Xbox One Sales numbers released by EA

In this current console war, Xbox has greatly fallen behind PlayStation. End of 2017, Xbox Ones have sold 30 million units worldwide compared to the 73.6 million PlayStation 4. In Electronic Arts‘ reports, they discuss the sales for Microsoft and Sony. In a statement by the CFO, Jake Jorgensen stated “Turning to our expectations for fiscal 2019, we expect sales of current-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony to continue to be strong, with the installed base growing to 130 million consoles by the end of calendar 2018 from 103 million at the end of calendar 2017,” he said. With Sony confirming their sales numbers earlier this year of $79 million, Microsoft makes up for the rest. Microsoft has not officially announced the sales numbers for the Xbox or their gaming division for 2017.

What’s next for Xbox?

Xbox has difficulties staying relevant in the competition. Many of their recent IP releases didn’t sell as many copies as they liked or player base dropped after a few months. Halo 5: Guardians sold 4.8 million units worldwide and Gears of War 4 sold 3.4 million but longtime fans disliked the overall changes. Despite the good sales, the game didn’t leave lasting impressions. Sea of Thieves and Sunset Overdrive are new IP’s that sold relatively well but had a drop off in player numbers after the initial month. Microsoft has been adopting a new strategy by selling some of their exclusive games with cross-play capabilities for Windows. Their backwards compatibility is much better than Nintendo’s and Sony‘s. Their games have better graphics for the Xbox One and if you kept your original copies, you didn’t have to pay any additional cost. Nintendo recently announced there are no plans to bring the Virtual Console store to the Switch and PlayStation 4’s have no backwards compatibility and some ports have performed poorly.  On May 8th, they also announced plans to develop a new studio who will work on new IP’s and are hiring people with “experience shipping high quality titles at AAAA standards.” Whether Microsoft will be able to stay ahead of Nintendo Switch remains to be seen. Microsoft will need to release a huge IP to compete with PlayStation considering their strong year in 2017 with Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5 and 2018’s God of War and upcoming Spider-Man game. There is one more month until E3…

Sources:

Variety – EA releases Xbox One’s sales numbers

Variety – Microsoft’s new studio

Halo 5’s sales numbers

Gears of War 4’s sales numbers

Kotaku – No Virtual Console for Switch

Pokemon Go Fest 2: The Comeback

Last year, Niantic (Creators of Pokemon Go) hosted a colossal event know as Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago. The purpose was to gather player all throughout the world to create a special event where people can play together and capture Luigia. Unfortunately, the event was executed poorly due to a poor internet connection, long lines, and the game failing to work. More details regarding the event are linked. Niantic faced many suits and paid up to $1.6 million to pay for damages, ticket prices, and travel fees. This year, Niantic is planning to host Pokemon Go Fest 2018 in Chicago and hoping to make up for their previous event.

July 14th and 15th, Niantic will host the “A Walk in the Park in Chicago.” It is a 1.8-mile walk in beautiful and lush Lincoln Park. There will be exclusive events hosted there and probably some rare Pokemon to catch. Tickets go on sale May 11th for $20.

Pokémon GO
Safari Zone, Les Quatre Temps – Dortmund, Germany

 

Niantic has learned from their previous event. Go Fest 2018 is smaller in scale in comparison to last years. People can only pay for a single day which helps spread the flood of people looking to join. By containing the event to a smaller venue (in this case a trail) this allows Niantic to have a stronger control over the line of people and the event overall. Niantic has also been hosting events throughout the world and has been having great success.

Sources:

Pokemon Go Live – Niantic

Polygon

God of War (2018) is PlayStation’s fastest PS4 exclusive

Congratulations to Santa Monica Studio for their work on God of War. The game sold 3.1 million units in 3 days (April 20 – 22). First revealed two years ago, fans were excited to see a new direction for the God of War series after the first trilogy and three spin-offs. In comparison to other PlayStation 4 exclusives: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End sold 2.7 million units in seven days. Horizon Zero Dawn sold more than 2.6 million in two weeks.

Head of Santa Monica Studio, Shannon Studstill, said

“I would like to personally thank the millions of fans around the world who decided to embark on Kratos’ latest adventure with us. Your support is truly inspiring, and it’s a reason why we push ourselves every day to go beyond the boundaries of play. I’d also like to thank our Creative Director, Cory Barlog, and Director of Product Development, Yumi Yang and our entire amazing team at Santa Monica Studio. The belief in the game’s vision and the passion for storytelling across the team is undeniable. We look forward to hearing more about how fans are creating new memories of their favorite God of War gameplay moments that will be remembered for a long time.”

God of War currently has a 94 score on Metacritic and is the highest rated game in the series. The game received assistance from developers from Guerilla Games and Naughty Dog Studios to improve the AI for Atreus, Kratos’s son (Boy). All three studios are under PlayStation.

Sources

PlayStation Blog

Polygon

Kirby: Star Allies datamines show 2 new DLC waves

Kirby: Star Allies has been the Nintendo’s Switch first big release for 2018. Although the sales numbers have not been released, Star Allies broke the franchise’s sales history in the first month. It outsold the previous holder’s first month sales, Nightmare in Dreamland, by 90 percent!(2.1 million overall) The game is the 4th best selling video game in March. The game centers around four-player co-operative play with Kirby and his different allies and enemies. The game had free DLC for four characters from past Kirby games. (Gooey, Marx, Rick, Kine, and Coo).

LuigiBlood datamined Kirby: Star Allies and found data for upcoming DLC characters. Although it hasn’t been confirmed by Nintendo, the data is in the game. Whether they come out in two DLCs remains TBD. The list of character is below.

 

  • Adeleine (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards)
  • Dark Meta Knight (Kirby & The Amazing Mirror)
  • Daroach (Kirby Mass Attack and Kirby: Squeak Squad)
  • Magolor (Kirby’s Return to Dream Land)
  • Susie (Kirby: Planet Robobot)
  • Taranza (Kirby: Triple Deluxe)
  • Three Mages (presumably the Jambastion Mages Flamberge, Francisca and Zan Partizanne from Kirby: Star Allies)

Business Focus:

Kirby is not Nintendo’s biggest IP’s but the game’s sales numbers shown the Switch’s strength in 2018. The series has always been a great casual game but the lack of additional levels or stories for DLC are disappointing. The potential DLC is largely catered to Kirby fans since the majority of characters are from past games. Although the first DLC is free, if they rely on selling the upcoming waves, the sales numbers may not be as large as expected.
Read more at

 

Sources:

Proof from Star Allies Go Stage ID ordering: Dlc2AdeleineStep01_01 Dlc2DarkMetaKnightStep01_01 Dlc2DaroachStep01_05 Dlc3MagolorStep01_05 Dlc3TaranzaStep01_05 Dlc3SusieStep01_05 Dlc3ThreeMagesStep01_05

Siliconera

VentureBeat – Kirby: Star Allies sales numbers

NintendoLife – Kirby Free DLC