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December 18th, 2020, 13:24 Posted By: wraggster
Regulation body China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association introduced a new age-based rating system for games in the country this week.
Under these new standards, games will be divided into three age categories, each represented by a colour: 8+ (green), 12+ (blue), and 16+ (yellow). Games must display these labels on their website and "other relevant materials," the South China Morning Post reported.
The new guidelines were announced at the Chinese Games Industry Annual Conference, held in Guangzhou, on Wednesday. The new system has been crafted by giants Tencent and NetEase, as well as 52 other organisations, and is called the 'Online Game Age-Appropriateness Warning'.
The new guidelines are currently in a pilot phase, said first deputy chairman of CADPA Zhang Yijun, adding that the aim is to provide "positive guidance for underage consumers."
China introduces new age rating system | GamesIndustry.biz
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December 17th, 2020, 00:30 Posted By: wraggster
A group of Members of Parliament in the UK called for the establishment of strict rules around the reselling of consoles in the country.
As reported by VGC, six MPs from the Scottish National Party proposed an Early Day Motion on Monday asking for legislation to prohibit the "resale of gaming consoles and computer components at prices greatly above Manufacturer's Recommended Retail Price."
Early Day Motions are designed specifically to draw attention on an issue for legislation consideration. The launch of the PlayStation 5 recently was particularly impacted by scalper groups buying large quantities of consoles to resell at a higher price. A common practice is for these groups to use bots to avoid queue systems implemented by retailers.
UK Members of Parliament call for ban on bulk buying consoles | GamesIndustry.biz
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December 15th, 2020, 22:58 Posted By: wraggster
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized the first coronavirus test that people will be able to buy at a local store without a prescription and use for immediate results at home to find out if they're positive or negative. From a report:The test will cost about $30 and be available by January, according to the Australian company that makes it, Ellume. The FDA had previously authorized other tests that let people avoid long lines by collecting a sample themselves at home. But those tests require people to send the sample to a lab and wait for the results. Another recently authorized test doesn't have to be sent off to a lab, but it requires a prescription to get it.
The new test is the first that people will be able to buy without a prescription at a local store and do entirely at home on their own. It takes about five minutes to collect the sample and produces results within 15 minutes. "Today's authorization is a major milestone in diagnostic testing for COVID-19," FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement announcing the authorization.
FDA Authorizes 1st Home Coronavirus Test That Doesn't Require A Prescription (slashdot.org)
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December 15th, 2020, 00:18 Posted By: wraggster
Cyberpunk 2077 rushed to the top of the UK physical retail charts this week, and is the second biggest boxed game launch of 2020.
CD Projekt's highly anticipated sci-fi RPG was just ahead of the previous No.2 launch: The Last of Us: Part 2. But it couldn't match the opening sales of FIFA 21, which will end the year as the biggest launch of 2020 (as it tends to do). Overall, the biggest UK boxed game launches of 2020 are FIFA 21, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Of course, a huge number of Cyberpunk's sales -- particularly on PC -- will have been as a download, which are not tracked.
60% of the RPG's sales came on PS4, with 35% on Xbox One and the remainder on PC.
The title is now the favourite to be crowned this year's Christmas No.1, although watch out for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in third place. The Nintendo game has risen in sales consistently now every week for more than a month (sales are up 8% this week), and is close to overtaking Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (sales down 2% this week) in second place.
The Nintendo Switch exclusive, which was released in March, will finish the year as the second biggest boxed game, once again behind FIFA 21.
Although Christmas is near, the end of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales period means that a lot of games dropped in sales this week. Notable drops are for FIFA 21 at No.5, which saw sales fall 50%. Marvel's Avengers falls five places to No.15 after a 48% sales slide, while Watch Dogs Legions takes a big fall to No.21 with a 53% decline in sales week-on-week.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...k-boxed-charts
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December 15th, 2020, 00:13 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony today released a joint statement expressing a collective commitment to ensuring their online spaces are free from hate and harassment, and safe for younger players.
