Gaming - Page 725

In its recent Fiscal Year 2018 earnings report, Sony reminds everyone that PlayStation Now not only exists, but it's doing better than ever.

PlayStation Now has transformed quite a bit since its original lackluster 2014 launch. Online game streaming was still going through growing pains and Sony's cloud-based offering was just too expensive, too laggy, and didn't have a good selection. Sony made some big changes to accommodate a wider userbase, starting with allowing PS4 games to be played on PCs via PS Now streaming. Today the service has over 750 PS4, PS3, and PS2 games on tap, and the innovation breaks PS Now's basic ethos by letting gamers download select titles for offline play--a move that's driven adoption growth.

Sony's PS Now is currently the most-subscribed game streaming service on the market, eclipsing competing subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass and EA's Origin Access. The numbers aren't too amazing though and may paint a grim future for cloud services like Google's Stadia.

Sony compares its recent PS4 sales milestone with previous generations to show how far the PlayStation brand has come.

Sony's PlayStation lineup has always been popular, even as far back as the PS1's original launch in 1994. Fast-forward 25 years later and the same is still true: the PS4 has now amassed 98.6 million shipments worldwide and Sony sits as the reigning king of console gaming. But how big are these sales compared to legacy PS hardware? Pretty big.

The Japanese games-maker just updated their PlayStation sales data to reflect recent FY2018 earnings, showing some interesting results. The PS4 has overtaken the PlayStation Portable and the PS3 insofar as sell-in, but its outpaced by the original PlayStation. The PS2 still reigns as the top-selling console of all time and the current-gen PS4 is unlikely to beat it, especially with hardware forecasts dropping and a new next-generation PlayStation 5 on the way.

Sony's digital presence is immensely lucrative, and its games and services made up a substantial portion of its gaming segment earnings last year.

The PS4 might've just hit 98.6 million shipments worldwide, but the real money is on the PlayStation Network. The PS4's wide install base is undoubtedly contributing to game sales--the wider the net, the more fish you catch--and thanks to a bustling digital market with tons of games, a web of services like PS Now and PS Plus, and first-party exclusives, Sony's digital gaming ecosystem is thriving.

Most games companies focus on digital over everything else, and for good reason. It lets them keep 100% of revenues for first-party content, reduces friction for consumers, and generates revenue from third-party games sold on their storefronts--all while eliminating the cost of manufacturing physical games. This trend continues in Sony's latest FY2018 financials. The company saw a massive spike in digital game sales, driven by strong exclusives like God of War, Spider-Man, and Detroit: Become Human alongside third-party titles and monetization.

PlayStation is massively important to Sony's yearly earnings, generating over $20 billion throughout the company's last fiscal year.

Sony's PlayStation brand, which includes a massive hardware install base and lucrative services, helped drive the company's Fiscal Year 2018 revenues to a record $78 billion. Fueled mostly by game sales and the PlayStation Network, Sony's Games and Network Services segment made roughly $20.8 billion in total sales revenues in FY2018, up a mighty 18.8% year-over-year. These earnings represent 27% of Sony's total revenues for the fiscal year.

The PlayStation-driven segment's operating income spiked to $2.8 billion, showing tremendous 75% year-over-year growth. These numbers represent 34.8% of Sony's total operating income for the FY2018 period.

Bethesda may not understand live games very well, as Fallout 76's weird mishandled engagement proves, but they understand how to push mobile monetization.

According to analyst firm SensorTower, Bethesda's new free-to-play The Elder Scrolls: Blades mobile game has amassed over $1.5 million in microtransaction earnings in a single month. Blades has been immensely criticized for its blatant nickle-and-dime F2P tactics, which allows users to buy currency to reduce wait timers on chest unlocks. Overall the game delivers a very casualized and pared back Skryim-lite experience where time is monetized in a very direct way.

The findings show roughly 1.3 million users have downloaded the game, spending an average of $1.20 per user. Elder Scrolls: Blades has made an average of $50,000 per day since March 27. All of this spending is early access cashflows and the game could make tremendous revenues once it rolls out freely across iOS, Android, consoles and PC.

