A few days ago, Roku sent out an email to customers informing them that Fox standalone apps would go away after January 31st due to an expiring distribution agreement. That might make it a little harder and more complicated to watch the Super Bowl vi...
Now that Hulu is part of Disney's streaming triumvirate with ESPN+ and Disney+, there's a reorganization at the top and Randy Freer will step down from his role as CEO. He took over in late 2017, but now it will join the others under direct oversight...Today marks Ubisoft Québec developer Mike Laidlaw’s final day with the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey studio. Presently, the reason behind his departure isn’t publicly known. Details on where his talents may take him next also remain under wraps, though it seems Laidlaw is still weighing his options.
The former BioWare developer shared the news whit his followers in the following Twitter post,
Quick update from me!
Today (Jan 31st) is my last day with Ubisoft. Huge thanks to the talented and welcoming folks at Ubisoft Quebec City for my time there.
Now to take stock and figure out what’s next!
— Mike Laidlaw (@Mike_Laidlaw) January 31, 2020
After spending 14 years at BioWare, and serving as Dragon Age Creative Director, Laidlaw left the studio in the fall of 2017. In December 2018, he joined the team at Ubisoft Québec to begin work on an unnamed project. It still remains unclear what exactly Laidlaw had his hands on, but the recently delayed Gods & Monsters could serve as one possibility. Given Laidlaw’s incredible pedigree, it will be interesting to see where he goes next.
Laidlaw’s exit from the company comes just two weeks after a report surfaced about Ubisoft’s restructuring of its editorial team. With the new shift in leadership, Ubisoft intends to give more team leads a creative voice. The hope is that such a move will result in more diverse experiences from the French publisher.
Ubisoft Québec’s next title, Gods & Monsters, will launch sometime in fiscal year 2020-2021, which begins April 1, 2020 and ends March 31, 2021.
[Source: Mike Laidlaw on Twitter]
The post Former Dragon Age Developer Mike Laidlaw Departs Ubisoft Québec After One Year appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
There are those mornings when you wake up and gaming news just brings you something you never expected that day. While everyone’s been eagerly looking out for Sony to announce PlayStation Meeting 2020 for the PS5 reveal, Square Enix is over here just casually dropping a new Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer. The focus of the trailer was the new theme song, “Hollow,” but the trailer itself also featured the most expanded look at the game we’ve had so far. Final Fantasy VII was a game that defined my life as a kid, so of course today’s Daily Reaction had to analyze everything about the trailer in depth. First, let’s watch it one more time:
First, that song is incredible. I’m glad Square Enix is being brave enough to introduce new elements like a brand new theme song because it really helps set Final Fantasy VII Remake on a pillar of its own. It may be recreating the beloved 1997 game, but it deserves to have its own identity too. “Hollow” is an absolutely haunting track that perfectly encapsulates the themes of the Final Fantasy VII journey.
The trailer opens with the Cloud and Tifa in Nibelheim, Cloud telling her that he’s going to be leaving to join SOLDIER. I don’t believe Cloud’s lucid flashbacks begin happening until Kalm at the earliest, which is just outside of Midgar, so either the timetable for the flashbacks has been moved up, or the game extends slightly beyond when the party escapes Midgar and this flashback takes place near the end of the game (this is going off of the information that Final Fantasy VII Remake is only part one of the stories, effectively the “Midgar chapter” of the story).
Next up is a scene of Jenova in a tank, Sephiroth in front of her, and Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith confronting him. Again, this scene was not part of Midgar, but seems to line up with the cargo ship the team takes from Junon, calling into question whether Square Enix is shifting narrative elements around or if the game will extend all the way past Kalm and the Chocobo Ranch, concluding with the cargo ship sequence just after Junon. Cloud does ask Sephiroth if it’s really him, and the cargo ship segment had Cloud hallucinating Sephiroth due to Jenova’s influence. We’ll come back to this scene shortly, because there are a few other possibilities.
