#the ps5 really has few meaningful exclusives

[unchartedthelostlegacy]

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[featherbow]

"We’ve updated our Steam page to better reflect the content of the game and bring the Early Access section up to date, as well as the specifications. On that page, we’re recommending that players don’t buy the Early Access version of Baldur's Gate 3 with a view to play through that content, partly because it’s out of date but mostly because we’re so close to launch and want to make it very clear that saves in the Early Access version will not transfer into the final game. This is due to technical reasons.

Essentially, the game is so vastly different that it’s not possible to make those save files compatible. Early Access will, of course, remain playable up to launch.

A purchase of Early Access is essentially a pre-order, and will still grant you access to the Digital Deluxe content for Baldur's Gate 3 on PC, granting you access to: an exclusive in-game dice skin, the Divinity Bard Song Pack, Treasures of Rivellon Pack, Adventurer’s Pouch, Digital OST, Digital Artbook, and Digital Character Sheets for D&D IRL.

The PC Digital Deluxe Edition does not include a 72 hour head start, which would have essentially made the game’s release date July 31st. Shifting the release date – and thus communication around the Digital Deluxe Editions across PS5 and PC – came with a few complexities that we didn’t manage to communicate very well, so we thought it best to clarify it here, given that a 72 hour head start on PC wouldn't have been plausible.

But isn’t it wild? Our PC launch is just a few weeks away! Baldur's Gate 3 is set to release to PC on August 3rd, followed by its PlayStation 5 release just a few weeks later on September 6th – or September 3rd if you pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition for PS5.

For those of you who have been with us throughout Early Access, we want to thank you for all your support over the years. One of the reasons we chose to release Baldur's Gate 3 in Early Access is because it would give us an opportunity to listen to your feedback and make meaningful changes in return. As a result, your participation has been instrumental in helping us bring the Forgotten Realms to life. Everything you play – be it Act 2 & 3, or a return to Act 1 – will reflect how we’ve gotten better at making the game, thanks in no small part to all of your feedback, comments, and love over the years.

We also want to send out a very special thank you to everyone who’s been sending us hyperrealistic Halsin fan art. It inspires us, it sustains us, it frightens us to our core. The meme game has been real.

We still have some work to do, but we’re thrilled to learn that those who played the game at our recent press event really enjoyed what they experienced, and we can’t wait for you to experience it yourselves."

[aion-rsa]

Nintendo Switch Sales Numbers Prove It Can Easily Outsell PS5 and Xbox Series X

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While most eyes are fixed on the GameStop stock situation, an equally interesting video game finance story happened today when Nintendo released their latest financial reports. 

There’s quite a lot to break down from those reports, but if you’re looking for the headline or biggest takeaway, then here it is:

The Nintendo Switch has sold in 79.87m units after 46 months on the market. Here is how it compares to other consoles when launch aligned. In the same time frame, the PS4 was around ~67m and the PS2 was around ~69.5m. The Wii was just under 75m. pic.twitter.com/ox3NQy8Ye4

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 1, 2021

While few people would have guessed that the Nintendo Switch was anything but a success, the actual numbers remain stunning. The Nintendo Switch isn’t just a success; it’s a potentially historic device that will likely end up ranking high among the best-selling video game consoles of all-time.

Perhaps more importantly, the Nintendo Switch may have set a sales pace that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will simply be unable to catch. That may sound impossible given how hard it is to find either high-profile next-gen console, but these key takeaways from the latest financial reports show that the Switch’s success in the console wars may be inevitable.

Nintendo Switch Remains the Most Appealing “Other” Console

The line between Xbox and PlayStation hasn’t disappeared, but it has blurred to the point where owning both consoles feels like less of a necessity than it may have been in previous generations. This is especially true for gamers who typically stick to major third-party releases and free-to-play titles that offer few exclusive benefits between consoles. 

The Switch is different. It was essentially released between console generations, which means that many gamers purchased one before they ever considered buying what would eventually become the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The benefits of that early release were especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Switch became a hot item to add to the homes many of us were stuck in while Sony and Microsoft were still trying to get their consoles on the market.

We see this trend essentially confirmed by Nintendo’s historically impressive Q3 2020 numbers. Despite the fact that the Switch was competing against the release of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 (as well as major releases like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077, and Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War that are unavailable on Nintendo’s console), Nintendo posted one of their best Q3’s ever and the best holiday season in Switch history from a revenue standpoint.

That strongly suggests that even those who don’t already own a Switch alongside their PC, Xbox, or PlayStation either still intend to buy one or are continuing to rely on the Switch as their primary game console

Nintendo is Able to Make the Most of its Limited Releases

Nintendo was widely criticized for its lack of 2020 Switch exclusives. While the Switch’s somewhat lacking lineup can partially be attributed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, most fans went into the year suspecting that it was going to be a relatively slow year for the console. 

