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Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Assassin’s Creed Origins, and Super Mario Odyssey are October 2017’s best-selling games
A northeastern cold snap proves that Fall is all… as does the massive number of new releases that cracked The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from October 2017. WB Games’s Middle-Earth: Shadow of War lead the way at #1, but it was closely followed by Assassin’s Creed Origins at #2, Super Mario Odyssey at #3, and South Park: The Fractured But Whole at #4.
Nintendo actually had a huge month, placing four titles in the Top 20 (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#15), Mario Kart 8 (#16), and Fire Emblem Warriors (#17) were the others), as well as owning the top two hardware platforms. However, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that overall industry sales still dropped 11% versus October 2016 to $825 million:
With interest in the Switch and the Super NES Classic still sky-high, Nintendo hardware managed to account for two-thirds of the hardware sales generated. That being said, NPD noted that Sony’s PlayStation 4 is still the best-selling hardware platform year-to-date. Furthermore, in the accessories category, the black DualShock 4 wireless controller was both the best-selling accessory of October, and the best-selling accessory year-to-date.
The complete Top 20 from October 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed Origins, Destiny 2, FIFA 18, Fire Emblem Warriors, Forza Motorsport 7, Gran Turismo Sport, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 18, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, NBA 2K18, NHL 18, NPD, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Super Mario Odyssey, The Evil Within 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, WWE 2K18
Take-Two ships 85 million copies of GTA5 and has a “highly-anticipated new title” from 2K on tap for 2018
Take-Two Interactive’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, had a few interesting things to say during the company’s quarterly financial report yesterday.
First, Zelnick announced that Rockstar Games has shipped more than 85 million copies of Grand Theft Auto V throughout the world on the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. That massive number, and its perennial popularity, has actually pushed Grand Theft Auto V past Nintendo’s Wii Sports to become the best-selling game in the United States. However, it still trails Minecraft (122 million) for the worldwide title.
Looking to the future, Zelnick also said that 2K Games will publish a “highly-anticipated new title” from its stable of franchises sometime in Take-Two’s 2019 fiscal year (April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019):
And looking ahead, fiscal 2019 promises to be one of our best years ever led by the launches of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 and a highly-anticipated new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises.
For all their success, 2K Games doesn’t actually have all that many major franchises in its catalog. So there’s a very real chance that the previously-announced Borderlands 3 or the assumed-to-be-in-development BioShock 4 will materialize next year.
The Video Game Canon: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at the creation of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and the massive growth of the Call of Duty franchise. Here’s a teaser…
General William Tecumseh Sherman famously declared that “War is Hell” in a speech in 1880, though I think it’s safe to assume that more people are familiar with the anti-war protestations of a certain green Muppet from 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. While this sentiment has existed in the public consciousness for hundreds of years, the basic structure of a game as a confrontation that pits the player against the CPU (or another player) makes armed conflict an ideal setting.
War might be Hell, but it has also been very good for Activision’s bottom line thanks to the Call of Duty franchise.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in Features, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will launch on the Xbox One on December 12… Stranger Things Skin Pack now available in Minecraft
A hundred players parachute onto the island, but the game is almost ready to parachute onto the Xbox One. That’s right, PUBG Corp has announced a release date for the Xbox One launch of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds at Paris Games Week.
Also today, Mojang is adding the potent fanbase of Stranger Things to Minecraft with a new Skin Pack.
You can read more about both stories after the break. (more…)
Microsoft officially discontinues the Kinect… Switch now supports GameCube controllers
Fans of weird and wild peripherals will want to pay attention to today’s news. That’s because Microsoft has put the kibosh on the Kinect, and Nintendo is giving a new lease on life to their uniquely-styled GameCube controllers.
Read all about both stories after the break. (more…)
Destiny 2 tops September 2017’s list of best-selling games
Activision has been rather quiet on the Destiny 2 front since the game’s launch, but The NPD Group confirmed this morning that it was the best-selling game during the month of September. It’s doing so well at retail that the tracking firm has also declared Destiny 2 the best-selling game in all of 2017… so far.
Aside from Destiny 2, sports games dominated the sales chart in September, including the debuts of NBA 2K18 (#2), FIFA 18 (#4), and NHL 18 (#8). It was also a good month for games with long tails as Grand Theft Auto V (#7), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#9), and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (#10) continue to hold onto their slots in the top ten.
You can read more about last month’s best-sellers and view the monthly Top Ten after the break. (more…)
New Retail Releases: Super Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein II, Assassin’s Creed Origins, More
Mario is back this week in his first fully 3D adventure in more than a decade. Super Mario Odyssey will make its Switch debut this Friday, but fans can dance along with its super-catchy theme song, “Jump Up Super Star,” right now.
Also returning to the dance floor this week is BJ Blazkowicz (in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus), Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise (in Assassin’s Creed Origins), and the latest entry in the Just Dance series (Just Dance 2018).
Finally this week, Destiny 2 will make its PC debut.
You can read all about the rest of this week’s new retail releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed Origins, Destiny 2, Just Dance 2018, Super Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
SAG-AFTRA reaches agreement with game publishers to end voice actor strike
After nearly a year of intense negotiations, the “voice actor strike” between the SAG-AFTRA union and a group of 11 game publishers (including Activision, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, WB Games, and others) is over.
According to a spokesman for SAG-AFTRA, the tentative agreement to end the strike includes a pay raise for voice actors, more transparency in casting calls, and a commitment to further discuss the issue of “vocal stress”:
The terms of the tentative agreement, which was reached early Saturday morning, include a new bonus structure that provides an additional payment to performers. The bonus payment, which is due no later than the release date of the game, is based on the number of sessions worked on each game, beginning with a $75 payment on the first session and totaling $2,100 after 10 sessions worked.
“The new transparency provisions will enhance the bargaining power of our members’ representatives by requiring the companies to disclose the code name of project, its genre, whether the game is based on previously published intellectual property and whether the performer is reprising a prior role,” said Ray Rodriguez, SAG-AFTRA’s Chief Contracts Officer. “Members are also protected by the disclosure of whether they will be required to use unusual terminology, profanity or racial slurs, whether there will be content of a sexual or violent nature and whether stunts will be required.”
The deal also contains an employer commitment to continue working with SAG-AFTRA on the issue of vocal stress during the term of the agreement.
Though the two sides have reached a tentative agreement, the strike won’t officially end until a vote of the union membership is held during their October meeting.