Shin-Ra is a major player in Final Fantasy VII, and headquartered in Midgar, it’s expected to have a vastly expanded role in the Remake. There’s a scene with President Shinra (before Sephiroth murders him, of course) and Heidegger talking with Reeve, who protested the false flag destruction of the Sector 7 slums. Reeve is a very important character, later controlling Cait Sith to spy on the party, though we probably won’t see the fruits of that play out until Part Two. In the original game, the party doesn’t meet Cait Sith until the Gold Saucer, which is well after the Midgar section, and even a fair bit past the above-mentioned cargo ship portion.
This sequence also reveals Scarlet, another leadership figure within the Shin-Ra corporate ladder. She was entirely responsible for Shin-Ra’s weapons development. And of course, there’s Palmer, the leader of Shin-Ra’s failed space division. He’ll come into play later in the game, literally sending the party into space at one point. For now, it seems his appearance will probably just amount to glimpses and Easter eggs within the Shin-Ra structure.
“Welcome to the Honey Bee Inn, Cloud. True beauty is an expression of the heart, a thing without shame to which notions of gender don’t apply,” the proprietor of the Honey Bee Inn says. There was a fair amount of concern surrounding how Square Enix could handle cross-dressing Cloud and the Honey Bee Inn. It looks like the inn’s role in this segment of the game has been vastly expanded, going from just the place where Cloud gets one part of his outfit to the central location where he gets his makeover. The proprietor wants to put Cloud at ease, the spiky-haired hero uncomfortable with the plan of dressing up to rescue Tifa from Don Corneo. It’s a beautiful way to not so much entirely change the narrative of this portion of the game, but to redefine it in an inclusive and meaningful way; to be more than just the butt end of a “haha, Cloud had to wear a DRESS and he was in a hot tub full of MEN” joke. Here, the Honey Bee Inn is about people embracing their inner beauty, identity, and being who they want to be.
What follows is Cloud in his full makeover walking through Wall Market, and finally getting to see a glimpse of Don Corneo selecting his bride. What remains to be seen is if the integrity of this quest is intact, where Cloud can get different items that make him more or less likely to be selected, and the results of the quests differ based on that outcome. We’ve previously seen the squats minigame in other trailers, so we do at least know other aspects of the cross-dressing Cloud quest are intact.
Though seen in previous trailers, we get a bit of an extended look at the new character, one who appears to be an antagonist to the party. Having just come off of Kingdom Hearts III Re:MIND, I can’t help but think that this SOLDIER looks a heck of a lot like Demyx, one of the members of Organization XIII. Is it just a symptom of similar character design, or is it time to bust out our tinfoil hats and start some conspiracy theories?
The secret episode in Re:MIND does hint at connections between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy worlds. Would it be so far-fetched to think that the appearance of a character who looks like a slightly older version of Demyx is, in fact, the same character, and this is setting up some kind of broader story arc that will carry into future Kingdom Hearts games? It sounds almost too crazy to be true, but at the same time, I entirely wouldn’t be surprised if it came to fruition. Either way, I’m very curious to see what this character adds to the Final Fantasy VII plot. Is he just here to expand the game’s playtime, or does he play a new crucial role within the narrative?
We get our first look at Red XII, or Nanaki, as the true fans know him. He looks amazing. That’s it. That’s the tweet.
Anyone who has played the original Final Fantasy VII knows that it’s Hojo’s experiments that are kind of at the center of things, but those discoveries don’t come until much later in the game. It seems like Final Fantasy VII Remake is laying it all out on the table early here. Remember that scene I said could be from the cargo ship? Well, here we return to an extended version of it where Cloud attacks Sephiroth then plummets down into a pit, and from these angles, it seems a bit more like Jenova’s tank is possibly inside one of the Reactors in Midgar? It’d be a pretty huge change from the original narrative, but I think there is ample evidence to show that the party doesn’t make it all the way to Junon in this game.
Hojo watches all of this play out on some monitors and comments on Cloud, probably due to the fact that he “saw” Sephiroth, who I’m guessing wasn’t actually there. One of my biggest questions is, if you move all of these narrative elements into (or close to) Midgar, what then takes their place elsewhere in the game as we move into the later episodes? Or do they just get expanded on and fleshed out more? As a huge fan of Final Fantasy VII, it even took me a while to understand the full context of the story in the original game, and I’m hoping that’s being taken into account when presenting the narrative in the Remake.
