TGO Daily | Thursday July 29, 2021 | PS5 Surpasses 10 Million Sales
In the news: PlayStation 5 breaks all the Sony records, Smilegate has $100 million USD worth of faith in That's No Moon, and Facebook freezes sales for the Oculus Quest 2.
TGO Daily | Thursday July 29, 2021
✏️ From the Author
Today is officially my last day of Summer at work. Back to regular 8-hour days come Monday.
Teachers will also have their first day back Monday, which means I’ll quickly be inundated with questions on ‘why won’t X won’t do Y?’
Those silly Algebra teachers should know better…
Until next time,
Brandon
PlayStation 5 Surpasses 10 Million in Sales
The PlayStation 5 is officially the fastest selling Sony console after selling more than 10 million units worldwide. The PS5 hit the mark this July, under a month faster than the PS4 had managed. Jim Ryan, CEO at Sony, said that that while the console is still sold out globally, they’re striving to improve inventory levels.
Beyond just the console sales number, the games are selling very well on the PS5 as well. Spider-Man: Miles Morales has sold over 6.5 million copies since its launch last year. Returnal, released in April, has exceeded 560,000 copies, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, released last month, has already sold over 1.1 million copies worldwide.
Interestingly enough, the PS5 has also performed well in China. This is surprising, as mobile and free-to-play games are more prevalent and popular than consoles in China. When asked what would cause this, Ryan said:
“We made a lot of noise at launch, allocated a good amount of stock, and it blew through very, very quickly. Same sort of energy that we see in the West. It's early days yet but we're encouraged by that.”
Smilegate Invests in That’s No Moon Entertainment
Smilegate (CrossFire, Lost Ark) is a popular South Korean developer that’s wanting to break its way into the West. To achieve that goal, Smilegate is investing $100 million USD into a newly formed studio - That’s No Moon Entertainment. While the studio is brand-spanking new, Smilegate hasn’t thrown an unprecedented amount of money into any old random startup developer. That’s No Moon may have no titles released yet, but they are a culmination of industry veterans from many huge projects.
On their upcoming first title they have Taylor Kurosaki as creative director and Jacob Minkoff as game director. Kurosaki previously worked as narrative design lead at Naughty Dog and Minkoff served as lead designer on The Last of Us and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Their CEO, Michael Mumbauer, was the head of PlayStation’s Visual Arts group, working on titles like Ratchet & Clank, God of War, and the Uncharted series. With a team being headed by veterans of this caliber, it’s not too surprising that Smilegate entrusted them to help bring their name to the West.
The studio plans to specialize in AAA story-driven titles, and as such their first game will be a third-person action adventure. Smilegate is known for their competitive games and hopes that uniting the East and West in narrative-focused games will open them to a new market in the West.
Brandon’s Thoughts: I can’t wait to hear more on the game they’re working on. They’ve got the keys to success, it’s just a matter of ensuring they have the right door to unlock with them. I love that the studio name is a Star Wars reference as well. We’ll certainly watch their career with great interest.
Facebook Freezes Oculus Quest 2 Sales
Reports have started coming in that the Oculus Quest 2’s foam cushion is causing skin irritation on some customers. Facebook investigated the claims and says that, earlier in the year, the problem arose and was affecting 0.01% of customers. The company says they made changes to their manufacturing process to try and reduce the presence of trace substances that could potentially be causing the irritation.
In a further effort to mitigate the issue, Facebook also made a silicone cover that fits over the foam cushion. Quest 2 owners can claim a free cover from the Oculus site.
They announced they will be opening sales of the headset again come August 24th, with the silicone cover now included in the box.
🔦 Article Spotlight
Gaining observability over multiplayer games | Gamasutra
A really neat article if you’re interested in behind-the-scene stuff or if you’re making your own game. Discusses the four challenges of scaling metrics and problems of launching a multiplayer game.
💡 Read More
Dr. Mario World game shutting down in November. The worst performing title in Nintendo’s mobile lineup, it will be closed on November 1st.
Hitman 3's Season of Lust is out now. Adds a new contract that changes the target every time you play it. Sounds like a cool feature to add replay incentive to contracts.
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Thanks for the read <3