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Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 have been announced
The finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 have been announced… and they’re on fire.
This year’s honorees include titles from every era of gaming, though the Star Power of Guitar Hero looms large over the competition. But that’s OK, because there’s a few other firestarters vying for a spot in this year’s class, including Midway’s NBA Jam, Mojang’s Minecraft, and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee.
There’s also the groundbreaking GoldenEye 007, the unforgettable Nokia Snake, the edutaining Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and the addicting Bejeweled. Rounding out this year’s crop of finalists is Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and a trio of classics from the early 80s (Centipede, Frogger, and King’s Quest).
This isn’t the first opportunity to join the World Video Game Hall of Fame for some of these games, and fans will have the chance to make their voice heard by submitting a Player’s Choice Ballot. The public can vote once per day now through April 2nd, and the three games that receive the most votes will join the 29 other ballots submitted by members of the Hall of Fame’s International Selection Advisory Committee.
The Strong Museum’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the entity that oversees the World Video Game Hall of Fame, will announce the inductees from the Class of 2020 at a date to be determined in a special ceremony. For now, you can learn more about this year’s finalists after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Retro, Switch, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Bejeweled, Centipede, GoldenEye 007, Guitar Hero, King's Quest, Minecraft, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, World Video Game Hall of Fame
No new releases were able to break into The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from February 2020
Aside from Airship Syndicate’s Darksiders Genesis and Media Molecule’s Dreams, there were few new releases of note last month. And while both have garnered decent reviews, they’re also fairly niche titles, so it’s not too surprising that neither broke into The NPD Group’s list of best-selling titles from February 2020.
According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), you had to reach all the way down to #33 to find the best-selling new release of the month, which was Sega’s The Yakuza Remastered Collection.
That means that a lot of games from 2019 (and January’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot) continued to find new homes during the month. Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare took the top spot in February, followed by 2K’s NBA 2K20 at #2 and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V #3. A little further down the list, Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure had it’s best showing yet, peaking at #7 during the month.
You can find the full list of best-selling games from February 2020 after the break. (more…)
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the best-selling game of January 2020
We’re less than 12 months away from the launch of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and consumers have started to react accordingly. According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), consumers spent $678 million on video games, consoles, and accessories in January 2020, about a 26% drop versus January 2019.
But there were still a few big moneymakers in the first month of the year, starting with Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which was the best-selling game of the month. It was followed by some of 2019’s most popular titles, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (#2), Madden NFL 20 (#3), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#4).
While none of these games are available for the Switch, Nintendo’s newest console held on as the best-selling console platform during the month, besting the aging PS4 and Xbox One.
Another highlight for Nintendo from the January 2020 sales report was Ring Fit Adventure, which broke into the Top 10 for the first time (at #9). That’s impressive, but it’ll be a very long time before it catches Grand Theft Auto V, which continued to sell well in its 196th month of availability (it appeared on the list at #5).
You can find the full list of best-selling games from January 2020 after the break. (more…)
Grand Theft Auto V is the best-selling game of the 2010s
The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella has one more list of best-selling games for us… the best-selling games of the 2010s.
Originally posted on Twitter, the chart was topped by Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V, but the majority of the list was dominated by Activision’s Call of Duty franchise. Seven of the ten slots were claimed by the shooter series, leaving only two remaining places for Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 (#7) and Mojang’s Minecraft (#10):
Best-Selling Games in 2010-2019
1. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
6. Call of Duty: Ghosts
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
8. Call of Duty: WWII
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
10. Minecraft****** All Digital Sales Not Included
****Digital Sales on PC Not Included
While the Call of Duty franchise remains a perennial presence on the sales charts, there’s no guarantee it’ll have the same impact on the 2020s. After all, the best-selling game from 2000-2009 was Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the best-selling game of 2019
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has dominated the sales charts throughout October, November, and December. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella declared it the best-selling game for all of 2019 as well (via Twitter). But many of this year’s biggest titles managed to crash their way into the Top Ten.
