Year: 2019

Yoshi’s Crafted World Underperforms for Nintendo

Yoshi’s Crafted World released for the Nintendo Switch on March 29th, 2019. According to Media Create, the game only sold 53,327 units in its debut week and sold 35.96% of the initial shipment. Media Create is a website that gathers data analytics from Japanese Gaming Market.

The game did sell better than its predecessors such as Yoshi’s Woolly World in 2015 for the Wii U which sold 31,000 units in its first week. It also sold better than Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World on 3DS in 2017 which sold roughly 40,000 units in its first week. For clarification, both predecessors may have sold poorly due to the systems they were on. The Wii U sold extremely poorly (only 13.5 million units during its lifecycle) and was an unpopular system for Nintendo. The Switch has sold over 14 million units by the end of 2017. The 3DS is also reaching the end of its life cycle and more people were excited to play on the Switch which had released on March 3rd, 2017.

Image result for yoshi’s wooly
Poochy, why don’t people love us?

Metacritic score wise the game is pretty solid with an overall 80% for reviewers. The game also was the top of the sales in Japan according to Famitsu (Japanese Game Magazine/site). I believe Yoshi and the gameplay aren’t mass appealing compared to Nintendo’s bigger titles.

Sources:

Metacritic

Twinfinite

Siliconera

Apex Legends Player Progress restored after Update 1.1

Yesterday, players were shocked to see their experience progress for Apex Legends were deleted. The 1.1 update had accidentally removed all player progress. Respawn Entertainment shut down the servers overnight to restore everyone’s progress. The update had accidentally moved players to a different server without moving their progress over.

“Once we confirmed internally that we had fixed the issue we started rolling out the right servers starting with Xbox and staggered the updates to PS4 and PC,” the developer explained on the Apex Legends subreddit. 

Your progress should be updated the next time you log in. All player progress and purchases you made in 1.1 will be reverted. Refunds will be applied if you have purchased anything.

 

Borderlands 3 will release September 13th!

Gearbox has announced that Borderlands 3 will launch on September 13th. They also release a new trailer that showcased the Vault Hunters’ names and abilities. They also revealed the antagonists’ names: The Calypso Twins. More gameplay details will be showcased on May 1st during Gearbox’s live stream.

Borderlands 3 will be on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One on Sept. 13. It will also be an Epic Store exclusive until April 2020 for PC players.

The Vault Hunters:

  • Moze as The Gunner: When Moze needs backup, she digistructs her mech – Iron Bear – for a sucker punch of additional firepower.
  • Amara as The Siren: A confident, capable brawler with the ability to summon ethereal fists, Amara uses her Siren powers to smash her enemies.
  • FL4K as The Beastmaster: FL4K lives for the hunt. So do the loyal beasts that follow their master’s every command. Their preferred prey? Unsuspecting bandits, those poor suckers.
  • Zane as The Operative: Specializing in battlefield gadgetry, Zane is extremely proficient at slipping into combat, creating chaos, and sneaking back out as if he were never there

Co-Op

According to the facts sheet, you’ll be able to level up easier with friends regardless of your progress in the story. You’ll still be able to play with anyone online or via split screen. Your loot will also be exclusive to you so no need to argue with friends over specific items.

The Bundles

If you pre-order the game, you’ll get gold-skin guns in the beginning. They have no stat differences.

Borderlands 3 Deluxe Edition ($79.99)
Includes the base game, as well as bonus digital content:

  • Retro Cosmetic Pack: Vault Hunter head & skin, Echo Device skin, weapon skin
  • Neon Cosmetic Pack: Vault Hunter head & skin, Echo Device skin, weapon trinket
  • Gearbox Cosmetic Pack: weapon skin, weapon trinket
  • Toy Box Weapon Pack: 2 Toy guns, Toy grenade mod, weapon trinket
  • XP & Loot Drop Boost Mods

Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe Edition ($99.99)
Includes all the bonus digital content and pre-order bonus of the Deluxe Edition plus the Borderlands 3 season pass, which includes:

  • Four (4) campaign DLC packs featuring new stories, missions, and challenges;
  • Butt Stallion weapon skin, weapon trinket, and grenade mod.

Borderlands 3 Diamond Loot Chest Collector’s Edition ($249.99)
Includes the full game, season pass, and all bonus digital content and pre-order bonus of the Super Deluxe Edition, plus:

  • Diamond Loot Chest Replica
  • Borderlands 3 character figurines (x10) including the four new Vault Hunters, the Calypso Twins, and other characters from the Borderlands universe (approximately 3 inches tall)
  • Sanctuary 3 snap model
  • Vault Key keychains (x4)
  • Cloth galaxy map
  • Character art lithographs (x5): Character prints starring the new Vault Hunters and Calypso Twins
  • Borderlands 3 Steelbook case

PlayStation Store Refund policy update

Sony has recently updated their refund policy for content on the PlayStation 4. Any digital content bought on the store allows buyers to refund anything within 14 days under certain conditions. Your refund is added to your PlayStation wallet balance, regardless of payment method. This means the money will not be refunded back to your credit card.

What are the conditions?

Full games and DLC add ons are eligible for refunds but only if you didn’t start the download, install or stream process. Meaning if you already started playing the game, you can’t return it. However, if the content is “faulty” you could have it refunded whether or not you have played the game.

You can refund pre-ordered games anytime before the official release date or 14 days afterward. Subscription services like PlayStation Plus, Now, and Spotify Premium can also be refunded. Afterward, Sony will deduct a certain amount of the fee based on how much you used the service.

You can’t refund PSN name changes (although the feature isn’t available yet as of the writing of this article).

The service isn’t automated yet unlike Steam or Xbox live. You’ll still have to contact support and request a refund. This can take a while. When I canceled my pre-order of Far Cry 5, it took Sony two weeks to fully refund me after submitting my ticket. Be patient with the process.

This is a good change as Sony had strict return policies before. As more gaming platforms are moving towards digital-focused, having an easier return policy would help players feel more comfortable with making purchases. However, Sony limited player to non-downloaded games makes it annoying. If you played the game and didn’t enjoy, you should still be able to return the game.