Konami's messy breakup with Hideo Kojima led to many things--a new studio, a new team, and a big new partnership with Sony and Guerrilla Games. But more importantly, the emotional impact of the split directly inspired Kojima's next big game Death Stranding.

At this year's Tribeca Film Festival, Hideo Kojima discussed some personal and intimate tidbits about Death Stranding. Up until now Kojima hasn't talked very much about the Konami situation, but the beloved games-maker highlighted how despondent the breakup made him feel. Following his dismissal at Konami, the Metal Gear alum said he lost everything--he had no team, no games to work on, no resources, nothing. But he had human connections. With a lot of hope, determination, and effort, Kojima leveraged these connections he made through 30 years of games development to rise from the ashes.

This emphasis on connection is the main foundation for Death Stranding. Although it's an open world action game, Kojima asserts players will all be bound together with metaphorical chains and strands--instead of using "sticks" to push players away from another like most games do, Death Stranding uses "ropes" to connect everyone. The director built the game around this interesting philosophy from Japanese writer Kobo Abe.

Today Hopoo revealed Risk of Rain 2's early access content roadmap, and it's quite beefy.

Risk of Rain 2 is one of the most chaotically fun indies I've ever played, and is already in my top games of 2019. Right now it feels like a complete game with its randomized RNG layout, massively replayable roguelite survival mechanics, and constantly-shifting multiplayer team dynamics, but it's just an early access game...and there's lots more on the horizon.

Now Hopoo unveils what kinds of content early buyers will get to chew on in the coming months. Risk of Rain 2 will get four big seasonal updates that bring everything from new items, equipment, strategic characters, titanic world-breaking bosses, and new class-based skills. Three new classes will be added across the first three seasons, followed by a big artifact-focused patch in the Winter. Then in Spring 2020 the game will ship in a final state, bringing yet another fusillade of goodies--and another class.

Layers of Fear 2 launches soon...next month, in fact.

As a fan of the golden age of vintage black-and-white film, Layers of Fear 2 feels like it was created specifically for me. The game follows the same bizarre acid trip visuals found in the first game, all with a different setting and theme. This time Bloober Team takes us aboard a haunted ship lost in the midnight seas, a kind of Bermuda Triangle where the Twilight Zone is all too real.

The sequel takes direct inspiration from early cinematic greats, including Alfred Hitchcock. It has a noir style to it and makes players into time travelers who explore a very weird ship to solve an identity crisis and find out who you really are.

The PlayStation 4 has now shipped more than 98 million units worldwide, solidifying its reign as the top-selling system of this generation. But sales are expected to slow as Sony shifts towards its next-gen PS5.

Today Sony announce its Fiscal Year 2018 financials, reporting big earnings for its Games and Network Services branch. Total PS4 sales now sit at 98.6 million shipments, with Sony shipping 17.8 million systems in FY2018, down 6.3% year-over-year. Hardware sales accounted for 22% of Sony's total games segment revenues of 2.3 trillion yen ($20.7 billion).

Now that the PlayStation 5 is on the horizon, Sony predicts PS4 sales will start moderating and slowing down. It expects to ship 16 million consoles in the next fiscal year, down 10% from last year, but was careful to say the next-generation PlayStation won't release in the next 12 months. Instead, the PS5 will release after April 2020, which puts its earliest launch in Sony's FY2020 financial year.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console won't release in the next 12 months, the company confirms to The Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki.

Sony just released its Fiscal Year 2018 earnings, outlining strong growth in its PlayStation business, and let some info slip on its next-gen PS5 system: it won't be releasing in 2019. In fact, it won't launch until after April 2020, putting the system firmly in Sony's Fiscal Year 2020 timeline. The news was relayed at an earnings briefing in Tokyo, where analysts and media attended.

While Sony makes no direct mention of the PlayStation 5's release timing in its official documents, there's lots of clues in the report. The company expects lower operating income in FY2019 as it ramps up the PS5's R&D costs. Sony is still outlining the system's AMD-powered Zen 2 and Navi GPU hardware leap and has sent dev kits out to key third-party teams, sources say.