Yet, the Switch’s weaker lineup of exclusives seemingly didn’t impact its sales in any notable way. Why? Well, a big part of it has to do with how successful Nintendo’s DLC releases have been thus far. Nintendo was late to the DLC game, but the numbers clearly show that fans spend a lot of time and money with whatever new Nintendo games are released. 

That success absolutely matters in an industry where so much revenue comes from DLC, but at a time when new content is still being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasingly longer development cycles of major games, Nintendo has proven that they’re one of the best at maximizing the value of individual releases through downloadable content. 

Granted, they’ve got a long way to go (where is my Mario Party DLC?), but they can only improve upon what are some shocking numbers. 

Nintendo Switch Lite Could Easily be the Most Successful Budget Console

I found it interesting that Sony and Microsoft decided to release “secondary” versions of their main next-gen consoles (the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S, respectively). Their attempts to offer a “budget” next-gen option feels not only feel valuable during tough times but reminded me of the Nintendo Switch Lite: a console I haven’t really heard a lot about since it was released in 2019.

As it turns out, the Nintendo Switch Lite has been doing very well. In fact, there is a chance that the Nintendo Switch Lite alone will have outsold the Wii U by the time you read this. 

That information tells us two very important things. First off, while we don’t know how successful the PS5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S will be in the long-run, Nintendo has already proven that the Switch brand is strong enough to support two pieces of hardware without negatively impacting the overall success of the brand. 

More importantly, the success of the Switch Lite shows that even when you remove one of the Switch’s core pieces of functionality (the ability to play games on a TV as well as in handheld mode), people will still buy it. That leads us to the most important element of the Nintendo Switch’s success…

Nintendo Switch Still Has the Most Impactful Exclusives

I truly believe we’re entering an age where streaming services, cloud gaming, and other features designed to allow people to better access a wider variety of titles at a fair price will be more impactful than exclusives alone. However, we’re not at that point yet. 

At a time when exclusives do still matter, Nintendo has proven time and time again that they regularly release the most impactful exclusives. Since 2017, two Nintendo Switch exclusives have sold over 30 million units, six have sold over 20 million units, nearly 10 have sold over 10 million, and 36 Nintendo exclusive releases have sold over 1 million units. 

By comparison, only one PS4 exclusive has sold over 20 million units on record (Marvel’s Spider-Man) and only one Xbox One exclusive (Halo 5) has sold over 8 million units. 

If you buy into the idea that exclusives still sell consoles, then it’s clear Nintendo is on another level in terms of exclusive sales. This all feeds into the idea that there is clearly a lot of people out there who feel they have to own a Nintendo Switch for at least one game. 

Nintendo Switch is Remarkably Immune From Nintendo’s Mistakes

We’ve spoken about it before, but it’s hardly a stretch to suggest that Nintendo does things their own way. While that’s sometimes a good thing, it also results in Nintendo making some very stupid decisions. 

Here’s what’s really interesting, though. If you look at the pure numbers, it seems that Nintendo’s biggest mistakes have very little impact on the Nintendo Switch. 

Do you hate how Nintendo Switch Online features a limited library of classic titles? Nintendo Switch Online is a proven money maker. Were you annoyed by Super Mario 3D All-Stars’ limited release structure? It’s already sold over 8 million units. Did you think that Pokemon’s long-awaited Switch debut failed to live up to expectations? Well, Sword and Shield are already the best-selling Pokemon games since Gold and Silver. 

Even the infamous issues with the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons doesn’t seem to have impacted the Switch’s hardware sales in a meaningful way. The Switch just keeps trucking along. 

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There’s just no clear indication that the Switch’s historic success will be slowed down by anything but the release of a new Nintendo console or some magical turning point when everyone who owns a Switch will have already bought one. 

The post Nintendo Switch Sales Numbers Prove It Can Easily Outsell PS5 and Xbox Series X appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[playernumberv]

Game Of The Year 2020

It’s the time of the year for me to celebrate my personal favourite video-games for the year once again, and what a year 2020 has been! It’s brought us an all-too-realistic and all-too-immersive version of Plague Inc. by giving us an actual pandemic, and let’s not even go into all the other ways in which the year has been an utter and complete mess! 

