New Game + May 20 - May 26
NPD April
This week Matt Piscatella of NPD Group shared the video game sales for the month of April. You can check out the whole video on his YouTube. They usually post the results in written format as well so keep an eye on the NPD site for that if you prefer. We took a look at the video and give our take on some of the data collected. It is important to take some of this information with a grain of salt as they collect some digital sales data but not all. For example, they dont collect digital sales data from first party Nintendo games, however they do collect digital sales data from some third party publishers. This could affect some of the sales rankings in the long run but overall it does give you a good temperature check.
Before getting into the actual game rankings for April first we looked at the sales for the overall market that were approximately 842 million for the month, not including all digital. This is impressive because we are coming to the end of the generation and this was reflected as hardware was on the downward trend for the first time in April since 2015. Every April has been better than the last up until last month. Total sales being up vs last April is surprising because last year Sony released God of War which had record sales in the first few days and months. This year, the big hitters released were basically MK11 and Days Gone with both of those being released in the second half of the month.
Not surprisingly the best selling game of the month was MK11. With a combined marketing push alongside glowing critical and fan reviews this game moved units. It was the number one selling game on all platforms it was released on including Switch with its technical problems. I was very close to selecting the Switch as my system of choice for the game but with all the negative information regarding the games technical state on the Switch including hard crashes I decided it would be best suited for the PS4 Pro. It also became the second best selling game of the year.
The other big release for the month was the Sony exclusive, Days Gone, coming in at number two which comes as a little surprise. The major word around the water cooler was the game was just average at best. It didnt have an easy road in front of it as the most recent PS4 exclusives have been amazing games including Spider Man and God of War. Days Gone in just under a couple weeks on the market became the best selling game Sony Bend has ever made. This is great news but shouldn’t come off as a huge shock because the last game they released was uncharted: Golden Abyss for the low selling Vita. Before that we are looking back at the Syphon Filter series and back then gaming isn’t even in the same conversation it is today. Days Gone also received quite the marketing push as there was a recent leak on the large amount Sony spent on pushing the Bend product.
In terms of overall charting some things to note for the top 20 selling games of April included the fact that there were 5 Nintendo first party games on the list and as mentioned earlier the list doesn’t even include first party digital sales. In terms of top selling games of the year it was interesting to see Anthem still holding on to the 4th spot on the list even though it has fallen out of the top 20 monthly sales altogether. It clearly had a massive launch and with enough possible patching the game can remain a strong seller come the end of he year if it receives the No Mans Sky treatment. Two other games on the list that warm your heart include RE2 holding down the 5th best selling game of the year and Sekiro, respectably at number 8. This is great news for fans of high quality remakes, especially from Capcom, as you assume they understand the success they have with their existing IP. Its safe to assume that Dino Crisis or RE3 is already in the works. With the RE engine already in full swing, we shouldnt have to wait as long as we did for the RE2 remake, Remaster, Reimaging or whatever you would classify that masterwork as. As for Sekiro, its good to see that FROM can take some chances with their tried and true formula and they can still succeed.
Call of Duty
This week we also got wind of the future of the famous shooter series. It seems that celebrities, professional gamers and YouTubers have got a chance to play the latest COD instalment which explains why this information is starting to leak out. The title for the upcoming entry in the series will be called Call of Duty:Modern Warfare. This will be around the 30th game in the series including spinoffs. Yes, they are considering this upcoming title to be somewhat of a “soft reboot” according to Jason Schrier of Kotaku who has some credible sources own the subject. Also in the article it states that the game will be pulling inspiration heavily from the infamous No Russian mission in Modern Warfare 2. This was the mission where you had to walk through the airport so deep undercover that you had to kill innocent civilians to gain trust as an undercover agent. At the time the No Russian mission drew quite the backlash from the media as from the outside it seemed like you we're glorifying terrorism. In retrospect it seems more along the lines of what kinds of things humans are capable of doing to each other and how far you sometimes need to go to do the right thing in the grand scheme of it all. This mission left you thinking about the game, the actions and the consequences of what just unfolded. This was much more than press x to pay respects type of story line that some entires in the series have attempted.
The hope is that the inspiration it pulls from will focus more on realism and the actions and the collateral damage left from actual modern warfare. The hope is that it can take the medium of video games and elevate the story telling and gravitas to something other than supercharged shotguns and death. There are few games that are able to make a statement about the current climate of the world without coming of as corny or unearned, especially when featured in first person shooters.
In terms of what it means for the series to return to its Modern Warfare roots since its last release in 2011 when Sledgehammer released MW3. The last time Infinity Ward rebased a MW was back in 2009 with MW2 and the infamous No Russian. Things were a lot different in the world, in America and also at Infinity Ward. With all the change across the board it will be interesting to see what the new infinity Ward brings to the table. There is clearly a lot riding on this game from a lot of different angles. The name Modern Warfare has some cache to it, so it is immediately assumed to be a success, therefore the end result is either massive success or bust. Nothing else is acceptable from a business standpoint. I would argue that Black Ops and Modern Warfare are the only 2 series that have name recognition. With only about another week left in June we are more than likely to get a full reveal from this game next week as Activision has previously said at an investor event that we would get a look at the next COD before June.