The trailer shifts directions to gameplay here and the music switches over to the Remake’s new version of the Final Fantasy VII boss theme. We get to see a couple of new environments (Sector 7 slums wreckage from where the plate came down, perhaps?) and the Leviathan summon. It then shifts over to a practically Metal Gear-like infiltration of Shin-Ra Headquarters, a sequence that should be quite expanded on from the original game. While it’s been revealed before, we see more footage of Moogle & Chocobo battling against some Shinra mechs.
There is then a massive boss battle with Jenova after some kind of force breaks out of a glass cage (presumably in Shin-Ra HQ). This could be the culmination of that previous sequence that I presumed was on the cargo ship, but too many elements feel off. These feel like two separate encounters. Cloud did encounter Jenova’s headless body in Shin-Ra in the original, part of the sequence where Sephiroth has rampaged through and murdered almost everyone in the building and they find President Shinra dead with the iconic long sword stuck in his back, however, significant interactions and full-on battles with Jenova don’t happen until much later.
The trailer concludes with a variety of shots from various parts of the game: the sewers as the team escapes a Reactor, the blue truck and Cloud’s motorcycle as they flee Midgar, a Reactor explosion, and a swarm of dark spirits around the Shin-Ra Building, which definitely didn’t happen in the original game.
The trailer seems to cover nearly every element from the recent datamined leak, which makes me wonder if it was specifically created with the intention of putting context around the leaked images. However, it seems odd that so much of the trailer seems to include moments from what one can only presume is near the end of the game. The infiltration of Shin-Ra, Jenova, and truck/motorcycle were all scenes that occurred just before the party left Midgar. No footage has conclusively indicated that the game will go beyond the walls of Midgar at all (aside from flashbacks in Nibelheim), so it seems an odd choice to let a trailer play out what could be the final moments of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
No matter what, this deep analysis simply comes from my own deep excitement for Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s still a while to wait, but getting today’s trailer has made that long wait just ever so slightly more bearable.
Daily Reaction reacts to the video game industry. Have suggestions for the column or subjects you’d like us to react to? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to check out previous Daily Reactions for more dives beyond the headlines.
The post Daily Reaction: Iconic Moments, Narrative Changes, and Final Fantasy VII Remake’s New Theme Song appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
We first met the prototype Model Y crossover last year, and this week during the company's earnings call, Elon Musk said deliveries of the vehicle will start in March. In the documents released (PDF), Tesla also showed off this picture of the car's p...
Hey guys, it’s me, the Inventory’s Resident Cat Lady/Tyrone’s mom, here to talk about something besides my pets. Today, I want to talk to you about pre-workout supplements.
The FCC has finished investigating carriers' unauthorized disclosure and sale of subscribers' real-time location data, Chairman Ajit Pai has shared with (PDF) lawmakers in the House of Representatives. In his letters, he told Energy and Commerce Comm...We're giving away Packs of the Yeth Hound for Neverwinter in today's contest!
You know who doesn't like free stuff? Jerks! And rich people. There are interesting correlations between those two sets of people (while not necessarily any causation), to say the least.
Don't be a jerk, though -- take some free stuff from us. Today we've got some rare Pack of the Yeth Hound bundles to give away to deck out your character in Neverwinter. So try to win one, jerks!
Video game demo discs had a simple joy to them. Today, they feel like a lost art, but for some of us, they left a lasting impression – they helped define our interest in video games as a lifelong hobby.
Assorted independent PC horror game creators are banding together to replicate the old compilation experience. On February 6, 2020, they plan to release 17 demos in a "Haunted PS1" demo disc.
Hey everyone, good news! We've set a release date for the Demo Disc and the list of demos is decided.
— HauntedPS1 (@HauntedPs1) January 30, 2020
The Demo Disc will release on Thursday The 6th of February at https://t.co/1TAOXhRifN and will include demos of the games listed in the cover image below! pic.twitter.com/S598UhOjaV
The scuffed-up disc case and noisy cover art perfectly capture the mood they're going for with this mid-'90s-inspired project, and I'm especially fond of the tagline "Try 'em before they getcha!"
The nostalgia pull doesn't end there. Beyond some cool artwork, many of the games themselves will feel right at home to anyone who grew up playing chunky 3D horror games on PlayStation or elsewhere. To be clear, these PC titles are "made to be reminiscent of the era but on modern engines."
