TGO Daily | October 19, 2021 | NPD September Report
✏️ From the Author
I went to the dentist today, and after multiple negative experiences with varying dentists over my life, I can finally say I’ve found a good one. He was caring, didn’t rush me through anything, and explained his entire step-by-step process. I got four cavities done at once, and I couldn’t have trusted anyone else to do that!
Now if only the Canadian health care system covered dental work :/
Thankfully, I did it in the morning, so I could still be in a good mood to do today’s newsletter. Hope you’re well :D
— Adrian
📰 In The News
1. NPD Report - September 2021
Today, Mat Piscatella of the NPD Group shared his monthly report on consumer spending in the United States for September 2021. A few things stand out!
In console sales, the PlayStation 5 was the best selling hardware platform in both units and dollar sales. This de-thrones the Nintendo Switch, which had been the market leader in unit sales for an astounding 33 consecutive months. Close to three years! “November 2018 was the last month a platform other than Nintendo Switch led the market in unit sales.”
In video game sales, Madden NFL 22 was the best selling game of the month for the second month in a row. It’s now the #2 best selling game of 2021, only behind Call of Duty. In the #4 slot is Tales of Arise, which set a launch record for the franchise. Same story for Life is Strange: True Colors, coming in at #10, and WarioWare: Get It Together at #15.
As you can see in the chart below, September was a big month for sports games. There are also some appearances by Diablo and Deathloop.
2. Steam Deck Verification
Valve has announced that they will have a customer-facing compatibility system to communicate how well games will run on the Steam Deck.
Announced last July, the Steam Deck is a Switch-style console that allows players to bring their Steam games on the go. While promising that the biggest games on the platform will be compatible, they confirmed that not every game will be fully supported from the start.
In order to better communicate which games will be compatible, they have created four descriptors. Here is how they describe them, per the dev blog:
Verified — “Your game passes all compatibility checks. No configuration work is required for users to access all game functionality.”
Playable — “Your game functions on Deck, but may require manual work from the user. (Examples: manually selecting a community controller config, requiring the user to manually bring up the on-screen keyboard, or requiring the user to use the touchscreen to navigate a launcher.)”
Unsupported — “Your game does not function on Deck due to incompatibility with Proton or specific hardware components.”
Unknown — “This game has not completed the compatibility review process. Information about how the game will play on Deck is unavailable.”
Those tags will be selected based on a manual review from Valve which assess a game based on input support, resolution support, hardware compatibility, and Proton compatibility (the OS Steam Deck is built on).
💡 Worth A Look
📅 Events & Releases!
October 19: Inscryption
October 21: Resident Evil 4 VR
October 22: The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
October 26: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, NASCAR 21: Ignition
October 28: Age of Empires IV, Riders Republic, Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars
October 29: Mario Party Superstars
🔥 Thank You!
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