At the same time, what a year in gaming 2020 has been - and considering 2020, we probably needed all these games to keep us sane. 2020 brought us, very recently, a whole new generation of excellent consoles to play on (I’ve been loving every minute of the PS5 so far). The legendary remake of Final Fantasy VII which was an impossible dream not long ago *actually* released this year - well, the first episode did, at least. Even the legendary Cyberpunk 2077 released this year, although maybe this should be classified as one of the ways in which 2020 has been a mess... Annnnnyway, notwithstanding a few disappointments here and there, 2020 has been full of excellent surprises and wonderful games. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce my personal games of the year for 2020...

Game of the Year 2020: Persona 5 Royal (PS4)

I don’t see Persona 5 Royal often on most GOTY lists, perhaps because it’s not quite as mainstream as other games, or perhaps because it’s not so much a completely new game and more of an enhanced re-release. And indeed, I normally do not consider enhanced re-releases whenever I decide on my GOTY for the year. Persona 5 Royal, however, is far too special to me to not be my GOTY.

I played Persona 5 Royal in the middle of lockdown, and it is no understatement for me to say that in over two decades of gaming, Persona 5 Royal is among my most special experiences ever. I should note that I loved the original Persona 5 tremendously, so much so that I awarded it one of my rare 100/100s. I very nearly even considered skipping Persona 5 Royal, because I couldn’t imagine needing to play that game again so soon, and I couldn’t imagine Persona 5 Royal being signfiicantly better than Persona 5 was. And yet it was. It was impossibly good. It was so unbelievably good that it made the original Persona 5 feel severely underwhelming in hindsight. Atlus did the absolute impossible and somehow managed to make Persona 5 so much better in virtually every conceivable way, from minute narrative embellishments, game-play polishes, to a whole new semester and narrative arc. I should add that I completely adored Kasumi too, and her character and her narrative arc contributed very significantly to how much I loved Persona 5 Royal. My sole biggest complaint about the original Persona 5 is that the ending felt a little underwhelming to me - it felt as if, by the time the game had reached that point, it had lost its steam. It didn’t help that the ending felt a little derivative and similar to that of Persona 4. Persona 5 Royal addressed this for me with its new semester - and I loved this new arc so much more than the original ending. I had a million concerns about all the things they could do wrong, and somehow, they addressed every single concern I had and delivered a narrative arc that was nothing short of perfection to me. I’m aware that there are mixed opinions about Persona 5 Royal’s new semester and ending, and that’s understandable. 

Personally, however, I rank Persona 5 Royal’s ending leagues ahead of the original. Without going into any details or spoiling the game, suffice it to say this: it was much more sombre, much more bittersweet - with just a little bit of Persona 3′s darker tone injected into it - and so much more poignant for me. Whereas Persona 5 was focused on the joys of liberation and breaking free from the shackles of society, Persona 5 Royal pursued these themes in a way that was more grounded in reality. It's joyful and celebratory, but powerfully nuanced with a subtle touch of sadness which makes its message feel so much more genuine and so much more heartfelt. It acknowledges that there are things we may not be able to break away from, that sometimes, not everything is within our control - but even so, you do what you can and you choose to live your best life. I found the more melancholic, more measured, but nevertheless joyful tone of Persona 5 Royal to be a lot more personal, a lot more heartfelt, a lot more meaningful, a lot more relatable, and a lot more powerful, so much so that even thinking about it now, I feel a rush of emotions towards it and I feel my heart wrench with yearning. I did still have some criticisms of the game, but these were trivial in comparison to how intensely dear the game had become to me. And so, even though it’s technically an enhanced re-release, it was so much more than that to me - none of the brand new games I’ve played in years even begin to compare to how much I loved this “enhanced re-release”.

I love Persona 5 Royal so much that even among other games I love, Persona 5 Royal stands near the top, if not at the top. The 123 hours I spent with it are unquestionably the best hours I’ve spent in 2020. It is a profoundly moving game, exploring themes that are very close to my heart in a nuanced manner and filling my heart with a whole range of emotions. Through Persona 5 Royal, I effectively lived another life, one brimming with so much color and richness. It is one of the most beautiful gaming experiences I have ever had, and I’m not even talking about how aesthetically stylish and musically charming it is - and any Persona 5 fan will already know that it’s virtually unmatched in these regards. By the end of my journey through Persona 5 Royal, all the laughter and tears I shared with the Phantom Thieves had become imprinted in my heart, and I loved them so dearly that they had become like family. Persona 5 Royal is one of the rare games so intensely and incomparably special that it moves me beyond the realms of fiction. Even now, I hold it dear in my heart as a reminder that maybe, just maybe, the future really is worth believing in and life is worth fighting for. Its radiant colors of red and gold continue to shine brilliantly in my heart, and there is simply no question and no competition to its place: 

Persona 5 Royal is my undisputable Game of the Year.

