TGO Daily | November 16, 2020 | NPD October 2020 Report
Welcome back! Hope you had a great weekend :)
My weekend was filled with essay writing and casual game playing. I recently started to play Halo: CE with my best friend, when we quickly realized that the game is…quite repetitive. So we’ve moved on to Halo 2. It’s a nice throwback to our childhood, but after this we’ll probably play something a little more modern that’s on the Game Pass. (By the way — Game Pass is a great incentive to get your non-hardcore gamer friends to invest in a library with lots of options, and with cross-play options!)
Lots of news to look at today :) Until tomorrow,
Adrian
In The News
Sales Data!
Before anything else, we should talk numbers!
NPD reported on the US sales data for the month of October 2020. The highlight of the report is that the Nintendo Switch has set a new US October record for hardware dollar sales, “beating the previous high set by Nintendo Wii in October 2008.” While the number of units shipped wasn’t beat (Switch’s 735,000 units vs. Wii’s 807,000 units), it earned more money. It is also in its 23rd consecutive month as the best selling hardware (a record that will likely end for the November report, considering the new consoles).
In terms of the games themselves, FIFA 21 took the #1 spot — the first time it has done so in any launch month. Watch Dogs: Legion came in at #3, even though it only had 3 days of tracking after it released. The only other debut was Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit at #5 (I was surprised by this one, considering its hefty price tag).
The other thing I wanted to mention relies on weekly charts of physical box sales in the UK. This past week saw a number of game releases, and for the first time in 13 years, Call of Duty didn’t take the #1 spot in its debut week. It took a surprise loss to Assassins Creed: Valhalla, even though it sold for less days. This speaks more to the success of Valhalla, as Activision Blizzard reports that Call of Duty had it’s best digital launch in franchise history.
Ubisoft Montreal hostage situation
On Friday, Montreal police swarmed a Ubisoft office for a suspected hostage situation, in connection to an armed robbery. Employees were reportedly barricading themselves inside various rooms and on the roof. Thankfully, it all ended up being a hoax. News outlets were apparently sent fake phone calls, and everyone in the building was able to leave peacefully.
DMCAs hit Twitch
Over the past few weeks, Twitch streamers have been dealing with a litany of DMCA takedowns and copyright strikes. While Twitch has apologized for how they handled the situation, some wild things are occurring where people are being incorrectly penalized.
While Twitch is in a difficult position (the music industry have recently teamed up to apply a lot of pressure on them), streamers have been frustrated. Twitch deleted thousands of VoDs without giving the streamer an option for appeal, or to preserve their content in some way. Most streamers have simply deleted everything in their archive just to be extra safe.
They are also getting strikes for some ridiculous things. The recent offender are in-game sound-effects, but there have also been cases of DMCA flags on videos that have already been deleted!
This kind of thing was an inevitability, though I’m sure many wish that Twitch was better prepared for it.
New Games!
Last week was a wild flurry of releases for new games, and I just wanted to point out some games that you might want to check out which I haven’t talked about a whole lot.
Demon’s Souls Remake - It has reviewed incredibly well, and is considered the game of next-gen consoles, considered it’s the only 1st party exclusive to launch with the console.
Astro’s Playroom - Well, that last bit was a tiny lie. Astro’s Playroom is also available with the PS5 launch, and it’s totally free! It’s meant to showoff all the new features of the DualSense controller, and I’m hearing tons of great things about it. Don’t ignore it!
Bugsnax - Developed by the folks who did Octodad, it’s an over-the-top cartoonish adventure game that many people are calling a pleasant surprise. It caught a lot of people’s attention with its announcement in one of the PlayStation showcases.
Godfall - Unfortunately, the reception to this one has been fairly “meh.” People love the graphics and combat, but everything else is apparently fairly repetitive. As a fan of the developer, this makes me sad.
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)!
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