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Control leads the way with seven nominations at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards
The SXSW Gaming Awards will once again play a big role in the annual Austin arts festival, and this year’s nominees were announced earlier this week.
Remedy’s Control and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding lead the way with seven nominations apiece, but Kojima’s latest mindbender won’t be competing for “Video Game of the Year.” Instead, Control will do battle with Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for the coveted award.
Winners at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards will be determined by a split vote between the festival’s advisory board and a public poll, which is now open at SXSW.com through Sunday, February 23.
This year’s ceremony will be held on on Sunday, March 15, and it’ll be hosted by Wil Wheaton and Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s Janina Gavankar. All SXSW registrants will be able to attend the ceremony as part of their festival ticket, and the rest of us will be able to tune in to the festivities via SXSW’s Twitch channel.
You can find a complete list of this year’s nominees in all categories after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, Devil May Cry 5, Disco Elysium, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Tabletop Games
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…)
House House’s Untitled Goose Game wins “Game of the Year” at 2020 DICE Awards
I guess The Goose can cross “Win a Few Major Awards” off of its To-Do List. And that’s because House House’s Untitled Goose Game won “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game,” “Outstanding Achievement in Character,” and “Game of the Year” at this year’s DICE Awards.
While the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’s voting body (which is comprised of more than 30,000 members) loves The Goose, it was Remedy’s Control that took home the most statuettes last night. Predictably, the outstanding action game won “Action Game of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.” Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was the only other game to win multiple awards, with the AIAS honoring it with “Outstanding Technical Achievement” and “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design.”
A nice array of other games were also big winners at the 2020 DICE Awards, including Sayonara Wild Hearts (“Portable Game of the Year”), Apex Legends (“Online Game of the Year”), Super Mario Maker 2 (“Family Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat 11 (“Fighting Game of the Year”), Baba Is You (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”), and more.
The complete list of winners and nominees for the 2020 DICE Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Co-founder Dan Houser will leave Rockstar Games in March
Dan Houser co-founded Rockstar Games in 1998 alongside Terry Donovan, Jamie King, and his brother Sam. Currently serving as Vice President of their Creative division, he has lent his writing talents to almost all of the publisher’s most popular and well-received games, including the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, Max Payne 3, and Bully.
But after an illustrious career, Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has announced that Houser will be leaving the company in March.
This is definitely a huge blow to the creative side of Rockstar Games, which is widely believed to be hard at work on Grand Theft Auto VI. How this news will affect the sequel’s development remains to be seen, but Take-Two said the rest of the development team “remains focused on current and future projects”:
After an extended break beginning in the spring of 2019, Dan Houser, Vice President, Creative at Rockstar Games, will be leaving the company. Dan Houser’s last day will be March 11, 2020. We are extremely grateful for his contributions. Rockstar Games has built some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game worlds, a global community of passionate fans and an incredibly talented team, which remains focused on current and future projects.
While it’s a few years old now, the most extensive look back at Houser’s career can be found in David Kushner’s excellent behind-the-scenes investigation into Rockstar Games, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto.
Posted in News, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2
NIS America will bring five playable demos (including one secret game) to PAX East 2020
NIS America has announced that they’re bringing five playable demos to this year’s PAX East convention… including one secret game.
The ones that we know about include a pair of compilations coming in March (Langrisser I & II and La-Mulana 1 & 2), a survival adventure set to launch this April (Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories), and the Switch debut of a popular RPG series (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III).
But because everyone loves a secret, it’s that fifth game that’s sure to get attendees (and everyone else) excited. NIS America isn’t offering any hints as to what else they’re bringing to Boston, but it will be playable at their booth.
This year’s PAX East convention will take place from February 27th through March 1, and you can learn more about NIS America’s game lineup after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, PAX East 2020
Chiefs help Madden NFL 20 score with a correct Super Bowl LIV prediction
EA Sports’s Super Bowl Simulation is back to its winning ways, as Madden NFL 20 was able to correctly predict the outcome of Super Bowl LIV.
“The Prediction” pegged the final score at 35–31 in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs, and while Missouri’s favorite team wasn’t able to run up that many points, they did pull off a fourth quarter comeback against the San Francisco 49ers to win 31-20. Much of the credit for the comeback has to go to Patrick Mahomes, who threw for 286 yards and two touchdowns. The quarterback also ran for a touchdown in the first quarter on the way to Super Bowl MVP honors (which Madden NFL 20 also predicted).
In addition to his on-field heroics, Mahomes joins Rob Gronkowski as one of only two players to win the Super Bowl in the same year they were chosen as Madden’s cover athlete. Gronkowski rumbled to victory in Super Bowl LI, after appearing on the cover of Madden NFL 17.
With the win, the overall record for the predictive powers of Madden’s Super Bowl Simulation improved to 11-6.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Madden NFL 20
Madden NFL 20’s Super Bowl LIV simulation picks the Chiefs over the 49ers
EA Sports’s famed Super Bowl Simulation has fallen on hard times lately, botching the predicted winner of both Super Bowl LIII and Super Bowl LII. Will things improve for Super Bowl LIV? Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs sure hope so.
Simulating the “Big Game” in Madden NFL 20, EA Sports is predicting that Mahomes will win the Super Bowl MVP trophy as the Chiefs squeak past the San Francisco 49ers with a 35–31 victory. And as they’ve done several times in the past, the publisher is predicting that this Super Bowl’s outcome will hinge on some last-second heroics:
In the first quarter, the 49ers come out strong, confident and ready to win, scoring the game’s opening touchdown on a 16-yard run from new running back sensation Raheem Mostert and then Robbie Gould hammers a 41-yard field goal. The Chiefs got off to their usual slow start in the first quarter, with no points on the board.
In the second quarter, the Chiefs come alive unleashing their most powerful weapon – the unstoppable Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes throws two touchdown passes to Tyreek Hill and Damien Williams to grab the lead for the Chiefs. However, the 49ers refuse to back down and score a late second quarter touchdown – with a 26-yard pass from Jimmy Garoppolo, to end the half with a 17-14 lead.
Mahomes and the Chiefs refuse to remain silent in the second half, with Damien Williams and Travis Kelce scoring another pair of touchdowns. George Kittle nabs a touchdown for the 49ers, keeping things close in the third quarter – proving no one is safe in this game. The Chiefs lead entering the final quarter, 28-24, but Garoppolo comes in hot throwing another touchdown pass to Raheem Mostert – bringing the score to 31-28.
Not ready to accept defeat, Mahomes drives the Chiefs down the field late in the quarter, pushing the 49ers defense back. Finding Watkins open in the end-zone, Mahomes throws an 18-yard touchdown pass to take a 35-31 lead, seconds before time is up. The Kansas City Chiefs take home the title of Super Bowl LIV champions.
Tune in to Super Bowl LIV this Sunday, February 2, to find out if Madden NFL 20 is able to put an end to the long-running franchise’s recent prediction problems.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Madden NFL 20
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.