The full collection will be available on itch.io. In the meantime, you can follow along at @HauntedPS1.
I've seen bits and pieces of this lo-fi horror scene before, and it's always looked intriguing. That said, bundling a bunch of games together in a slick format is a smart audience-building move. I'm into it.
[Via PC Gamer]
As many problems as Ghost Recon Breakpoint still has, it now also has Terminators. They’re actually a good addition to the game and part of a special live event week that kicked off on Wednesday and sort of ends on Thursday of next week.
In the original Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife dons a dress as part of a rescue mission. Way back in 2015, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura said the character would once again wear a dress in the remake, and now the character finally shows off those threads.
We've already shown that talented artists like Billie Ellish can create Grammy-caliber music with just a little technology. But what about someone with a lot of technology and just a little talent? The answer to that is a SoundCloud EDM song called D...
Spider-Man will soar over Disneyland's Avengers Campus in summer of 2020, DisneyParks announced, despite an ongoing dispute over the film version of the character. According to a video released by the park, Spidey will swing high into the air over th...
Previously, Kotaku introduced Yuan Herong. She’s a bodybuilder who works as a physician in Shandong Province, China.
Microsoft has launched a bug bounty program especially for Xbox Live network and services, and it's paying bug hunters up to $20,000. Like any other bug bounty program, the payout depends on the security vulnerability's severity and starts at $500.
"We're rapidly approaching a 400-mile range for Model S," Tesla chief Elon Musk has revealed during a conference call following the company's Q4 2019 financial results announcement. "So, it won't be long before Model S has a 400-mile range." Musk mad...
If you're planning on watching Super Bowl LIV using a streaming app, then you might not be able to use Roku hardware. While the platform has had a number of Fox apps available for years, their distribution agreement is set to expire after tomorrow, a...Publisher Electronic Arts has had a tremendous third fiscal quarter 2020 (ending December 31, 2019), partly due to the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. In fact, the single-player Star Wars game has surpassed 8 million copies sold since its debut in November 2019. Originally, EA had predicted Jedi: Fallen Order to sell between 6-8 million units within its first quarter. Now that it’s exceeded that, the publisher estimates it will reach 10 million units sold by the end of March 2020.
All of this was confirmed by EA during a financial call, as relayed by Daniel Ahmad, a Senior Analyst at Niko Partners, on Twitter. You can check out the thread below:
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is expected to sell 10 million units by March 31st 2020 according to EA.
Beating original expectations of 6-8 million units.
Strong performance for the game solidifies demand for high quality story games. pic.twitter.com/NdmKUrWnh8
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 30, 2020
EA has enjoyed commercial success with both of its entries in the Star Wars Battlefront series. Though, both of those games leaned heavily into online multiplayer components. Jedi: Fallen Order was the first strictly single-player AAA Star Wars adventure in a very long time and we might not have seen the last of it. It reached other impressive sales milestones, as well, such as becoming the fastest-selling digital launch of any Star Wars game and ranking within the top two of the NPD charts in November and December 2019.
Now, this doesn’t mean Electronic Arts will be abandoning its multiplayer or live service games. After all, the company made over $1 billion from microtransactions in its live-service games during its fiscal third quarter 2020 and notes in its quarterly report that projections for fiscal year 2021 are based on live-service games and ongoing support. It does mean single-player adventures have proven themselves to be viable, though.
And if the rumors about Knights of the Old Republic are true, we could end up seeing even more single-player Star Wars games?
[Source: EA via Twitter]
The post Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Has Surpassed 8 Million Units Sold, Exceeded EA’s Expectations appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
What better way (other than a new stuff pack for tiny living) to celebrate The Sims’ 20th anniversary than with a huge milestone? During publisher Electronic Arts’ third fiscal quarter 2020 (ending December 31, 2019), The Sims 4 surpassed 20 million unique worldwide players, making it one of the most successful entries in the entire series.
Net revenue was up year over year for EA, helped along by the launch of Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, Need for Speed Heat, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The company has doubled down on live-service games and ongoing support for it’s existing games to increase revenue projections for the full 2020 fiscal year (ending on March 31, 2020).
