New Game + June 17 - June 23
As expected, news regarding VDGMS slowed down this week as E3 has just ended and most publishers and developers save their announcements for the big show. However, there were still a few stories that caught our interest this week from the top video game sales of the month of May via the NPD, some next gen Xbox talk, Playstation releases a new group of games to their hits lineup, and we dissect some halo news from 343 blog. Nothing earth shattering but some fun stuff so lets jump right into it.
NPD
The NPD for the sales for the month of May were released via their YouTube channel. The sales period for the reporting was from May 5 to June 1. Overall both hardware sales and software sales were down vs the same time last year.
Both were down about 11 percent overall but lets look into it a little deeper. Hardware sales being down makes sense as we are coming to the end of console generation and the only time that really sees hardware movement is when there are big sales like Black Friday and Christmas
Software sales being the worst since May 2015 doesn’t make sense but don’t read into it too much as npd doesn’t account for all digital sales as some publishers and developers don’t report their digital sales to the NPD so this could easily make up the downswing of 11 percent. You could probably make a case that software would probably be up on the whole if its included all digital sales as well as physical. Based on earnings reports of some developers including Ubisoft among otherS, digital sales have been increasing year on year to the point that it’s almost half of their software sales.
On a quick note,Nintendo Switch continues to be the best selling console of the year with another month on top of the charts. This comes as no shock as Nintendo had predicted sales to be on the upward this year as well as seeing that Nintendo is starting to amass a solid library of first party games for the switch. As we all know software sells hardware as this statement is echoed by Phil Spencer, head of xbox, who recently said something along the lines that going forward their focus will be on software
In regards to the best selling software for the month, Mk11 continues to be the best selling game for the second month in a row and is now the best selling game of the year passing kingdom hearts 3. One thing that impressed me was that days gone was number two for the second month is a row. This game was had a very wide split from critics and fans. Some praising it mechanics and world while other criticized its repetitive nature and lackluster story. There was a story that came out revealing how much Sony spent on marketing the Sony bend product and it looks as though that has paid off. Combine that with word of mouth and a near perfect release timeframe for this game and it was able to get enough traction with minimal competition out. As we saw at E3, a lot of developers are now releasing their products in early spring to give the product breathing room. Although it seems like everyone might have gotten that idea as late winter/early spring 2020 looks like a usual Holiday lineup of games. Between early February and Mid April we are getting Ori and the will of the wisps, Gods and Monster(the Zelda like from Ubisoft), Watch Dogs Legion, FF7 remake, Cyberpunk 2077 and there are still a lot of games that have a early 2020 release date so it could get even more crowded.
One of the few new releases last month was rage 2 and sadly that game only placed at #4 on the list.
Project Scarlett
At one point there was a rumor that the next generation of Xbox would be shipping in two consoles with a more base model as well as a premium model. They went by Anaconda and Lockhart. Anaconda was to be the premium console with high tier specs and Lockhart was supposed to be the lower end version, possibly without an optical drive and more geared towards streaming. According to Thurrott.com, Microsoft is now putting all of its efforts into one console, which we all know as its current moniker, Project Scarlett. Microsoft seems to be approaching their new console almost page for page how they approached their last major console release, the Xbox One X. At E3, all we were treated to a smooth video featuring circuit boards and components just like we got for Project Scorpio. Just like the Project Scorpio teaser trailer, we got a lot of the Xbox Dev team talking about how much of a huge leap Scarlett will be. The only difference here is that with Scorpio, they were mentioning Teraflops whereas with Scarlett they are mentioning SSD, Ray Tracing and 120 Frames per second. According to an article on The Verge, the plans for the lower tiered Xbox were cancelled “thanks to developer concerns and a bigger focus on xCloud”
I don’t think being the more expensive console at next years launch will be a bad thing as long as the tech and features are there to support the pricing. The Xbox One X launched mid cycle at a very premium price for a console not at the peak of its fortunes but that didn’t stop the Scorpio from being a success. I think there are still a lot of gamers out there who want the premium, best possible experience that they can get without having to worry about building a high end PC. I think Xbox, with Phil Spencer at the helm, are poised for a much better turn of events for the next generation. If they have the most powerful home console on the market when Project Scarlett launches, along with the aggressive moves they have been making this generation including GamePass, a focus on streaming with xCloud and the studio acquisitions then they should be able to be a lot more competitive this time around. If most people complained about a lack of first party games then acquiring first party studios should solve that.