Nintendo overshadows its aging handheld as the Switch continues strong momentum, hinting an official retirement will take place soon.

With the Switch, a combination of its handheld and console gaming focus, Nintendo has been gearing up for the 3DS' replacement for a while now. But despite amassing a huge 75 million install base with 378 million software sales, the writing is on the wall for the eight-year-old handheld. In the latest annual earnings presentation, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukuawa didn't directly mention the 3DS or its future. The 3DS is only used as a benchmark to compare the Switch's current success.

3DS sales are also dramatically slowing down compared to previous years. In FY2019, both 3DS hardware and software sales were down by over 60% to 2.55 million and 13.22 million, respectively. Nintendo's current guidance clearly signals the system's retirement with a paltry 1 million sales forecast for this year, and just 5 million software. That's a further 60%+ drop in both hardware and games sales.

Nintendo's new Switch console continues gaining momentum, and digital sales, one of the company's most important metrics, are skyrocketing.

When it comes to gaming, hardware is just the beginning. The real money is made from games and services, which churns the $100 billion strong games market every year. Digital is a direct-to-consumer delivery method that reduces company costs, friction, and offers convenience, all while monetizing a core audience. Like its competitors, Nintendo has been quite successful in tapping this market and shows incredible growth throughout its last fiscal year.

Nintendo just reported its Fiscal Year 2019 earnings and they're quite good. Switch adoption rose by 16.95 million units, missing analyst projections and bringing total worldwide shipments to 34.74 million. Digital earnings, a key indicator of long-term sustainability, has nearly doubled over last year. The Switch generated a record 118.8 billion yen in FY2019 and total software sales rose by a massive 86% year-over-year to 118.55 million.

Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima has taken the stage at Tribeca 2019 film festive in New York, Kojima touched on many aspects of the upcoming Death Stranding and was also spotted meeting famous actor Robert Deniro.

It should be stated straight away that no new footage of Death Stranding or even any images were shown off during the presentation. Instead, Kojima was asked about the emotions players should expect while playing the title, Kojima replied with "I think people will cry, yeah". So it can be assumed from this statement that Death Stranding will come with some extensive emotional value.

This was further elaborated on by The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus, who said "It's not a turn left, turn right [game], it's emotion. You get invested. I think that's why there's such an honest depiction of me in the game". The games story was also mentioned by Kojima, saying "In Death Stranding I do have a little secret that you get tied into and you have to make a decision". Kojima was also spotted getting a photo with famous actor Robert Deniro, the video was captured by Game Awards presenter Geoff Keighley.

There has been quite the controversy spreading around about Mortal Kombat 11, the controversy is in regards to the microtransactions within the title.

The past couple of days since the release of Mortal Kombat 11 there has been many claims of that to acquire all of the skins that are present within the game will cost players $6440 in real-world money. Derek, our other gaming news reporter posted a story yesterday from a source that was used by many other sites. This source claimed that if you were to buy all of the skins in-game with real-world money it would equate to a total cost of $6440. What those calculations failed to take into account was the fact that "The VAST VAST majority of MK11 skins are NOT for sale".

NetherRealm has recognized that the game is probably more grindy for players than originally intended, to solve this issue they are working on a balancing patch that should be issued out in the coming days/weeks. It should be noted that none of the microtransactions included within Mortal Kombat 11 affect gameplay, NetherRealm addressed those who were concerned about this before the launch of Mortal Kombat 11, check that story out here. Mortal Kombat 11 is currently available on the Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

An interesting stat has surfaced regarding Nintendo's Wii U and their newest flagship title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. That new stats show that Ultimate has surpassed Wii U sales.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released back in early December last year, and since then the title has taken off and been extremely popular amongst not only the Smash Bros. community but also brand new fans. Smash Ultimate is the most popular Smash Bros. title and has reached a total sales margin of 13.81 million units. It has more than doubled the sales of the previous release in the series, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U which had 5.36 million copies sold worldwide.