"We believe gaming is for all people of all ages, including our youngest and most vulnerable players," the companies said. "Technology makes compelling entertainment experiences possible, and we want to ensure that those experiences - especially when they involve interaction with others - are positive and respectful. All players deserve to have fantastic social gaming experiences in settings where respect and safety are mutual."
The companies said they will "continue investing in, evolving, and amplifying... approaches to user safety," prioritizing the safety of their most vulnerable players. The trio grouped their commitments under three principles: Prevention, Partnership, and Responsibility.
Under prevention, the commitments made were to "empower players and parents to understand and control gaming experiences" with easy-to-use parental control features, regular communication around codes of conduct, and investing in technology "to help thwart improper conduct and content before a player is subject to harm."
For partnership, the three platform holders have committed to working with the rest of the industry, communities, and governmental bodies to ensure user safety, as well as "conducting shared research for the benefit of the industry."
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-online-safety
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December 12th, 2020, 23:47 Posted By: wraggster
US consumers spend $7 billion on gaming products last month -- a new record for November, according to NPD.
The group's latest figures showed spending on hardware, content and accessories was 35% higher than November 2019, driven in part by the launch of both next-gen consoles.
Hardware spending rose 58% year-on-year to $1.4 billion -- another new November record -- with PlayStation 5 generating the most revenue.
Sony's device was the biggest console launch month in US history in terms of both units sold and dollar sales, smashing the record previously set by PlayStation 4.
However, PS5 was beaten by Nintendo Switch when it came to the number of units sold in November. It has been the biggest selling platform every month for two years running.
Meanwhile, software spending rose 32% year-on-year to $5.2 billion, with Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War as both the biggest selling game of November and already the best-selling game and biggest launch of 2020 so far.
This is the thirteenth year in a row that a new Call of Duty game has become the highest selling game of its release month.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla achieved the highest launch month sales in its franchise, finally beating the record set by 2012's Assassin's Creed III. It was the second biggest selling game of November, and the seventh biggest of the year so far.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ords-at-usd7bn
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December 10th, 2020, 22:18 Posted By: wraggster
2.35 million games consoles were sold across Europe and Australia during November 2020, the latest GSD market data has revealed.
That's a 32% increase over November 2019. In terms of revenue, games consoles - which includes the newly released PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S - generated €830 million, which is up 83.5% over last year.
Of course, the new PlayStation and Xbox machines drove that growth, but it was Nintendo Switch that held on to its position as the No.1 games console across all the markets combined. Switch console sales were actually down marginally last month compared with the year before (down 2.2%). Last November saw the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield on Switch, whereas this November there wasn't an equivalent-sized game launch.
It must be noted that the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles completely sold out across all markets, and will have sold even better if more stock had been available.
The biggest market for console sales last month was the UK, followed by France.
The data for this report is for the period November 2nd - November 29th, 2020. It covers the retail territories listed at the bottom of the article.
In terms of accessories, 3.23 million controllers, headsets, toys-to-life products and more were sold across the tracked markets, which is a very slight 1.6% drop year-on-year. The PS4 controller, the DualShock 4, was the best-selling accessory once again, beating out fresh competition from the new PS5 DualSense controller.
Digital top-up cards (Game Pass, PlayStation Wallet, eshop cards, etc...) sales are down 5.5% over last year.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...s-emeaa-charts
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December 7th, 2020, 22:19 Posted By: wraggster
When the heads of state of 14 nations sat down together in late 2018 to discuss the grim condition of the world's oceans, there was no certainty that anything consequential would result. The leaders planned 14 gatherings, but met only twice before the pandemic upended their talks. So when the group announced this week the world's most far-reaching pact to protect and sustain ocean health, it signalled rather more than a noteworthy achievement in a complicated time. From a report:The agreement, negotiated via the nuance-free tool of video conferencing, also offered hope of a renewed era of global accord on climate, where issues grounded in science might finally trump political posturing. Overall, the 14 leaders agreed to sustainably manage 100 percent of the oceans under their national jurisdictions by 2025 -- an area of ocean roughly the size of Africa. Additionally, they vowed to set aside 30 percent of the seas as marine protected areas by 2030, in keeping with the United Nations' campaign known as "30 by 30." Both of those large commitments, the leaders say, will help end overfishing and illegal fishing, rebuild declining fish stocks, halt the flow of plastic waste into the seas, and clean up "dead zones" created by runoff from farm waste.