A few yearly sports updates, NBA 2K20 and Madden NFL 20, finished just behind Activision’s shooter. Another franchise FPS, Borderlands 3, slid in at #4. And rounding out the Top Five was NetherRealm’s blood-spattered sequel, Mortal Kombat 11.
The lower half of the Top Ten gave us a few games we’ve seen before, as 2018’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate meleed its way to the #7 slot, while 2017’s Mario Kart 8 shifted into the #10 slot. In between, you could find Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#6), Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts III (#8), and Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (#9).
While none of Nintendo’s new releases made the list, the consolemaker was responsible for the two most-successful pieces of hardware in 2019. The Switch was the best-selling hardware platform of the year, while the Switch Pro Controller was the best-selling accessory.
You can view the full list of 2019’s best-selling games in handy list format after the break. (more…)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare goes 3-for-3 as the best-selling game of December 2019
December 2019 came and went without any major new releases, which left a big opening for Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to threepeat as the best-selling game of the month. And according to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), that’s exactly what happened.
It was a good holiday season for all as multiple games from Electronic Arts (Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order at #2, Madden NFL 20 at #3, FIFA 20 at #13, and Need For Speed Heat at #15) and Take-Two Interactive (NBA 2K20 at #4, Grand Theft Auto V at #11, and Red Dead Redemption 2 at #12) fought their way into the Top 20. But with ten titles in the Top 20, it was Nintendo that claimed the most spots on the list. Luigi’s Mansion 3 ranked the highest at #5.
You can find the full list of best-selling games from December 2019 after the break. (more…)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare repeats as the best-selling game of November 2019
Not even the combined might of two new Pokemon games could stop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from holding on to its position as the best-selling game of November 2019… but Nintendo and Game Freak certainly made it interesting.
According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), three Pokemon games actually managed to crack the top five last month. Pokemon Sword sliced its way to #3, while Pokemon Shield built a stronghold at #5. Sandwiched in the middle at #4 was the Pokemon Sword + Pokemon Shield Double Pack, which was counted as a separate game by the tracking firm.
If you were wondering what would have happened if all three games were combined onto a single line, Piscatella said that the combined sales of Sword, Shield, and the Double Pack would have landed at #2 for the month (though who knows what the sales charts would have looked like if Nintendo contributed eShop sales to the dataset). Even with that caveat, new releases dominated last month’s ranking, with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#2), Death Stranding (#7), and Need For Speed Heat (#9) in the top ten. Going further down the list, you’ll also find Just Dance 2020 at #14.
Overall, the game industry collected $2.3 billion in sales last month, a 19% drop from November of 2018. Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Switch was once again the best-selling console during the month, and it remains the best-selling console for all of 2019.
You can find the full list of best-selling games from November 2019 after the break. (more…)
Kickstart This! The Sad Tale of Knite and the Ghost Lights
Long time readers of Kickstart This! may recall Knite and the Ghost Lights by Mobot Studios. The gorgeous side-scroller was one of the first games we featured in this column and one of the first Kickstarter projects that I backed personally.
Even now, I have fond memories of discovering the game on the crowdfunding site way back in October of 2013. It was pitched as a stop-motion RPG built with a strong sense of early Tim Burton. Knite and the Ghost Lights was going to be delivered by July 2014 on the PC and Wii U (Nintendo’s previous console is another thing I have fond memories of).
However, the delivery deadline was missed, and that’s when things started to go wrong for the game, which has been limping along and languishing in development hell ever since. At the time, Lex Plotnikoff, the lead artist and creative force on Knite and the Ghost Lights, found himself unable to return to America. The Russian national was mired in red tape, which threw a proverbial spanner into the works, and brought development on the game grinding to a halt. (more…)
Posted in Features, PC, Wii U
Tagged Knite and the Ghost Lights