Recap 2.2.18

PlayStation

• PS4 owners can snag RiME and Knack during February’s PS Plus offerings. I loved RiME, although it plays like garbage on Switch. So I’m very happy that others will get to try it on a console it runs well on. Members can also get:
  • Spelunker HD, PS3
  • Mugen Souls Z, PS3
  • Exiles End, PS Vita
  • Grand Kingdom, PS Vita (Also available on PS4)
  Also, PSVR owners can still grab Starblood Arena for free until March 6.

Nintendo

• Rocket League for Switch will receive a visual upgrade via a patch due out later this year.

• Nintendo and Illumination officially announced an animated Mario Movie by being co-produced by Miyamoto.

• Mario Kart Tour will be the next Nintendo mobile game and will release in 2019 for iOS and Android.

• Nintendo Switch has now sold over 14.86 million units, meaning it’s sold more in the first year than Wii U in its entire life. First party software sales figures are as follows:
  1 Super Mario Odyssey – 9.07 million
  2 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 7.33 million
  3 Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 6.70 million
  4 Splatoon 2 – 4.91 million
  5 1-2 Switch – 1.88 million
  6 ARMS – 1.61 million
  7 Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – 1.06 million

• Genyo Takeda is going to be given a Lifetime Achievement award by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He is notable for his instrumental involvement in the creation of battery based cartridge saves, the first Analog stick in console gaming (used in the N64), as well as developing games like the original Punch-Out! He was also instrumental in the development of consoles ranging from N64-Wii.

• Nintendo Switch Online, the console’s long-delayed premium monthly subscription service, will finally launch in September 2018, the company announced this week. Let’s hope we at least hear more details soon.

• Combined sales of Breath of the Wild for Wii U and Switch are bring it closer to becoming the top selling Zelda game ever. As of writing, the top selling title is Twilight Princess at just under 9M with Breath of the Wild 7.8M copies sold.

• While we wait for the Better Together Update to arrive on Switch, Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition was updated with support for new DLC as well as squashing bugs. On top of that, video capture is now supported, so players can record 30-second gameplay clips similar to some other titles on the console.

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is getting a New Game+ mode next month with patch 1.3.0. Now let’s hope it performs resolution in handheld mode.

Xbox

• 343 Studios detailed some of the Upcoming Halo Master Chief Collection changes including better networking, visual enhancements, and improved playlists. In fact, the changes will be so vast that the updated version will require a full re-download of the MCC as it’s basically a completely new product. Right now, we can expect to know and possibly experience more of the updates as early as March via the flighting system they’re using.

• It was announced that Rocket League’s Xbox One X update has been pushed to “late 2018”.

• Developer Montage announced the Xbox One and PC hero shooter Gigantic will shut down on July 31, 2018. Leading up to the closure, every hero will be freely playable and the ability to purchase Rubies and Hero Packs has been switched off.

• Microsoft will remove a Logan Paul-inspired game mocking suicide from its Xbox Live Creators Collection program, a representative confirmed to Polygon, after Xbox One owners expressed concern over and reported the content.

• Microsoft has acquired PlayFab, a game development startup that offloads the burdens associated with cloud-connected gaming for developers, allowing them to focus squarely on creating games. The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but Microsoft will integrate PlayFab’s tools into its Azure cloud service, presumably in a bid to take on Amazon Web Services, which launched a similar set of tools two years ago.

Industry News

• Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition launches on iOS/Android Feb 9th.

• Rockstar has confirmed Red Dead 2 has been pushed back again to a 10/26 release date. Considering the stellar quality the studio is known for, we’re more than happy waiting.

• EA reports Battlefront 2 has underperformed, selling nearly 2 million units less during the launch window than the first Battlefront. Also confirmed, microtransactions will be returning within the next few months.

• The organizers of the Game Developers Choice Awards announced today that they have rescinded the Pioneer Award for Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and announced the award will not be given this year entirely. The decision follows a day of outcry after GDC organizers announced that Bushnell, 74, had been tapped for the GDCA’s lifetime achievement honor. News accounts and histories over the past several years have documented a history of workplace misconduct and sexist behavior toward women by Bushnell, during Atari’s early days. In a statement this morning, GDC said its awards committee “made the decision not to give out a Pioneer Award for this year’s event, following additional feedback from the community.

• Elite: Dangerous players have banded together to save a cancer patient’s expedition from griefers.

• In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, EA has confirmed that Anthem is being delayed to 2019, though the company does not characterize it as a delay. Electronic Arts said they deny Kotaku’s report that the reason for the delay has anything to do with development troubles.

• The latest Overwatch update downgrades Mercy and adds 4K on Xbox One X.

• To help combat the incredibly inflated GPU prices due to people wanting to mine cryptocurrency, AMD said they’re ramping up production to address graphics card shortages. We have to wonder if that will be enough.

• Twin Galaxies, the video game record keeper and official source for Guinness World Records, has declared one of the oldest gaming world records invalid after 35 years. Player Todd Rogers has been stripped of his world record for finishing the simple Atari 2600 racing game Dragster. “Based on the complete body of evidence presented in this official dispute thread, Twin Galaxies administrative staff has unanimously decided to remove all of Todd Rogers’ scores as well as ban him from participating in our competitive leaderboards,” reads a post on the Twin Galaxies forum from the organization’s staff. That’s a major blow to a prolific record holder, whose career stretches back to the earliest days of console gaming. In 1982, Rogers submitted to Activision’s official fan newsletter a time of 5.51 seconds, which the company recognized in print, awarding Rogers a patch Twin Galaxies later added Rogers to its own leaderboards in 2001, and Guinness World Records awarded the player with the honor of holding the world’s longest-standing gaming record in April 2017. Yet Rogers never provided recorded or other proof of his 5.51 time in Dragster, a sticking point in the years that followed.

• Monster Hunter: World has shipped five million in three days, a series record.

• Amid the staggering success of Fortnite Battle Royale, Epic is closing Paragon in April and offering full refunds.