"What I find really interesting is that 14 nations spent the last two years talking to each other in an experiment you'd like to see more of in the future," says Nancy Knowlton, a marine scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, who was not involved in the project. "They are working together as a team. Starting with countries on the same page provides a mechanism for actually achieving success." The group of 14 looks nothing like the usual assemblage of international leaders recruited for global initiatives. France, with its vast array of overseas territories that gives it one of the planet's largest ocean footprints, was not invited. Nor were the powerhouse players of Russia, China, or the United States.
In Rare Show of Solidarity, 14 Key Nations Commit To Protect Oceans - Slashdot
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December 6th, 2020, 23:24 Posted By: wraggster
FIFA 21 holds the No.1 position in the UK boxed charts this week, despite a 37% drop in sales week-on-week.
The EA football game had enjoyed back-to-back sales increases thanks to discounting on the game in the build up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which took place during this chart, but those increases stopped this week. FIFA 21 did receive its next-gen update this week, and a PS5 version of the game has been added to the list of available versions. However, the PS5 edition performed below all other versions this week, including the Switch one. PS4 owners of the game do receive an upgrade to the PS5 version for free.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War had to settle for second spot, although sales of the games only dropped 3% week-on-week. The game is just ahead of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The hit Nintendo Switch title saw a 20% rise in sales week-on-week, which is its third consecutive sales jump. It was another strong week for Switch game sales, with Animal Crossing and Mario Kart the first and second best-selling games on an individual format (ahead of FIFA 21 on PS4).
There was one new release this week in the form of Ubisoft's Zelda-like adventure game Immortals: Fenyx Rising. The game hasn't had the best of starts in terms of physical sales, and misses out on the Top Ten by landing at No.11.
Due to the game's clear Zelda influences, it may have been expected that the Switch version would be the most popular, but it was actually the PS5 edition that accounted for most sales (35%), followed by Nintendo's machine (30%). The game's launch sales are 40% lower than what the recently released Switch exclusive Zelda spin-off Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity managed to sell at launch.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...k-boxed-charts
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December 4th, 2020, 23:27 Posted By: wraggster
The number of games downloaded over Black Friday jumped by nearly 50% over the same period in 2019, the latest GSD data shows.
It's in contrast to the 20% drop in physical game sales over the Black Friday week. Overall (boxed and digital combined) 1.85 million games were sold over the popular sales period, which is down by under 1.5% compared with the same timeframe last year.
Although Black Friday certainly had an impact on the increase in games sales, the big winner was actually Football Manager 2021, which ended the week as the best-selling digital game. The Sega and Sports Interactive title was released last week, and combined physical/digital sales has the game up 2.5% over the launch of the previous game in the series.
Otherwise, the chart is a conventional one. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War slips to No.2 after a 58% drop in sales week-on-week, FIFA 21 is just behind at No.3 with a 31.1% sales increase, while GTA 5 re-enters the Top Five at No.4 after a 64% jump in sales week-on-week. Assassin Creed Valhalla takes a fall to No.5 due to a 44% drop in sales, but it's otherwise a good week for the Assassin's brand, with Assassin's Creed Odyssey at No.7 after a 184% sales jump, and Assassin's Creed Origins at No.15 following a 192% increase in weekly sales.
Other big winners in the digital charts this week includes Rainbow Six Siege at No.9 (sales up 130%), Star Wars Squadrons at No.11 (up 91%), Borderlands 3 at No.13 (up 165%), Red Dead Redemption 2 at No.13 (up 136%), Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled at No.14 (up 105%) and Spyro Reignited Trilogy at No.16 (up 177%).
