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Mortal Kombat 11 wins back-to-back rounds as the best-selling game of May 2019
Analyst Mat Piscatella came out of hibernation last night to share a look (via Twitter) at The NPD Group’s report on the best-selling games from May 2019. Once again, NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 11 landed on the top of the list, and it’s now the best-selling game for all of 2019.
Days Gone managed to hold its position as the runner-up for the month of May, fighting off PC-exclusive Total War: Three Kingdoms (which proved popular enough to slide into the #3 spot) and fellow new release Rage 2 (#4). Perennial favorite Grand Theft Auto V rounded out the Top 5 in the #5 slot.
This year’s most popular titles played musical chairs throughout the remainder of last month’s Top 20. Some went up (Minecraft went from #14 to #9) while some were trending down (Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 dropped from #4 to #12).
The Switch was the best-selling console platform in May and as the PS4 and Xbox One continue to ride off into the sunset, it’s also remained the best-selling for the 2019 calendar year.
Overall, total industry sales were done 11% versus May 2018, but that can probably be chalked up to a paltry selection of new releases last month. You can find a full list of best-selling games from May 2019 after the break. (more…)
Mortal Kombat 11 was the best-selling game on all platforms in April 2019
The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella has given us a look (via Twitter) at the best-selling games from April 2019.
Unsurprisingly, Mortal Kombat 11 KOed the competition as the top game during the period. And according to Piscatella, NetherRealm’s fighter also became the first game to sit atop the charts as the best-selling individual game on the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One in the same the month.
Not far behind was Sony’s Days Gone. The post-apocalyptic action game was developed by Sony Bend, and while it might have been overshadowed by some of the other titles in the consolemaker’s catalog, it landed in the #2 spot for April.
The remainder of April’s best-selling games chart is made up of a lot of titles we’ve seen before, including recent releases MLB 19: The Show (#3), Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (#4), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (#7), and perennial mainstays Grand Theft Auto V (#6) and Minecraft (#14).
You can find a full list of best-selling games from April 2019 after the break. (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Tetris Remains the Best Game of All Time in Version 3.0 Update
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
Once again, Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzle masterpiece, Tetris, stands atop the Video Game Canon.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Video Game Canon, it’s a statistical meta-analysis of 53 “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that were published between 1995 and 2018. To qualify for inclusion, each list had to include at least 50 games, as well as some form of editorial oversight in the process (lists made up solely of reader polls or fan voting were excluded), and no restrictions on release dates or platforms.
After feeding each “Best Games” list into the Video Game Canon machine, the games were ranked against each other using the C-Score, a formula that adds together a game’s “Average Ranking” across all lists with the complementary percentage of its “Appearance Frequency.” Combining these two factors allows us to create a list of games that have universal appeal across a long period of time without punishing any game for being too old or too new.
Five new lists were added to the Video Game Canon in the Version 3.0 update, bringing the total number of games to be selected by at least one list up to 1,182. The most expansive new list came from Game Informer, which published The Top 300 Games of All Time in April of last year. Hyper (The 200 Games You Must Play), IGN (Top 100 Video Games of All Time), and Slant Magazine (The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time) also published new lists in 2018.
I was also able to reach back into the history books a little bit after stumbling upon a list from 2009 by Benchmark.pl, one of Poland’s largest technology blogs. Aside from a handful of titles (most notably, 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), most of the games created in Eastern Europe or played by Eastern European players aren’t on the radar of your average gamer, so digging through The Top 100 Best Games of the Twentieth Century gave me an interesting window into a population of gamers that I probably don’t think about as often as I should.
Even with these new additions to the dataset, Version 3.0 didn’t signal any huge changes to the Video Game Canon over last year’s Version 2.0 update, but the movement amongst the games in the top ten does bring to mind a round of musical chairs. And after the music stopped, nearly all the titles scrambled to find a new place to sit.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 2, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe unsurprisingly lead NPD’s list of best-selling games from January 2019
Kingdom Hearts fans were kept waiting more than a decade for the third game in the franchise, but Square Enix finally rewarded their patience with the launch of Kingdom Hearts III last month. As you might have guessed, fans purchased the game in droves, pushing it all the way to the top of The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from January 2019.
Two highly-anticipated re-releases, Resident Evil 2 (#2) and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (#3) were close behind, and Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (#7) and Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (#12) also cracked the top 20.
However, while several games had strong starts on the sales chart, the industry overall suffered a decline last month versus January 2018. All together, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that total sales (hardware, software, and accessories) were down 19% to $893 million.
You can find a full list of best-selling games from January 2019 after the break. (more…)
Yacht Club delays Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown
Yacht Club Games originally planned to close the book on the Shovel Knight saga on April 9 with the release of Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown. But plans change, and late last night the developer confirmed (via their official website) that both titles would be delayed by “several months… at most!”
Naturally, this delay will also apply to the upcoming retail release of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (a compilation containing all five Shovel Knight games), as well as the Amiibo 3-Pack featuring Specter Knight, Plague Knight, and King Knight.
This is not a major delay so much as more space to bring everything together for a polished and complete finale. As always, these last steps require coordination with many teams beyond our own.
We realize the delay is disappointing. To communicate better with everyone moving forward, we will not be announcing a new date until we know one for sure, from all partners involved. All builds shipped out, updates ready to launch, for everybody and everyone. We will announce it for good once it is 100% all across the board!
The final two games in the Shovel Knight saga are currently in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, but other platforms will also get in on the fun. King of Cards will be available as a free expansion on the 3DS, PS3, Vita, and Wii U for owners of the original Shovel Knight, while Showdown will receive a similar release on the PS3 and Wii U.
This “Fan Animation” of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is amazing
It’s been several decades since Nintendo tried their hand at an animated series based on The Legend of Zelda, but several fans recently made a very compelling case for why they should try again.
The “Fan Animation” embedded above was recently uploaded by Qianya Yin and Youyang Kong. Based on a short scene from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the dialogue-free film features Link doing battle with a pair of Guardians and rescuing an adorable Korok. It’s impressive, very slick, and the perfect way to spend two minutes on a lazy holiday afternoon.
Those rumors of a live-action series from Netflix may have turned out to be a bust, but I would very happily sit down to watch an entire series of animated episodes created by this duo.
Battle Princess Madelyn will be released on December 6
Causal Bit Games has announced that Battle Princess Madelyn, their side-scrolling platformer that was partially designed by the Creative Director’s daughter, will be released on December 6.
Battle Princess Madelyn is a modern-day homage to Capcom’s Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, and will be available for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The game is also in the works for the Wii U and Vita, and both of those versions will launch sometime in 2019.
Causal Bit’s Christopher Obritsch is incredibly proud that Battle Princess Madelyn has reached this point and can’t wait for the public to play it:
“It’s been an exciting, exhaustive, stressful, enjoyable, [and] frustrating period over the last two years developing Battle Princess Madelyn and I would do it all over again. The feedback that has been given in the creation of the game, the positive remarks, the way social media [and] the specialist gaming press have supported the game throughout this long period has been nothing short of remarkable. The end result is a game the team are all proud of and went beyond what was envisioned. Within a very short time gamers will be able to play Battle Princess Madelyn. I hope it will give them as much enjoyment as it has to the team that created it!”
In case you missed it, Casual Bit unveiled a new trailer for Battle Princess Madelyn a few weeks ago.
Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”