TGO Daily | September 21, 2020 | A Mix of News
Today’s newsletter is a bit of a mixed bag, since there weren’t any particularly distinctive news items this weekend.
PlayStation pre-orders have been top of mind though — they definitely could have been handled better. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been such a fiasco if we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic, but they at least could have kept the messaging consistent.
Nonetheless, I’m excited for all the news things that are around the corner :)
Until tomorrow,
— Adrian
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An update on PlayStation
The pre-order situation for the PlayStation 5 has been absolutely wild this past weekend. Every major retailer sold out of stock, and many people walked away disappointed that they couldn’t get one.
Sony apologized on Twitter:
Truthfully, this shouldn’t be a major issue for most people. It’s in Sony’s best interest that every person who is hoping to get one before Christmas will indeed get one. People hoping to get it exactly on Day 1 might be out of luck though — Amazon has already sent out emails saying shipments might be delayed.
Meanwhile, the console is not going to support backwards compatibility for consoles before the PS4. This was previously assumed/hinted at, but it was officially confirmed last Wednesday. That being said, they’ve also confirmed that “99%” of PlayStation 4 titles will be playable on the PS5. The exact details of how that 99% works out haven’t been provided though. (If it’s relevant to you: Xbox has been much clearer about their stance on BC).
A moment of appreciation for indie games
Today I want to take a moment to appreciate how much easier it is for indie developers to achieve success in this highly competitive industry.
Supergiant Games recently announced that their newest title Hades has sold more than 1 million copies. Something that was made possible thanks to the 700,000 that bought it during an Early Access period. (The game is very good, don’t be surprised if it does a few more million).
Likewise, Stardew Valley has now sold 1 million copies on both iOS and Google Play stores. As of last January, the game had sold 10 million copies across all platforms. These would be absolutely tremendous numbers for a AAA studio, let alone for a game made by one guy.
Finally, the recent hit Among Us has had up to 380,000 concurrent players on Steam at some point within the last few days. That also doesn’t bring into account mobile players, of which I’d imagine there are a lot more. Imagine having to manage all those players with a three person team!
I’m just happy to see how far we’ve come in the last decade, and how we’re getting such amazing games because of it. Obviously not every game and every developer is going to succeed in this way, but its a much different standard since the days of Braid.
Free games to pick up
The last thing I want to leave you with a few free games that you can pick up:
Life Is Strange 2’s first episode is now permanently free on all platforms. They’re doing this to hook you into buying the other episodes, but at least you’ll get a chance to try out the game!
And there are three games you can pick up from the Epic Games Store:
That’s Football Manager 2020, which you already know if you want to play or not. Watch Dogs 2 is just in time for the release of Watch Dogs Legion later next month. I’ve never heard of Stick It To The Man!, but it looks like it’s a 2D platformer that has been generally well received.
Also In The News
Get In Touch
That’s all for today folks! Thanks for being here, and please let me know if you have any suggestions for the newsletter :)
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DCCXCVIII