything in his wake. As the prophesied Slayer, he brought disruption to the balance, but also freedom for humanity. But the Makyrs, the interstellar omnidimensional archangels of the Doom universe, want revenge.

"Your victory over Hell's armies pulled humanity back from the edge of extinction, but it came at a cost. An imbalance of power in the heavens requires the true ruler of this universe to rise and set things right. Wage war across never-before-seen realms of the DOOM Universe and fight against new demons in your never-ending battle against the forces of evil."

Filmmaker Philip Shane is making a documentary on the 1993 PC classic Myst, and the project is almost funded on Kickstarter.

There's a new Kickstarter up for a Myst documentary that explores the myst-ical history of the old-school PC game. The documentary will feature in-depth interviews with Robyn and Rand Miller, the original creators of the franchise, complete with retrospectives on the series and what kinds of games they have worked in the past and present, and what their plans are for the future.

Right now the project is 71% funded with $142,000 out of the $200,000 target goal, and has 6 days left. It's an "all or nothing" project, meaning it will only happen if it reaches the funding goal. The documentary will span two timelines: The origin story, which focuses on the development of Myst and Riven, and the present-day era that chronicles current projects that're in development at Cyan Worlds.

Today Rocksteady confirmed years of speculation by announcing a new Suicide Squad vs Justice League game. Sources now say the project won't be ready for a pretty long time.

Rocksteady is set to reveal its new Suicide Squad game during the DC Fandome event on August 22, but don't expect a release date. We could be waiting for the project for another year or two. Sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who has extensive knowledge of WB Games' in-development titles, that Rocksteady's latest game won't be ready any time soon.

The Suicide Squad game--which will reportedly be a live service GaaS title--originally started development at WB Montreal in 2016. The project was cancelled, and Rocksteady was then charged to make a game based around the IP. It appears Rocksteady added more ambition to the project by injecting Justice League characters like Superman into the game.

New info from WB has ignited hype about Injustice 3, which should be the next game from Netherealm.

Today Warner Bros. revealed a teaser for its upcoming DC Fandome event, which includes high-profile game announcements in the DC universe. Netherealm's Ed Boon will be there, and fans think it could be to announce Injustice 3. It's certainly a possibility given Netherealm has hopped back and forth between Injustice and Mortal Kombat games for years now. Netherealm might be ready to move on from Mortal Kombat 11, which just got a new Aftermath expansion (plus a full game SKU re-release) and is on its third character pack DLC.

As for actual game reveals, Rocksteady today confirmed its new Suicide Squad x Justice League game will be shown at the event. WB Montreal's new Batman game, which could be based around the Gotham Knights comic series, will also be fully revealed.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake has broken 5 million sales in five months on the market, which is almost half of the PS1 original's sales figures.

Today Square Enix confirmed a big 5 million sales milestone for its big new Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The figure includes both physical shipments and digital sales. This is good news for the publisher's flagging HD Games segment, which saw sharper declines in FY2019 thanks to underperformance of key titles.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been a boon for Square Enix's business. The game significantly contributed to the massive 300% net sales spike in the HD Games segment, which skyrocketed to $316.91 million in Q1'20 (March 31 - June 30). Digital game sales also shot up 91% to 6.21 million units in the period, driven by Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Secret of Mana.

We knew that something was brewing over at Rocksteady in the form of a new Superman game -- and even though we thought there was NOT a new Superman game in development at Rocksteady, it is official: there's a new Suicide Squad game on the way but that's not all. Oh man, check out the tweet:

So I've been following virtually every major Twitter account that I can for DC FanDome, which is a new event coming where we should get our first real trailer to Zack Snyder's Justice League. Because of that, I was sitting at my PC at nearly midnight my time and saw this news from Rocksteady Studios on Twitter.

It is a movie-style poster with Superman in all his glory, looking quite pissed off and maybe his heat vision is going a bit nuts here in the photo after a fight. It's a very hero-style shot and I love it... the spit curl, I'm digging -- as it's a small departure from the Superman in the DCEU with Henry Cavill in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is launching on the PC right now, with developer Guerrilla Games aware of some teething issues on the PC at launch.

The developer has said that some of the animations in Horizon Zero Dawn will be locked at 30FPS, and there will be some stuttering issues on particular PC setups. Guerrilla explains: "Some animations are designed to only refresh at 30fps even if the game is running at a much higher frame rate".

Guerrilla Games wants you to be more prepared for Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition on your PC, reminding you to download the new NVIDIA GeForce 451.67 or AMD Radeon 20.7.2 drivers -- or newer (grab these Radeon 20.8.1 drivers optimized for Horizon Zero Dawn). Hopefully the day one update for the game fixes these issues up.

Capcom updates its best-selling games list on the heels of stellar Q1 performance, cementing Monster Hunter World as its best-selling game of all time.

Monster Hunter: World has now sold over 16 million copies, and is the first Capcom game to achieve this feat in the company's long 41-year history. This drives total Monster Hunter franchise sales to 64 million, up 1 million from Q4'19. Monster Hunter Iceborne is tracked separately and has sold 5.8 million copies on its own.

