Weekly Retro: 7/30 – 8/3

PlayStation

• Sony’s latest financial report revealed that 43% of all PS4 games in the past quarter were downloaded digitally via PSN.

• Sony’s financial report also revealed that PS4 is close to leapfrogging PS3 in terms of units shipped with 82.2M PS4’s versus around 84M PS3’s. The firm is expected to ship another 17M PS4 consoles by April 2019. For reference, the original PS4 sold 102.5M units while PS2 holds the number one spot at 155M.

• Rumors have been swirling as of late that Google is looking to enter the console market, and now the massive conglomerate has snatched up Dr. Richard Marks, the man who headed up Sony’s Magic Lab department, best known for EyeToy and PSVR to gamers. He’ll be joining another ex-Sony exec, Phil Harrison, at Google’s ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) team.

• Just days after the announcement that Turn 10 Studios would be removing loot boxes from Forza 7, Polyphony Digital has announced that Gran Turismo Sport will be receiving microtransactions for its in-game store. What a weird turn of events, especially for two competing titles.

• PlayStation Plus’s games for August have been revealed. They are:

  • Mafia III (PS4)
    • Dead by Daylight (PS4)
    • Bound by Flame (PS3)
    • Serious Sam 3 BFE (PS3)
    • Draw Slasher (Vita)
    • Space Hulk (Vita)
    • Here They Lie (PSVR from Aug 2 – Oct 7)
    • Knowledge is Power (mobile)

Nintendo

• Animal Crossing: Wild World is no longer the best selling game in the franchise at 11.75M units sold with New Leaf recently topping it at 11.78M units sold. This also makes New Leaf the 7th best selling title on 3DS with the top spot taken by Mario Kart 7 which sold an impressive 17.21M units.

• Speaking of Animal Crossing, Nintendo has lost New Leaf’s co-creator, Isao Moro, who also happened to be the assistant director for Zelda: The Wind Waker.

• The success of the Switch has helped to reignite Japan’s console market after a ten year slump. The country’s peak was with DS Lite, where the console market saw $6.4B in revenue. The Switch helped boost the console market by 22%, bringing it up to $3.5B. All this, while mobile gaming is raking in $11B in sales, making it roughly 3x as big as the entirety of the console market in Japan.

Xbox

• New titles have been added to Xbox Games Pass. They are:
  • Ryse: Son of Rome
    • Ruiner
    • Dead Rising 2
    • The Escapists: The Walking Dead
    • Hitman: Season 1
    • Dandara
    • Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure
      Games that left the service last week include:
    • DiRT Rally
    • LIMBO
    • Overcooked
    • Pharaonic
    • So Many Me
    • Ultratron

Industry

• Nintendo’s financial results revealed that the company managed to sell 19.67M Switch consoles since it’s release last March. Tropical Freeze, Mario Tennis Aces, and LABO all sold around 1.4M units while overall software sales are at 17.96M for the year. Perhaps even more impressive is that 3DS has reached 72.89M units sold with 367.84M games sold to date. Nintendo’s foray into smartphone gaming netted them 80M in revenue this year.

• The long awaited multiplayer update for Stardew Valley is now live for PC players with the Switch coming next (and soon), followed by Xbox One and PS4.

• I don’t personally don’t play Fortnite, but I wholly appreciate the consistent support developer Epic Games has been giving the title since launch. Now, update 5.10 adds a new mode where everyone has jetpacks and every weapon is explosive.

• Xbox One and PS4 owners can now download a 15 minute demo for Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season. The full title launches August 14 for XBO, PS4, and PC with Switch to follow. This title is the first to utilize Telltale’s new game engine which brings a new combat system and an over-the-shoulder camera.

• GameStop has retired it’s Elite Pro membership as of August 1, meaning current subscribers have no way to re-up if they missed that date. The service gave extra percentages off of trade-ins as well as giving additional discounts off of pre-owned games and more.

• Capcom is in a pretty good place right now, going by the company’s latest financial report. The publisher’s operating income is up a mind-boggling 550% year-over-year, while net sales shot up 46%. The entirety of this is due to the wild success of Monster Hunter: World which has sold 8.3M copies to date.

• NBA Live 19 will let you create female characters to play through the game as. I’m saddened that this is news in video games in general, but one neat feature is the ability to scan your face into the game via a smartphone all for iOS and Android. The title is set to release on XBO, PS4, and PC on September 7.

• EA has launched Origin Access, a Premier EA Origins tier that offers the same goodies as the default or basic tier—access to The Vault and 10% off on Origin Store purchases—while also giving you unlimited access to fresh releases with the chance to play them five days prior to launch. The service will include upcoming games like Anthem, Battlefield V, Madden NFL 19 and FIFA 19 for $14.99 per month, or $99 for an annual subscription, which saves you $80.

• Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is now available on iOS and Android for $4.99 as a complete purchase. Anyone interested can play through the first level for free.