Digital Black Friday sales jump almost 50% over 2019 l UK Download Charts | GamesIndustry.biz
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December 2nd, 2020, 22:40 Posted By: wraggster
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination. Britain's medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out. The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs. Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff. But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there -- for care home staff, NHS staff and patients -- so none of the vaccine is wasted. The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is the fastest vaccine to go from concept to reality, taking only 10 months to follow the same steps that normally span 10 years. The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the jab - enough to vaccinate 20 million people. The doses will be rolled out as quickly as they can be made by Pfizer in Belgium, Mr Hancock said, with the first load next week and then "several millions" throughout December. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the first people in Scotland will be immunised on Tuesday.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/2...tart-next-week
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December 2nd, 2020, 22:25 Posted By: wraggster
Despite expectations of a next-gen console launch driving spending across the board, Black Friday weekend 2020 actually saw year-over-year declines in digital spending, according to data shared by SuperData.
In total, digital games spending from Black Friday through Cyber Monday reached $3.9 billion, down 10% year-over-year.
PC games spending was up 6%, but this was offset by a 13% decline in console spending, likely in no small part due to supply constraints on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S pushing potential buyers to wait to purchase digital software.
"The current console transition is more seamless than past ones, with both console families allowing players to purchase a game on an older device and upgrade to the new-gen version at a later point," reads a blog post from SuperData.
"However, some gamers appear to be waiting to get a new console before starting recent major titles. In order to experience the whole game in the best possible way, they are holding off on purchasing the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions entirely."
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ercent-decline
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December 2nd, 2020, 22:20 Posted By: wraggster
Almost 900,000 games consoles were sold in the UK during November, according to the last GfK market data.
The hardware data is for the four weeks ending November 28th.
In terms of home consoles (not handhelds), it is the eighth biggest month for console sales and the second biggest month for console revenue, behind December 2013, which was when PS4 and Xbox One received big new shipments.
The most successful machine of last month was the newly released PlayStation 5, which means that Nintendo Switch had to settle for second place for only the third time in two years. Even so, it was a big month for Switch, with hardware sales up 96% over the previous four weeks. The console had a very successful Black Friday, and so far this year, Switch hardware sales are up 63.1% year-on-year.
In terms of boxed software, 2.38 million games were sold in the UK last month (October 25th - November 21st). Switch games were the most popular of the month, accounting for nearly 35% of all games sold, followed by PS4.
Nintendo was the top publisher of the month thanks to continued strong sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Minecraft and Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The company held off strong competition from Ubisoft, which saw big sales of Assassin's Creed Valhalla (No.2) and Watch Dogs: Legion (No.5).
The biggest selling new game of the month was Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The Activision shooter sold significantly fewer boxed units than previous games in the franchise, with the vast majority of sales coming via digital download.
The other big new game in the charts is PS4 and PS5 game Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The title reached No.4 and primarily sold on PS5. In fact, it was comfortably the biggest PS5 launch game, ahead of Call of Duty.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...monthly-charts
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November 30th, 2020, 21:20 Posted By: wraggster
Last week was one of the biggest retail sales periods of the year in the form of Black Friday, and more than 1 million boxed games were sold in the UK over the 7 days.
It's a big number, but it's still 20% down on last year's 1.3 million sales. However, considering the absence of High Street retailers (the UK is currently locked down due to COVID-19), and the changing nature of Black Friday (with retailers starting earlier and earlier), it seems like a reasonable result for the boxed games sector.
It was FIFA 21 that was the big Black Friday winner at the top of the charts. The EA game was actually discounted the week before (when sales rose 121%) and the discounting remained this week, resulting in a further 35% increase in sales week-on-week. The game has been available at retailers for around £35.
The other big winner of the week was Nintendo Switch. With PS5 and Xbox Series S and X almost entirely missing from shelves, Nintendo swooped in with an influx of new console stock and bundles. There was also some deals to be had and, as a result, boxed Switch game sales were up 33% last week. In fact, 9% more Switch games were sold during Black Friday 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.
Switch games accounted for over 38% of all boxed games sold during Black Friday week. The big seller was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which rose to No.3 after a 58% weekly sales rise (coming on the back of a 36% rise the week before). It was followed closely by Mario Kart 8: Deluxe at No.4 (sales up 62% week-on-week). Other key Switch sellers were Minecraft at No.8 (sales up 26%) and Super Mario 3D All Stars at No.9 (up 54%).