Runner-up: Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

Ghost of Tsushima is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one - I didn’t expect to love this game as much as I did, and I certainly didn’t expect to love it to the point of it being my GOTY runner-up. Sure, it had some of the usual open-world lack of polish and bugs, but the overall experience was absolutely excellent and I enjoyed this so damn much - this game is simply so good. For starters, the world of Tsushima was so beautifully realized that it completely took my breath away. Even without the bells and whistles of next-generation consoles, ray-tracing, and what-not, I was completely awed by how gorgeous Tsushima was, and I spent countless hours in photo mode just admiring how jaw-dropping the scenery was. While the game doesn’t make any gigantic innovations, the numerous little improvements over the staple open worlds of the past made a giant leap in improving the immersiveness and overall experience of the game. For example, literally using the wind to point you in the direction of your objective instead of waypoint markers is a small touch, but it worked wonders in making the game feel much more organic. The use of the touchpad to enact a variety of actions such as playing the flute, bowing to others, or unsheathing your sword was also a small touch that went a long way in making this game feel alive. I can unironically say that Ghost of Tsushima literally made me feel like I was living as a samurai in feudal Japan. The core game-play of the game was a blast as well, and the numerous combat and stealth options really immersed me into the role of a badass samurai and assassin, and it was absolutely exhilarating to be a force of nature slicing through my enemies. Of course, no such game would be complete without an excellent story, and Ghost of Tsushima’s story complements its numerous other strengths by telling a stellar samurai tale starring Jin Sakai, who has already become for me an iconic and incredibly lovable protagonist who is portrayed in a very human manner. The narrative is unpretentious and doesn’t try senselessly to aspire towards being different - instead, it focused on actually telling an engaging, relatable, and enjoyable story, and it absolutely succeeded. It dealt with many complex themes very thoughtfully and its narrative was full of both intense action as well as powerful emotional beats. Sucker Punch absolutely struck gold with this new IP, and it’s simply right up there with many of Playstation’s other excellent exclusives. Ghost of Tsushima is breathtaking, exhilarating, emotional, endearing, exciting, and most importantly, it was just simply an incredible amount of fun to play. And as Reggie once famously said - if it’s not fun, why bother? 

And hence - I crown Ghost of Tsushima my runner-up game of the year for 2020.

Second Runner-up: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)

I played Miles Morales as a PS5 launch title - and honestly, what a game it was! Graphically, it’s an utter majesty to behold in 4K HDR with ray-tracing, and Miles Morales was an incredible amount of fun to play as. The core mechanics from 2018′s game - which was already absolutely stellar to begin with - return here, and Miles’ new electricity powers make him feel distinct and a lot of fun to play as. Narratively, the game told an extremely well-written and competent origin story that effectively sets up Miles Morales’ involvement in future games. I felt an immense amount of satisfaction and pride watching this lovely origin story play out and watching Miles Morales grow as a character and as Spider-Man over the course of this narrative. While I felt that the game doesn’t quite reach the levels of emotionality and epicness of the original, I did nevertheless really enjoy the smaller-scale and more focused story being told here, which comprised of many thrilling set pieces as well as more personal and emotional scenes that together made for a superb narrative package. I should add that the extremely likeable cast of characters - both main and supporting - and the utterly top-tier cinematography of the game definitely contributed to how great it was. I literally felt my jaw drop watching some of the final scenes of the game - these were so utterly polished with such an incredible amount of production values that they wouldn’t be out of place even beside some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best scenes. Insomniac Games proved once again that they’re the masters of developing superhero games, and Miles Morales is testament to that achievement, so it gets my second runner-up game of the year for 2020.

 Honorable Mentions:

While they didn’t quite make the cut for my personal GOTY, I should note two other games I played and tremendously enjoyed in 2020. Both of them happen to be JRPGs, which is not too surprising given my immense love of the genre. These two games are The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV and Final Fantasy VII Remake. Both of these games were excellent experiences in their own right. The legendary Final Fantasy VII Remake is so full of heart and so full of love - it may be a flawed game in a great number of ways, but seeing this classic come to life so majestically and watching them nail so many aspects of the game (I *loved* the combat in FF VII Remake!) brought me so much joy even as someone who never played the original game as a kid. Trails of Cold Steel IV brought me the highly-anticipated conclusion to the Erebonian saga, and what a conclusion it was. As I noted in my review, I have mixed feelings about some aspects of this conclusion, but I nevertheless loved it with all my heart and it’s one of the many games I thoroughly enjoyed in 2020 - and in fact, I still think back to Cold Steel IV because of just how much I enjoyed it. I love these characters so much, having followed them for years, and seeing them all in Cold Steel IV is a truly emotional experience. I’m absolutely glad I played these games in 2020, and I cannot wait until their sequels finally arrive.