The Sims 4 will likely see another boom in its player-base following its introduction as a free PS Plus game in February 2020. With nearly 40 million PS Plus subscribers, this will serve as an ideal opportunity for new players to get their hands on the console version of the game and is expected to lead to sales of the expansion packs, which are not included with the Plus free version.
Since its debut in fall 2014, The Sims 4 has gotten numerous expansions and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Three years later it came to consoles in fall 2017, which helped bolster its player-base even further. By the time it made its way to consoles, many of the issues found in the original PC experience had been ironed out. We liked The Sims 4 a lot here at PSLS and praised it for its performance and amount of content. It’s widely considered to be one of the best console versions of The Sims, with previous games having been limited from their PC counterparts.
[Source: EA]
The post The Sims 4 Has Reached More Than 20 Million Unique Worldwide Players appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Not one, but two games based around racing drones are coming out this year for PlayStation 4. One, DCL – The Game, was announced back in August. Today it got an official release date of February 18th, 2020, and will also be coming to PC and Xbox One. The other is Liftoff: Drone Racing, which launched on PC back in 2018 but will officially be making its way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sometime this year.
DCL – The Game is an official sponsored product of the Drone Championship League. It’s being developed by Climax Studios and published by THQ Nordic. While the game tries to get flying drones right, it leans a little more arcadey in its design. It has a built-in arcade modes for beginners, and fantastical courses that wouldn’t really be possible to fly in real life. After all, no one wants a drone weaving between a working ski lift. THQ Nordic notes that the top 200 players will be invited to compete in real-world DCL events.
As for Liftoff: Drone Racing, the game came out in 2018 to very positive reviews and has continued development for quite some time. The game is developed by LuGus Studios and will be published by Astragon Entertainment. Liftoff focuses a lot on the simulation side of things, a large part of the game will involve customizing your drone, and races can only be played in first-person like actual real life drone races would be. LuGus has promised that the console version will come with some new features not seen on the PC, but that they aren’t quite ready to announce them yet.
Most of the arcadey racers available generally deal with animals driving go-karts, different animals driving cars, or non-descript humanoids driving other sorts of four-wheeled vehicles. Drone racing is a unique niche of the genre that hasn’t gotten much, if any, love on consoles, but that’s set to change soon.
The post A Pair of Drone Racing Games are Coming to PlayStation 4 This Year appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
As the first VR game to sell a million copies, Beat Saber continues to be one of virtual reality’s biggest darlings, and Beat Games is continuing to support the release with more music. With the latest 1.7 update, three free songs have been added to the line-up. All three songs are by EDM artist Masaya Oya, better known by his stage name Cametek, who entered the scene in 2008. Cametek also had three songs added to the game for free last year. The three new and three old songs are grouped together in the game as one Cametek pack. Be warned: these tracks aren’t for the faint of heart. Beat Games claimed one of the songs had an average of 8.7 notes every second.
The following three songs by Cametek have been added:
Beat Saber continues to have songs added to it all the time. Sometimes the songs are free, such as when League Of Legends‘ shockingly catchy K-pop hit “POP/STARS” was added, or when popular meme song “Crab Rave” was added as an April Fools joke. Other music packs are paid (either by individual song or the full pack). Packs focused on bands like Imagine Dragons, Panic! at the Disco, and recently Green Day, have been put into the game. Beat Saber also had a crossover with Rocket League, adding several tracks and backgrounds from the popular multiplayer sports game.
In addition to the new songs, the 1.7 update added in the ability to clear your local leaderboard in Party mode. This way you can judge everyone on the current party, and not be reminded of a session from a few months back. Especially useful if you have one friend who’s ridiculously better and/or more sober than everyone else.
The post Beat Saber Gets Three More Free Tracks From Cametek in Latest Update appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Nintendo's latest financial report painted a rosy picture for the company as it boasted about its record selling games and its flagship hardware. Things are going good, so good in fact, that in its policy briefing today, Nintendo announced it currently has "no plans to launch a new Nintendo Switch model in 2020."
Looks like we'll have to learn to live with the standard Switch and Switch Lite models for now. Hopefully, we'll see more of those sweet special edition units, like this lovely looking Animal Crossing unit that was also announced today.
