All Articles: Minecraft
CoD: Advanced Warfare goes 2-for-2 as the best-selling game of December 2014
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is on a roll. After being named the best-selling game for all of last year, the NPD Group also confirmed that it was the best-selling game of December as well. Activision’s latest military shooter also took the top spot in November, during its first month of release.
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, December’s sales chart was dominated by big-name franchises including Grand Theft Auto V (#2), Madden NFL 15 (#3), Super Smash Bros. For Wii U / Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Minecraft (#6).. really, just the entire top ten.
On the hardware side of things, the Xbox One once again was the best-selling console, besting the PS4 for a second month in a row. The console’s $50 price cut is really working for Microsoft and the company has decided to reinstate the discount beginning today, possibly on a permanent basis.
The full top ten for December 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the best-selling game of 2014
The NPD Group has finished calculating the 2014 game sales in the United States and they’re ready to declare a winner. In 2014, gamers bought more copies of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare than any other game. The franchise actually bookended both ends of the list as Call of Duty: Ghosts tabulated enough 2014 sales to check in at #10. In between those two extremes, the list actually features plenty of familiar faces.
Last year’s best-selling game, Grand Theft Auto V, managed to heist the #4 spot thanks to good sales in the early half of the year and a PS4/Xbox One re-release in the Fall. Sports games occupied three spots in the top ten as Madden NFL 15 (#2), NBA 2K15 (#7), and FIFA 15 (#9) were all popular with players.
Gamers voted with their wallets and both of 2014’s budding megafranchises-in-the-making cracked the top ten. Destiny came in at #3 while Watch Dogs had to settle for the #8 spot.
All told, game software sales were down 13% in 2014 to $5.3 billion. That’s still an impressive chunk of change, but players are increasingly moving over to digital storefronts for the majority of their game purchases. The complete top ten from 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
The Simpsons are going to Minecraft (on the Xbox One and Xbox 360)!
Whenever Matt Groening and his army of Korean animators send the Simpson family on a new adventure, they almost always kick it off with a rousing round of “The Simpsons are going to…!” Today, Microsoft announced that everyone’s favorite family (and a few of Springfield Elemenrary’s finest) will be making the jump to Minecraft on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. So, before we go any further…
“The Simpsons are going to Minecraft!”
Enough of that borax! “The Simpsons Skin Pack” will be priced at $1.99 and it’ll include new skins for Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and 19 characters from Springfield Elementary School. The pack will be available on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 in late February. Launch details for the “Simpsons Skin Pack” on PlayStation platforms will be announced at a later date.
Star Wars Skins are now available in Minecraft on Xbox One, Xbox 360
“Strike me down and…”
“Sand People always ride…”
“No! I am your…”
I’m trying to think of an appropriate Star Wars quote to pair with this news and I’m coming up dry. So instead, I’ll just point out that Microsoft and Lucasfilm have teamed up to release the Star Wars Classic Skin Pack for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. Available through the Xbox Games Store as of yesterday, the Skin Pack is priced at $2.99 and includes 55 characters from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. A complete list of all the characters available in the Star Wars Classic Skin Pack can be found after the break.
Microsoft has also revealed that more Star Wars content will be available for Minecraft soon… and I’m guessing we should prepare ourselves for a Prequel Skin Pack. And who knows, a sequel trilogy Skin Pack might be in the works too, especially after the release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer this weekend. (more…)
NBA 2K15 smashes to the top of Oct 2014 best-seller list (yes, even over Smash Bros 3DS)
Even though the month of October saw the release of a new Borderlands game and the first Smash Bros. title for a handheld, NBA 2K15 emerged victorious in The NPD Group’s recounting of the best-selling games of October 2014.
The basketball sim managed to hold off a pair of new releases as well as the continued sales success of Super Smash Bros. For 3DS (which landed at #2). A trio of new releases, The Evil Within (#3), Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (#4), Skylanders: Trap Team (#6), were close behind.
And believe it or not, but Minecraft continues to hold a spot in the top ten as the retail release of the PlayStation 4 Edition propelled it into #10 on the list. Sunset Overdrive, Microsoft’s big Xbox One exclusive for the Fall, did not make the top ten though Joystiq is reporting that it was the ninth best-selling game among individual titles.
This month’s top ten can be found in a handy list format after the break. (more…)
Destiny was destined to be the best-selling game of September 2014
After selling more than five million copies in its first week of availability, Bungie’s Destiny easily took the top spot as the best-selling game of September 2014. New releases ruled last month as The NPD Group’s latest report revealed that seven games cracked the top ten.
At #3, EA’s FIFA 15 challenged Destiny for the crown, but came up short. It was followed by Super Smash Bros. For 3DS (#4), Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (#5), NHL 15 (#6), The Sims 4 (#8), and Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes (#9). The only holdovers were Madden NFL 15 (#2), Minecraft (#7), and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (#10).
According to Joystiq, despite Destiny’s massive success, game industry sales only grew by 2% over September 2013. Of course, September 2013 featured the release of Grand Theft Auto V, a singularly special event, and downloadable titles are constantly eating into retail’s market share. But good luck getting The NPD Group to admit to that.
This months top ten can be found in a handy list format after the break. (more…)
Borderlands: Pre-Sequel, Minecraft PS Vita, Evil Within, and a lot more added to PS Store
It’s another big week for the PlayStation Store as more than a dozen new titles are now available to download on the PS4, PS3, and Vita.
Leading things off is Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (PS3), 2K’s tale of what happened between the first and second games in the series. With a new location (Pandora’s Moon) and a new developer (2K Australia), it might just make your PS4 feel a bit lonely for the next few weeks.
But speaking of the PS4, it is now home to plenty of scares and a little bit of whimsy. The scares are provided by the haunted mansion of Shinji Mikami’s The Evil Within (also available on the PS3) and the roving zombies of Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Come to think of it, the deadly Triad gangsters of United Front’s Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition are pretty scary too. To balance out all this blood and gore, you might like to know that PopCap’s adorable puzzle game, Peggle 2, was released for the PS4 this week as well.
Vita owners might like to know that Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition is finally available to download. Not only does the portable version of Mojang’s world-crafter include everything from the PlayStation 3 Edition, but it’s also a free download if you own it on the PS3.
Finally this week, if you love Duck Dynasty so much that you want to play a quickie tie-in game (also titled Duck Dynasty) on your PS3 or PS4, then Activision’s got you covered.
A complete list of this week’s new releases (including a few more that went unmentioned above) can be found after the break. And a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Minecraft: PS Vita Edition will be available to download next week, in stores on 11/11
Minecraft is finally ready to shrink down to PS Vita size as Sony has announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition will be available to download through the PlayStation Store next Tuesday, October 14. The digital edition will be followed by the release of a retail version on November 11.
Whether you download Minecraft direct to your Vita or purchase it in stores, the PlayStation Vita Edition will be priced at $19.99, just like its PS3 and PS4 counterparts. But if you already own Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition, you can download the PS Vita Edition for free as a Cross-Buy bonus. And if you don’t already own the game on the PS3, but are planning to purchase the Vita version next week, a free PS3 download is included in the deal. The same offer stands for November’s retail release as well. That’s how Cross-Buy works, after all.
A PlayStation 4 Edition upgrade option is also available for the Vita version for $4.99.