Sticking with Switch, Just Dance 2021 finally enters the Top Ten, despite launching three weeks ago. The game enjoyed a massive 182% sales rise week-on-week, and although the Ubisoft game is a multi-format release, it predominantly sells on Nintendo's hybrid console.
Black Friday discounting meant that 33 of the Top 40 increased in sales week-on-week. Other key risers include Marvel Avengers, which re-enters the Top Ten at No.7 after an 80% sales rise. Sony did some big cuts on recent PS4 exclusives The Last of Us: Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, which re-enter the charts at No.16 and No.23. Overall, PS4 game sales rose 49% week-on-week, which is a the biggest increase for any of the consoles during the period.
Some of the games that dropped in sales week-on-week include Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which wasn't discounted during Black Friday and falls from No.1 to No.2 as a result (sales down 48% week-on-week). Assassin's Creed Valhalla also retained its launch price, and therefore drops from No.4 to No.5 with a slight 28% sales dip. And Spider-Man: Miles Morales also sticks with its £50+ price point, and slips to No.6 (down 36%).
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...uk-boxed-sales
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November 30th, 2020, 21:16 Posted By: wraggster
Publishers have been reporting heightened sales and engagement in the face of the global pandemic for most of the year, and the NPD Group today released results from an August survey indicating just how much gaming habits have changed in 2020.
For the 2020 Evolution of Entertainment report, NPD surveyed 5,000 members of its US online panel to ask about gaming habits and found that 79% of US consumers have played a video game in the past six months, up from 73% the last time it ran this survey.
Overall time spent gaming was also up 26% among survey respondents, and they reported spending an average of 33% more on games.
All platforms saw gains in time and money spent gaming, but mobile and console numbers were particularly strong among the platforms.
Gains among demographics were also spready unevenly, with the NPD reporting that adults over 45 showed larger gains in their gaming habits.
People between the ages of 45 and 54 reported spending 59% more time gaming and 76% more money, while those from 55 to 64 spent 48% more time and 73% more money.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...spiked-in-2020
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November 26th, 2020, 22:08 Posted By: wraggster
US publisher Nicalis is under fire for its use of takedown notices against a variety of projects relating to hit indie game Cave Story.
The Metroidvania title was developed by Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya and first released in 2004 as a freeware title, before Nicalis worked with him to develop ports for Wii and DS.
Nicalis has also developed updated versions -- including Cave Story+ and Cave Story 3D -- for a variety of Nintendo platforms and Steam.
The freeware version has since been decompiled and used to create a range of fan-made projects, including the Cave Story Engine 2, which allows users to create their own versions of the game.
However, the Cave Story Engine 2 GitHub repo has been taken down after Nicalis issued a DMCA, claiming the project uses the source code of its own version of Cave Story.
Various fan developers, and even some notable industry professionals such as Rami Ismail, have decried this move via Twitter, believing anything based off the freeware version to be outside Nicalis' rights.
"For anyone to play dirty like this with that game or its legacy just feels like a disrespect to everything it meant, and everything it helped make happen through its existence," Ismail wrote.
"I am pretty sure that includes my own career in games, so yeah, this feels personal."
There appears to be some confusion as to whether the freeware original of Cave Story has also been taken down. At the time of writing, it appears to still be available via FilePlanet and a fan-made tribute site.
Nicalis issues DMCA against free Cave Story games | GamesIndustry.biz
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November 23rd, 2020, 18:17 Posted By: wraggster
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War may have missed out on the top spot in its debut week, but it made up for it in week two. The Activision shooter claims No.1 in the latest UK boxed charts, despite a 27% drop in sales week-on-week.
It's actually a very slight drop over a launch week compared to what we'd usually report. Call of Duty has performed much lower than usual at UK retail, but that's because most consumers have downloaded the game instead. This chart purely tracks physical retail sales.
No.2 in the boxed charts is FIFA 21. The football game has been discounted as part of early Black Friday sales, and as a result it surged 121% in sales week-on-week.
Down in third place is the PlayStation exclusive Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The game was one of the key launch titles for PlayStation 5, which also launched last week. We don't have the console hardware sales available, but retailers told us last week that they expect PS5 to be one of the biggest console launches in UK history.