Corporate Management Policy Briefing [Nintendo]
Despite already announcing and releasing a new Switch model in 2019, rumours that Nintendo would release another variant of its latest console—a beefier, fancier “Pro” version—have refused to go away. So Nintendo has come out and just flat out said it: there are no new Switch models coming. At least in 2020.
Luis Carrasco is an artist who has worked on stuff like Solo, Jurassic World and The Revenant.
After what I guess was a trial run with Football Manager last year, Sega Europe has made the decision to make all the boxes for its PC releases cardboard. They’ll be made from 100% recycled materials, and will in turn be 100% recyclable themselves.
At the risk of mixing cultural metaphors, Valentine’s Day is the Super Bowl of men buying lingerie for their significant others. Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated with family, usually, making sexy undergarments a less-than-ideal gift, while anniversaries call for nostalgic presents rather than romantic ones. As…
On a live stream this evening, The Behemoth announced Game 5, and I'm pleasantly surprised. The team behind Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater is going all the way back to its roots.
The studio has been working on Alien Hominid Invasion over the "past 15 months or so." It's "not a remaster or a remake," and it has solo and co-op support, but that's about all we know for sure so far.
Players will get their first hands-on opportunities at PAX East and EGX Rezzed.
IBM CEO Virginia Rometty, one of the most prominent female leaders in tech, is stepping down on April 6th, 2020. She will still serve as Executive Chairman of the Board through the end of the year, but she's retiring completely after that. Rometty wi...
The first new Animal Crossing game on consoles in several years is almost here, and Nintendo is rolling out a special edition of its Switch to mark the occasion. This $300 Switch will arrive on March 13th, a week before the launch of Animal Crossing:...On March 13, 2020, Nintendo is coming out with a limited-edition Nintendo Switch – that's Switch, not Switch Lite! – console themed around Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It looks so pleasant and pure.
The pastel Joy-Con have some of my favorite coloring yet – I want these as standalones.
The custom dock with the Nooks and extra detailing on the back of the Switch is just icing on top.
Along with the limited-edition console, Nintendo also plans to sell an Animal Crossing-themed Switch carrying case and screen protector on March 13, 2020. If you still need a case, it's a looker.
The #NintendoSwitch #AnimalCrossing: New Horizons Aloha Edition Carrying Case & Screen Protector will also be available for purchase on 3/13! pic.twitter.com/NOyviTGmPt
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 31, 2020
I don't need it. I don't need it. (All right, maybe I need it...)
We're giving away a Switch and copies of Bookbound Brigade in today's contest!
Hear ye, hear ye -- we've got a brand new Switch console to giveth awayeth!
Ok, yep, that's it. That's the news. Bookbound Brigade launched today, and the devs want you to play it. So badly, in fact, that they're giving away a Switch so you can check it out! So put on your reading glasses, and snuggle up next to a good book. Or your new Switch. Whichever.
To tie in with the release of New Horizons, Nintendo is releasing this new themed Switch console in March that has very strong animal vacation vibes.
Yeah, he’s cute on the screen, but in the flesh? With those enormous dead eyes and wistful stare? Anyone who buys this “life-size” recreation of Baby Yoda is in for nothing but nightmares.
The hugely successful One Piece is making the jump from manga (and anime) to live action. Working with Tomorrow Studios, Netflix has okayed a ten-episode adaptation.
I stood in front of a panel of judges made up of Randy Jackson, a Simon Cowell-esque man and a friendly blonde woman. I had to do my best to express the emoji "Whatever," in an X Factor-style competition to win the title of "America's best Bitmoji."...
The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) has won a $1.1 billion jury verdict against Apple and Broadcom, according to Reuters and other sources. In a case that first hit federal courts in 2016, CalTech accused Apple of using Broadcom WiFi chi...Despite being a year older, the Nintendo Switch is outpacing its sales performance in previous years. According to Nintendo's newest financial data, Switch sales are on the rise, already surpassing other years' marks in a fraction of the time.
As a part of its third quarter earnings report, Nintendo reveals that the Switch sold 17.74 million units between April 2019 and the end of the calendar year. Subtracting from the second quarter report of 6.93 million units, we learn that 10.81 million Switches were sold during the 2019 holiday quarter.
