TGO Daily | November 10, 2020 | Avengers Loses Square Enix Money
Whoops! I forgot to hit “send” again! Not sure how this happened multiple times in a row, but I’ll try to be more diligent in the future. Here is the newsletter that was supposed to go out around 12 hours ago :)
Cheers,
Adrian
In The News
Avengers lost Square Enix money.
Marvel’s Avengers was a game that had troubling PR leading up to launch, followed by a fairly mediocre reception at release. Despite this, many people (myself included) felt like it was going to perform extremely well in terms of sales because…well, it’s the Avengers.
Turns out that isn’t exactly the case. Square Enix reported on their Q2 financial period, and while they didn’t comments specifically on how the game performed, analysts have done a bit of deduction.
For the games division of the company, their second quarter saw revenues of $229 million, and an operating loss of $48 million. Contrast this with their first quarter, which had the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which had revenues of $330 million and operating income of $96 million.
Their profit loss is especially notable because the game was built with games-as-a-service in mind. They could theoretically sell a low amount upfront, but still make money off of the microtransactions. Unfortunately, according to SteamCharts, the game regularly only has between 500-1500 concurrent players. Not exactly optimistic numbers for such a large release.
Crystal Dynamics have said that they are quickly working on updating the game, but I’m not convinced that this is a quick fix. Similar to Anthem, there are major pillars of Avengers that people took umbrage with.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla reviews.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is releasing today, and its reviews are just as dense as the game itself. To be perfectly honest, I would encourage you to pick your favourite website/reviewer and just hear what they have to say, just because of how much these reviews cover.
In short, reception is positive. I saw a lot of parallels with Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey — a sprawling world that is fun to explore, more RPG than stealth, and entertaining combat. Many reviewers came across some significant bugs though, so be cautious before buying the game.
If you’ve never played Assassin’s Creed before, this is probably a fine time to jump in if you like the Viking setting. If you have, read the reviews…they’ll give you far more detail than I can.
A Game Pass Reminder
Here’s your somewhat irregular reminder that the value of the Xbox Game Pass is off the charts if you’re the type of person that would benefit from it. On top of the hundreds of games that it already offers, they’ve also got these upcoming games:
Of note: Destiny 2’s latest expansion “Beyond Light” on day one, Tetris Effect, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, and Planet Coaster.
And then of course EA Play, which is the full EA subscription service just…included with Game Pass Ultimate.
If you think this might be up your alley, feel free to give the Game Pass a look!
Also In The News
Say Hello!
That’s all for today :) If you want to get in touch, you can always reply to this email. You can also DM me on Twitter, or come join the community on Discord (it’s awesome)!
This newsletter is a companion/alternative to a mini-podcast I produce. The show is archived on YouTube, with most people listening on Amazon Alexa devices — but it’s also available on all podcast hosts.