PS5 games were actually available last week, despite the console not being on sale yet. Therefore, to get an accurate picture of the best-selling PS5 physical launch games, we would have to combine this week's sales with last week. Here is the GfK Top Ten..
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...k-boxed-charts
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November 20th, 2020, 23:06 Posted By: wraggster
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War had a huge first week as a digital download in the UK.
Download launch sales are up almost 39% compared with last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare release, according to the latest GSD download report.
It follows a disappointing physical retail performance for the game. Black Ops Cold War sold 64% fewer copies at launch in a box compared with last year's Modern Warfare (GfK data), which meant that for the first time in 13 years the game failed to top the UK boxed charts.
However, if we now add in digital downloads (as predicted earlier in the week), Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War would have comfortably been No.1, with Assassin's Creed Valhalla coming in at No.2.
Despite the digital success, when combining digital and physical together, the new Call of Duty's sales are still down over 16% compared with last year's entry. It's worth remembering, of course, that a free-to-play Call of Duty battle royale game was released earlier this year, and it continues to be a big success, which may have impacted sales. In addition, PC data isn't included.
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla is one of just a few new games that have been released in recent months that sold better as a physical release than a digital one. Even so, digital download sales for Valhalla are more than 200% higher than the last game in the franchise, 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey. In fact, the first week digital download sales alone for Valhalla are more than what digital and physical did combined for Odyssey. The Ubisoft game has been a phenomenal success, and its position as one of the main Xbox Series X/S launch title appears to have paid off.
In fact, because of the launch of the new Xbox consoles, both Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War were downloaded most on Microsoft's consoles over PlayStation 4, which is not something we would see in a typical week considering the higher PS4 install base in the UK. 55% of Call of Duty's download sales were on Xbox, while almost 58% of Assassin's Creed's digital sales were on Microsoft's machines.
One notable difference in the digital charts vs the physical charts is the absence of PS5 games. The PlayStation 5 has only just launched in the UK, and although PS5 physical games were available to buy last week, they were obviously unavailable to download. Even so, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was still the No.3 game in the digital download charts due to the PS4 version of the game. This version of the game narrowly sold more as a download than it did as a boxed release.
The other PS4 exclusive last week -- Sackboy's Big Adventure -- didn't perform as well. The 3D platformer missed the Top 40 digital chart entirely, but expect it to fare better next week when it arrives on PS5.
In terms of other new releases, Sega's Yakuza: Like A Dragon makes No.9, meanwhile the new XIII remake makes No.18. The XIII remake has been criticised in the media due to bugs and a move away from its comic book visual style. This appears to have inspired gamers to go and download the 2003 original, as that game actually returned to the charts and sold better than the remake -- it is currently in 16th place.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the real No.1 last week | UK Digital Charts | GamesIndustry.biz
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November 20th, 2020, 10:18 Posted By: wraggster
Amid the excitement around the launch of the next-gen consoles, one aspect that's stirred controversy -- and is likely to continue to do so long after the initial buzz of the launches has worn off -- is the likelihood that this hardware transition will bring with it a software price hike.
Major publishers are keen to move to a $70 price point for AAA titles, using the new consoles as an opportunity for that step-change -- a strategy that both Sony and Microsoft appear to support, with Microsoft CFO Tim Stuart last week arguing that the price rise is justified, though not revealing as yet whether the company's own first-party titles for Xbox Series S|X would fall in line with this move to $70. The message from all sides seems pretty clear, though; the industry largely seems to be presenting a united front and treating the price hike as a fait accompli.
It's hardly surprising that there's been push-back on this, of course. Nobody likes a price hike, and pressure from consumers to keep prices low is part of the healthy functioning of the market. However, Stuart's half-joking comment that it was "about time" that prices rose is actually pretty solidly on the money; even though as a consumer I'm not exactly thrilled about paying more for games (who would be?), it's undeniable that the longevity of the $60 price point is unsustainable at this stage. In fact, the industry's reticence to lift that headline price has arguably led to a number of negative consequences for games themselves.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...t-time-opinion
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