This figure is helped along by the launch of the Switch Lite, which hit shelves in late September. This newer, mobile-only model of Switch contributed 3.24 million sales in the third quarter. The Switch Lite currently sits at 5.19 million lifetime sales; 1.95 million of those sales came around launch when Nintendo's second fiscal quarter was drawing to an end. That also means Nintendo wound up with 7.57 million sales of the original Switch last quarter. That's a strong showing.
Nintendo projects the Switch will end up with 19.5 million sales for the financial year. For comparison, the Switch netted 16.95 million sales during Nintendo's 2018 fiscal year, and 15.05 million sales in its 2017 fiscal year. It's already at 17.74 million this year. Its third year on the market is the Switch's most successful -- at least from a hardware sales perspective -- and it got there in only nine months.
In terms of lifetime sales, the Switch now sits at 52.48 million units sold. It just passed the SNES (49.10 million lifetimes sales), and it'll soon nip at the heels of the NES (61.91 million lifetime sales). The Switch is growing increasingly ever-popular and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Consolidated Financial Highlights [Nintendo]
The Unicode Consortium has revealed 117 new emoji for 2020, and they'll make your emoji arsenal more inclusive than ever. Some of the upcoming additions have the potential to make conversations with friends more fun, such as the smiling face with a s...
Nintendo sold 10.81 million Switch consoles last quarter, bringing lifetime sales to 52.48 million. That's a 15 percent increase on the 9.41 million units it sold in the same quarter 12 months prior, and the best three-month period since the console...Nintendo has a lot of can't-miss properties to its name, and Pokémon is as bulletproof as they come. This is a series that prints money anytime a new game launches. That's proven yet again as Nintendo has revealed sales data for Pokémon Sword and Shield.
In its third quarter earnings release, Nintendo announces that Pokémon Sword and Shield predictably led the way in sales, racking up a cumulative 16.06 million units sold between its mid-November launch and the end of the 2019 calendar year. That's broken down between 4.21 million sales in Japan, and 11.85 million sales throughout the rest of the world. It's enough for Nintendo to single out the new Pokémon, calling it a "huge hit."
Sword and Shield actually fared a bit better than the previous Pokémon, Sun and Moon, did during its launch quarter. Sun and Moon combined for 14.69 million copies sold on 3DS; it currently sits at 16.18 million sales, meaning that Sword and Shield has quite possibly surpassed Sun and Moon's lifetime sales once January's total is figured in.
Nintendo also seems pleased with some of its high-profile games during the holiday quarter. Luigi's Mansion 3 (5.37 million sales) and Super Mario Maker 2 (5.04 million sales) both got shoutouts for their performance. The Link's Awakening remake weighed in at 4.19 million sales, which Nintendo might consider underwhelming for a new Zelda game, even one as relatively niche as this one.
Elsewhere, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe keeps trucking along, as it was the second-best seller of the quarter, racing to another 6.27 million sales; its lifetime total is now at 22.96 million. Impressive when considering that the original Mario Kart 8 on Wii U has 8.44 million sales to its name. Other newcomers to Nintendo's vaunted one million sales list are: Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2.58 million), Ring Fit Adventure (2.17 million), Astral Chain (1.03 million), and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 (1.02 million).
Earnings Release for the Nine-Month Period Ending December 2019 [Nintendo]
Toytal Annihilation I’ve got this weird obsession with small things (don’t make your own jokes, please). It’s not the small thing per se but rather seeing from the perspective of the small thing. …
The post HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed Review appeared first on Next Gen Base.
After years of wrangling in courts, Facebook has settled a lawsuit over its use of facial recognition. Last year it agreed to stop turning on the tech to scan photos by default, which built a template of your facial data, and automatically suggested...
When you zoom out all the way on Google Earth for the web and Pro on desktop, you get a view of our planet with stars in the background. Unfortunately, that starry background is replaced with plain black when you use the program on mobile -- until no...
Microsoft's deepening health tech strategy now includes a significant commitment to AI. The company is starting a $40 million AI for Health program that should help researchers and key organizations improve the quality of life for people around the...