Part of my thinking is that this got scrapped sometime between E3 and the google stadia reveal in early spring. It was rumored that one console was focused on streaming and google stadia didn’t set the world on fire they way it was originally thought it might. It’s possible that it’s just too early to go all in on streaming and this could be Microsoft’s thinking with the cancellation of Lockhart as well as how Xcloud will operate. They could also just be holding this Lockhart streaming model using Xcloud until after launch so as to not bungle things up at launch like the Xbox one. They announced it had to have Kinect, you couldn’t play used games, it would be your all in one media hub and while some of these decisions changed quickly it took a while before Xbox changed their message to games only. If they launched this alongside project Scarlett, people would get confused and they would assume the Xbox is steaming only and the ps5 is big hardware and we would have a repeat of the Xbox one launch all over again. I’m sure the launch of the Xbox one still bothers Microsoft. My thoughts are expect to see the all streaming Xbox shortly after launch, most likely within a year or two, after stadia has worked out the kinks for them and after their Xcloud infrastructure is firmly in place.
Playstation Hits
This is a little bit more of a public service announcement but this week PlayStation announced a new slate of games that will be making their way to the PlayStation hits lineup. The major additions include horizon zero dawn compete edition, Nioh and resident evil 7 biohazard. All three of these games are worth of a pickup at that low price. This brings the total to 41 games now with some amazing games including persona 5, the uncharted collection, uncharted 4, last of us, doom and mgsv just to name a few of the more elite titles available. All of these titles are a little older but if you have any of those in your backlog, there is no easier time to get in. This price is for both retail and digital so if you prefer to download then check out the PlayStation store.
Halo Infinite
One of our best moments from E3 was Halo: Infinite. On a quick side note, if you haven’t seen our video or read the piece then either head to our site to check out the article on what I thought were the best E3 monents or head to our Youtube channel and watch the video. I’ll post the links in the description. We didn’t get much information regarding halo at E3 but we are starting to get smaller concrete details thanks to halo waypoint. The post on waypoint was more of just raw data and looked more like a spreadsheet. Nothing major to go from, it will be releasing simultaneously in holiday 2020 for Xbox One, Project Scarlett and Windows PC, which as they said before all first party titles will be available day and date on Gamepass. I am not a PC gamer but halo has always made its way to pc long after its release on the consoles, so this is great news for the install base for Halo Infinite. They noted that this game will be taken place after the events of Halo 5. Halo 5 was a little polarizing and Im sure a lot of people either didnt play it or didnt finish it and I expect 343 to have some type of recap at the start of the game. One of biggest features that Halo has had since its birth was the ability to play local co-op. Splitscreen play was part of the DNA of Halo and for Halo 5 it was removed. 343 stated at the time that the data showed that a lot of people didnt use the feature but it caused some backlash from fans and overall might have hurt sales. Even though the majority of people dont use it, its one of those features, similar to backwards compatibility, that just sounds better if you have it. They announced that the armor customization will be similar to that of Halo Reach.
Its clear that they are trying to reach the core Halo audience who has been supporting the game since the original Xbox. They are making all the choices that are popular with the fans including the LAN play, split screen and using the customization that worked in Halo Reach, which was Bungie’s last Halo and remains one of the top games in the series according to fans. They even said in one of their recent blogs “We dont want to simply build a sequel, we want to build on the story and invention that has gone before and take the narrative and gameplay in bold new directions, while honoring the legacy that fans have fallen in love with for almost twenty years”
This all sounds like they now understand that as much as they want to reinvent themselves and make the game their own since taking over from Bungie, its clear that they still need to keep some core pillars that has always made Halo what it is. Halo 5 had some amazing multiplayer arena and the addition of the war zone mode was a fresh change as well. If they keep the grasp they have on the multiplayer and take this newfound respect for the campaign then this could be one of the best Halo games in years. I also fully expect to see Firefight make its return to Halo Infinite and expect it to be a large pillar of the marketing for the game when it’s fully detailed, most likely next E3.