Changing up the comparisons now, we look to Nintendo last console release, the Wii U. The Wii U was quite the flop when looking at sheer sales statistics as the console only managed to pull in 13.56 million units which means that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has beaten the sales of the Wii U by 250,000 units. I wouldn't be surprised if Smash Ultimates sales kept on increasing and eventually reached 20 million units, now that would be quite the achievement for Nintendo as well as Director of Smash Bros. Masahiro Sakurai.

Nintendo has brought out a new update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and it seems it's too early to decide whether or not Joker deserves some nerfs or not yet.

Nintendo recently released a massive update to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and as I predicted Joker was included within this version 3.0.0 update. Since Jokers release the fighter has been subject of debate to determine whether or not he needs nerfs (damage reduction, more landing frames etc).

I have been playing Joker quite extensively, clocking in over 15 hours on the character and while I can't say whether or not Joker deserves nerfs or not, I can certainly say that Joker is an extremely strong character with an insane amount of combo potential. Not to mention his safe recovery, extreme amount of damage output and also a come-back mechanic that arguably makes him one of, if not the best character in the game when its active.

Nintendo have followed up on yesterdays news regarding the coming title Super Mario Maker 2, now the company has announced what players will be receiving as bonuses if they decide to pre-order.

We first heard about Super Mario Maker 2 back in early February and while news regarding the title seemed to drop off, yesterday Nintendo updated their website with some brand new information. Today has been no different, this time round Nintendo UK has revealed what players will receive as pre-order bonuses.

Nintendo will be providing players who pre-order the title with a stylus, according to the official description "A Nintendo Switch stylus will also be available as a pre-order bonus. It's the perfect tool for sketching out the Super Mario course you've always dreamed of in handheld mode!" If you are wondering how you would get a hold of the stylus, players will have to pre-order Super Mario Maker 2 at retail stores, and if pre-order digitally via the Nintendo eShop "you'll receive a My Nintendo Store code that you can redeem for the Nintendo Switch stylus."

Respawn is working on new Titanfall games, including a premium title slated for release in 2019.

Today Respawn confirmed that it's indeed working on new Titanfall games, but the studio's current projects won't bleed into one another. Instead, Respawn has multiple teams working separately on each game. That means the team developing Jedi: Fallen Order will be different than the one making the new Titanfall games, but we could see FPS mechanics from Apex Legends cross over. The dev team will not, however.

"Lastly, regarding other games in development at Respawn, it is important to understand that there are entirely separate development teams working on Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," Apex Legends executive producer Drew McCoy said in a recent post. "Additionally, in order to fully support Apex Legends, we are pushing out plans for future Titanfall games. No resources from the Apex Legends team are being shifted to other titles in development here at the studio, nor are we pulling resources from the team working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order."

The Epic Games Store has put pressure on PC king Valve for a while now, but a new promise from Epic's CEO raises the stakes.

Despite hotly contested controversy, boycotts, and lots of review bombing, Epic Games has no plans to stop buying exclusivity for its digital storefront. And as long as the money flows, publishers will keep accepting deals. The Epic Games Store has already secured big deals with Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Deep Silver, and 505 Games. This exclusivity hits Valve right where it hurts: its pocketbook. Timed exclusivity takes a chunk out of Valve's potential sales during a game's vital launch period, with some games not coming to Steam until a year after release.

But Valve could make all of this stop. All it has to do is offer more money to developers.

Nintendo keeps throwing analysts off their game; not only did Nintendo miss hardware and software projections laid out by analysts, but now the company is being coy about the new rumored Switch revisions.

At a fiscal year earnings conference in Japan, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says a new Switch model won't be unveiled at E3 2019. "As a general rule, we're always working on new hardware and we will announce it when we are able to sell it. But we have no plans to announce that at this year's E3 in June," Mr. Furukawa said at the event, as per Bloomberg. This directly counters reports of a cheaper Switch version launching in June, but aligns with the president's previous assurances that a new system isn't happening any time soon.

The company is indeed working on new hardware--as it historically always does, the president says--but no news will be shared until it's ready to hit store shelves. Sources also say that a Switch refresh is on the way with smaller improvements like an OLED panel screen and more battery life, but a more dramatic next-gen hardware leap isn't currently in development.