Capcom just kicked off its new Fiscal Year 2020 with the best Q1 earnings it's ever had, pulling in a record $72.44 million in net profits (+44% YoY) on the back of $219.81 million in net sales revenue (+32% YoY). Games like Monster Hunter: World were strong contributors to these earnings and helped drive game segment earnings up by 54% to $189 million.

Bethesda today announced a commitment to provide free next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades for its biggest games, starting first with Doom Eternal and Elder Scrolls Online.

As we predicted, id Software will reveal next-gen optimizations for Doom Eternal at Quakecon 2020. The new id Tech 7 engine that powers Doom Eternal is future-proofed for multiple generations of enthusiast-grade GPU tech, and was built from the ground up for forward-compatibility with new console hardware too.

While no optimization details have been confirmed, we could see Doom Eternal as the first next-gen game locked at 120FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Spelunky 2 finally got a firm September 15 release date, but only for PlayStation 4. There's no locked launch date for other platforms.

Today Mossmouth confirmed a release date for Spelunky 2 on PS4, but other platforms will have to wait a big longer. Game developer Derek Yu says the maze-runner platformer needs more time in the oven before it's ready to serve on PC. The online multiplayer is adding multiple layers of complexity to the game.

"The Steam version of Spelunky 2 will come out shortly after PS4! We'll need a little extra time to iron out online multiplayer on PC. Release date for that soon! After Steam, we'll look into other platforms. We are excited for as many people to play as possible," Yu said on Twitter.

Godfall, the new PlayStation 5 looter-slasher coming in 2020, won't have microtransactions or monetization.

Godfall looks like prime territory for microtransactions. It's an action-based third-person combat game with heavy emphasis on gear progression and customization, and it also feature online 3-player co-op. There's lots of weapons to collect across five classes, and a number of valor plate armor sets to unlock. These things are typically hallmarks to any service-driven live game, and on the surface, Godfall looks like a great fit for cosmetic mTX. But Counterplay promises the game won't have any form of in-game purchases. Godfall is a complete package, the developer says.

"Godfall is a complete package. All of the gear and items in the game are acquired and unlocked through gameplay. There are no microtransactions. No waiting for content. It's all in the game, day one," Godfall game director Keith Lee said in a recent gameplay video.

UPDATE:As we predicted, Remedy teases this is the beginning of a new expanded connected universe.

"What if there's actually been a plan in place for over a decade on how some of our games are connected - a Remedy Connected Universe, if you will - and payoff for certain things is... down the line?," Remedy's Thomas Puha said in a PlayStation Blog post.

Control's new AWE expansion will feature Remedy favorite Alan Wake, as well as a new cursed arcade machine.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons just sold more copies in a single quarter than most AAA games sell in their lifetime.

Nintendo's Q1 earnings are astronomical; the company's profits are up 541% to $989 million on the back of $3.3 billion in net sales. Switch made up $3.2 billion of net sales, or 92% of total earnings. Nintendo sold 5.67 million Switch consoles in Q1, more than twice any other Q1 in history, and beat all Q2 regions too.

Software is up a tremendously 123% to 50.4 million units, pushing total cumulative Switch software to 406.67 million, which beats the 3DS' lifetime software.

The Nintendo Switch has now sold 406.67 million games digitally and physically, beating the 3DS' current 384 million software sales.

Nintendo is on a roll right now. The company reported massive 541% profit gains in Q1, driven by Switch hardware and software sales surges. Switch hardware shot up by 5.67 million units, up 166% year-over-year, pushing hardware to 61.44 million since launch. Software likewise saw a sharp uptick.

The Switch's current software sales sit at 406.67 million, driven by a huge 50.43 million games sold in Q1'21 (+123% rise in sales year-over-year). These numbers current beat the 3DS' lifetime software sales, which now sit at 384.7 million. The Switch is now #5 in Nintendo's top historical platform software sales.

Nintendo wants to produce 25 million Switch consoles by the end of this fiscal year, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki.

COVID-19 lockdowns have led to significant console hardware shortage. The Nintendo Switch in particular is scarce in all global markets, and analyst firms like GSD note a 106% Switch sales spike in European markets.. Nintendo wants to alleviate scarcity by adding millions onto its current manufacturing orders.

Sources say Nintendo has adjusted its internal production forecast by 3 million units, and now plans to create and make available 25 million Switch consoles in the fiscal year ending March 2021. Sources say Nintendo previously only planned to make 22 million units this year.

Epic Games just successfully closed a $1.78 billion funding round pushing its total equity valuation to over $17.3 billion.

Fortnite creator and Unreal Engine platform-holder Epic Games tacked on nearly $2 billion to its total equity, the company today announced. New investors include a number of accounts from a myriad of firms, including BlackRock Financial, Fidelity Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and even the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board invested into Epic.

The news comes weeks after Bloomberg reported on the funding round back in June 2020. The company has managed to add over $2 billion in valuation in less than two years. In 2018, Epic's valuation sat at $15 billion, and the same year it managed to rake in over $3 billion in operating profits.