Sony Investor Call
Speaking of investor relations, this week Sony also had an Investor Relations Day to get all the investment partners up to speed on all aspects related to Sony. We are going to take a closer look at their report on “Game & Network Services Segment”. They talked about their current assets, including their brand, IP and community. They talked about their strategy for the next gen and how they plan to transition close to 100 million players from PS4 to PS5 or at least how they hope to bring as many as possible. They laid out some plans and information regarding their content distribution strategy, how cloud and more importantly how the recent partnership with Microsoft will help.
The first thing shown was their current strength based upon first party IP. They mentioned God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Last of Us and Uncharted as their flagpole IP. The thing I am taking away is that two of these games listed are basically franchises that either just started or have a clear and lengthy future in front of them. Last of Us part two is due out sometime between now and the next 15 months most likely so its clear why that game would be mentioned. Especially when you consider that Last of Us Remastered sold over 10 million copies on the PS4, not including the fact that it sold really well on the PS3 and taking into that it released about one year into the PS4 lifecycle. This would be at a time when the install base wasn’t nearly what it is today as it currently pushing close to 100 million. Which bring us to the last game on the list that kind of sticks out to me and that is Uncharted. As of the last information we got from Naughty Dog and Sony was that that was the end of the Road for Nathan Drake as he and Elena had a daughter and settled down. This leads me to start speculation that we haven’t seen the end of the Uncharted franchise. A couple potential options could be upcoming and the first one could be that there will be one last job that will force Nathan out of retirement but that might come a little too close to the story in Uncharted 4. Another option is that we get something similar to the lost legacy where the series focuses on another character that we have also gotten to know over the last 4 games, 5 if you include Golden Abyss. The final option that I think makes the most sense is his daughter grows up and becomes the new heroine of the series. This puts Nathan into a mentor role similar to how Sully was in the existing entries. It will also be interesting to see if Naughty Dog wants to stretch their legs again and venture off into unknown territory similar to how the ventured off the Uncharted path to create the Last of Us. They did list Uncharted as a franchise with increasing strength with about 15 million in sales for Uncharted 4, and over 10 million in sales for the Last of Us Remastered and God Of War. We have also known that Horizon has also sold over 10 million copies.
They also talked about the strength of the PlayStation Community including the active PSN users that features over 94 million per month. This is impressive and is also helped by the fact that there are a lot of free to play games today that don’t require you to have a PS Plus membership to play online. They did also mention those users and the number of current PS PLUS subscribers is over 36 million. Im sure they would prefer to have 94 million PS PLUS users but having the users active on the PSN is also a huge strength as these people are in your ecosystem. If they are invested in your ecosystem and your games then they are likely to spend in game money or also eventually sign up for PS PLUS. This might happen when they discover a new game or see the free monthly offerings for subscribers. This point was proven as they mentioned that consumer spend inside the PS4 ecosystem is over 20 billion with the average user spending over $700. This number more than doubles when you look at the users that purchased a PS4 in the launch year as the amount jumps up to $1600.
They also went into depth about how they plan to transition into the PS5. One of the first ways they plan to easily transition gamers to the next gen is by leveraging the strength of backwards compatibility. It was announced in the Mark Cerny article with Wired magazine that the PS5 would have that feature and it is very clear that it is a touchstone for them. They noted having this feature will make the switch “faster and more seamlessly than ever before” This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as the PS3 and PS4 both didnt have this feature which makes the last time a Sony Console had backwards compatibility the PS2. I assume that a large part for the omission in recent memory was due to the cell technology that the PS3 used that wasn’t like any of the systems before it or after it. It should also be a faster transition as digital wasn’t even an idea back when the PS2 was out, so the hope is that if you own the game on PS4 maybe on Day 1 you can download any existing games you purchased digitally to your PS5. Having this available on launch day would alleviate a lot of pressure from the launch day and launch window of games.
They also went in to mention how the PS4 will be crucial in the success of the PS5 including some remaining blockbusters. The slide showed Ghosts of Tsushima, Death Stranding and LOU2 which answers a lot of questions people have been asking recently about whether or not those games would be pushed back to the PS5. Now, there is still a chance that any of those games gets bumped off the PS4 but announcing them this close to the launch of the next gen system leads you to believe that they have the most up to date information on the time frame these three games will be shipping. It also noted that the PS4 would remain “engine of engagement and profitability for the next three years”
If the PS5 launches a year from now then they are depending on the PS4 for two more year after the launch of the next gen system. Looking at that statement you then have to make the assumption that the PS4 and PS5 will work in tandem as PC games do now where if you have the best system then you will have the best experience but that all games are playable on both systems. This would be one of the only ways the PS4 drives sales for two years after the launch of the PS5. The only way I can think is that if you are relasing games on both systems simultaneously and they are selling better on the PS4 due to the existing install base.
They finally talked about the power of cloud gaming, the state of PS Now currently and their future plans for it. Currently the service has over 700 000 subscribers, which isn’t bad but considering the amount of PS4 systems out in the wild this number could be better. Some of the ways they plan to improve upon the service is by supporting 1080p and above, improve the quality of content and maximize off console opportunities. They finally mentioned that the most recent memorandum of understanding that they have made with Microsoft will increase the speed and scope in which they are able to take these goals to the next level quickly.