PS5, FIFA / EA, Xbox Game Pass … the business news of the week

News business PS5, FIFA / EA, Xbox Game Pass … the business news of the week

USA: PS5 interrupts record-breaking switch series

33. This is the number of consecutive months the Switch has remained at the top of console sales in the US, that is, since December 2018. An unprecedented streak that has finally come to an end since then the PS5 is the best-selling console in the US market in September. As the analyst explains Mat Piscatella from the NPD Group, this result reflects the fact that Sony was able to bring a sizable number of PS5s to market to end its fiscal quarter well, while Nintendo focused on the launch of the Switch OLED (October 8th) prepared. In the current year, the Switch remains at the top in terms of sales (number of units sold), while the PS5 has the lead in terms of value (revenue from console sales).

As for game sales, there were a lot of releases in September. Madden NFL 22 once again ranks first ahead of two other sports games, FIFA 22 and NBA 2K22. We imagine the latter could have taken the throne, but its dematerialized sales (and other Take-Two released games) don’t count, unlike those of Electronic Arts games.

Occupied fourth place Tales of Arise, which marks the best start to its franchise in the United States and manages to defeat Diablo II: Resurrected (also present in the Diablo Prime Evil Collection compilation) and Deathloop. Great performance for Life is Strange: True Colors (10th) and WarioWare: Get it Together! (15th) who had the best start in their respective franchise. Note, however, that digital sales are not counted for Nintendo games.

Lost Judgment, published on September 24th, is one of the missing in this ranking. As for Kena: Bridge of Spirits, the Ember Lab studio didn’t want to split its sales to the NPD Group.

Top 20 September Sales in the United States

The separ ation between EA and FIFA is confirmed

On October 7, Electronic Arts announced th at it was considering a name change for its foobtall game series, which has been using the FIFA brand since the first episode in 1993. “We are currently reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA, which is separate from all of our other official football partnerships and licenses.”

, we can read this communicates. A few days later an article from New York Times found that the negotiations on the extension of the license agreement, which had been going on for at least two years, had stalled. Currently, EA would pay around $ 150 million a year to use the FIFA name. This license would now like to burden the global body with 250 million dollars per year, more precisely with 1 billion dollars for four years.. Will the American publisher be willing to pay such a sum? The decision should be confirmed by the end of the year.

Waiting for, FIFA in turn publishes a communicates in this weekannouncing to continue “a broad strategic evaluation of the electronic entertainment sector” come to the conclusion that the FIFA brand “should no longer depend on a single party controlling and exploiting all rights” in the future. In other words, the end of our partnership with Electronic Arts should open the door to partnerships with several other game publishers … provided they meet FIFA’s financial terms.

Marcus Lehto (Halo, Disintegration) joins Electronic Arts

After the failure of Disintegration, which led to the closure of his V1 Interactive studio last March, Marcus Lehto does not give up and returns to the top. Art Director at Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3, the veteran has Notice joins Electronic Arts to direct a new studio in Seattle. Unsurprisingly, he’ll be working on FPS-style games under the direction of another specialist in the genre, Vince Zampella, co-founder of Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall, Apex Legends). Note that this new studio is different from the other Seattle studio announced by Electronic Arts last May. This one is directed by Kevin Stephens, the former vice president of Monolith Productions (Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War) and focuses on another genre, action games – open world adventure.

Xbox Game Pass: Subscriber numbers continue to grow, but less quickly than Microsoft expected

The Xbox Game Pass has become the centerpiece of Microsoft’s video game strategy, which aims to capture gamers on Xbox and PC consoles, but also on mobile devices and (soon) directly on smart TVs thanks to cloud gaming. The service was launched in 2017 and continues to grow by regularly adding new games to its Catalog, both from third parties and from Xbox studios.

What about the number of subscribers? a Financial document from Microsoft, published by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the cop of the United States Stock Exchange, tells us so the trend continues. Between July 2020 and June 2021, the subscriber mass increased by 37.48%. According to the analyst’s calculations Daniel Ahmad |, that would bring the number of subscribers to 20 million last June. However, that’s less than Microsoft’s target, which was aiming for 47.79% growth. likely by relying in particular on the Halo Infinite release, originally planned for late 2020.

This remains a positive and promising result for the future. We can expect a huge surge of new subscribers this fall with the successive releases of Age of Empires IV (October 28th), Forza Horizon 5 (November 9th) and Halo Infinite (December 8th)., not to mention the arrival of Minecraft in Xbox Game Pass for PC on November 2nd. 2022 also promises to be a brisk year for the ministry, with flagship novelties like STALKER 2: The Heart of Chernobyl (April 28, 2022), Starfield (November 11, 2022), A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022) or even Redfall (Q3 2022).

Square Enix opens a new mobile game studio in London

Square Enix a Notice The birth of Square Enix London Mobile. A new team has already mobilized for two projects. The first is based on the Nickelodeon series Avatar, the last airbender and is being developed in collaboration with the Canadian studio Navigator Games. No further details for now. The second has already been announced as it is Tomb Raider Reloaded, which will be released in early 2022 Free-to-play for iOS and Android. Keep in mind that the Japanese publisher already has a western studio that specializes in mobile games. Square Enix Montreal, is currently working on Hitman Sniper: The Shadows.

Coming soon in the week’s business news

• 25 million players have launched Sea of ​​Thieves at least once, a Notice Microsoft. That is 5 million more than in March last year.
• Monster Hunter World solidifies its status as Capcom’s biggest hit. Available on consoles since January 2018 and on PC since August 2018, the game comes from over 20 million sales. In June there were 17.3 million.
• Epic games will be the next games of. to edit open eyes and Spry fox. The first is a young studio, the existence of which was revealed last August, led by Cory Davis (director of Spec Ops: The Line) and Robin Finck (former guitarist for Nine Inch Nails and Guns N ‘Roses). The second is known for Alphabear and Cozy Grove.
• The Danganronpa saga now has 5 million sales, including 3 million on Steam alone.
• Focus Entertainment has announced a majority stake in Paris-based studio Douze-Dixièmes, whose first game, Shady Part of Me, was released last December. The publisher has also renewed its partnership with Saber Interactive, which will release no fewer than five additional games for Focus between 2023 and 2026.
• The Chinese group NetEase has taken over the Grasshopper Manufacture (No More Heroes) studio, which was previously owned by GungHo Online Entertainment.