If you're a One Piece fan, this may be the best or the worst piece of news ever, depending on how you feel about Netflix's anime adaptations: The streaming giant has approved a 10-episode live-action series based on the classic manga and anime. Even...
Look, I get it, Anthem has not been a fun time, but there’s this beautiful and convenient thing with this feature where we’re able to separate the art from the gameplay and wonder, holy shit, even if Anthem does suck these character designs are amazing.
Blizzard has tonight cancelled all Overwatch League matches scheduled to take place in China for the next two months due to the country’s Coronavirus crisis.
I love podcasts. They're great pieces of (mostly) free entertainment I can put on at work to fill the silence of my office. One of my favorite podcasts is 99% Invisible, a podcast that burrows right into my little niche hole and delights me with informative oddities about design, architecture, and art.
Every so often there is a guest episode on the feed to bring something new to 99PI's massive listener base as well as send those listeners to a new podcast they might enjoy. This week, 99PI featured a Smithsonian-produced podcast that goes in-depth on some of the objects they have lying about in their vaults. The episode was titled "The Worst Video Game of All Time."
They speak of course about the infamous E.T. for Atari, a game so bad it is said to have brought about the end of its parent company and contributed to the economic crash of the video game industry in the second generation. As gaming enthusiasts, we all have heard of the story of E.T. and its pitfalls, but I personally had never taken the time to really dive into what contributed to its failure.
With news that Atari is possibly going to make hotels coming out this week, it's interesting to look back at the straw that broke their back nearly 40 years ago.
Ep. 15 | The Worst Video Game Ever? [Sidedoor Podcast]
The United Nations was the victim of a massive, likely state-sponsored hacker attack this past summer, according to reports from The New Humanitarian and Associated Press. To make the matters worse, the organization didn't disclose the details and se...
You might not have to wait until your home is frigid to find out that there's a problem with your furnace. Google has started testing a Nest thermostat feature that sends email alerts when the device detects unusual patterns in your HVAC system. If...
There are three universal truths: we have to pay taxes, Facebook will never die, and outdoor gear is perpetually pricey.
Today's contest features Xbox One keys for Music Racer!
You guys should have this locked down by now -- anything that features neon colors, bumpin' synth music, and an overall '80s aesthetic is going to catch my eye pretty much immediately. Now I'm not a huge fan of racing games, but how could Music Racer not appeal to me? I'm nothing if not predictable.
So, if you're anything like me then you're in luck -- we've got some Xbox One keys available for you to try it out for yourself!
Do you still actively keep tabs on hopeful Kickstarter games? I rarely seem to anymore.
When there are so many promising new video games releasing every single day of the week, it's hard to sustain a lot of excitement about an up-and-comer that may or may not release until years later. There's plenty of exceptions, of course, but I prefer looping back once the production is further along.
The arcade adventure game Battle Axe is one project that's managed to cut through.
It's a one- to two-player top-down arcade game inspired by classic coin-op adventures like Gauntlet, Golden Axe, and D&D: Shadow over Mystara, with music from Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae.
Above all, I'm here for that luscious, detail-rich pixel art. Battle Axe is led by Henk Nieborg, who previously contributed to Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Contra 4, Shakedown: Hawaii, and Xeno Crisis.
He's wanted to make this game "for many years now," and hopes to "revitalize" the hack-and-slash genre with modern elements – an XP-based leveling system encourages constant combos – and "improved controls." There's eight-directional movement with "rolling, dashing, and teleporting."
Mike Tucker – who worked with Nieborg before on Xeno Crisis, and designed another cool arcade-inspired title, House of Dead Ninjas, for Adult Swim – is handling the programming and addition design.
The duo is aiming for a January 2021 release and plans to support PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The funding goal? $52,082. They're halfway there with 28 days left.
Battle Axe: a pixel-art arcade adventure! [Kickstarter]
German star Lukas Podolski—who I’ll be honest, after a move to Japan in 2017 I thought had since retired—is still kicking around in the Turkish league, and doing so in style with this pair of custom Street Fighter boots.
Acknowledging that their studio—like everything else in Australia—is built on stolen land, Untitled Goose Game creators House House have pledged to pay “at least 1% of our income” as rent to Indigenous groups.
