2020 was something of a crazy year all around. The gaming industry saw a massive boom, in no small part due to many lockdown situations stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was something every region benefited from, including France, which saw a record year.

As reported by GamesIndustry, trade body SELL says that France saw 11.3% growth for the games market year over year, with 2.3 million consoles and over 27 million games sold. It also pulled in a overall record €5.3 Billion in revenue. FIFA 21 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons were the top sellers with FIFA 21 selling 1.3 million copies and Animal Crossing selling 1.1 million copies. Do keep in mind, however, that does not include digital for Animal Crossing as Nintendo does not share that information. New Horizons topped the physical chart and if digital were included, most likely would have been on top of the physical + digital one as well.

Nintendo largely dominated the charts in 2020 for France with 11 of the top 20 physical games belonging to Nintendo. Even without reporting digital, many of their titles charted on the combined physical and digital chart as well, which you can see below.

Physical only chart as provided by GSD

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 
2. FIFA 21
3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 
4. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 
5. The Last of Us Part 2 
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 
7. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
8. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition 
9. Ring Fit Adventure
10. 51 Worldwide Games 
11. Luigi’s Mansion 3
12. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 
13. Super Mario Party 
14. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 
15. Grand Theft Auto 5 
16. FIFA 20 
17. Cyberpunk 2077 
18. Ghost of Tsushima 
19. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity 
20. Pokémon Sword 

Physical + Digital chart as provided by GSD.

1. FIFA 21
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 
4. Grand Theft Auto 5
5. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 
6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
7. FIFA 20 
8. The Last of Us Part 2 
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 
10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
11. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition*
12. NBA 2K20
13. Ring Fit Adventure*
14. 51 Worldwide Games*
15. Luigi’s Mansion 3*
16. Ghost of Tsushima
17. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe*
18. Super Mario Party*
19. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

*Digital Sales are not included

The NPD Group’s video game software and hardware sales charts for the US in January 2021 are out and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is still on top. Based on dollar sales, the first person shooter was not only the best-selling game for the month but also the 20th best-selling title in tracked US history, as per analyst Mat Piscatella. Interestingly, Cyberpunk 2077 dropped from second to 18th place in the charts though its digital sales were not included.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, meanwhile, ranked as the second best-selling title of last month and is also the second fastest-selling title for the franchise in US history. It currently lags behind Assassin’s Creed 3 in terms of sales. While Animal Crossing: New Horizons only ranked fifth in the overall charts, it’s still the Switch’s best-selling title.

Overall consumer spending across the industry hit $4.7 billion, which is 42 percent higher compared to the same period last year. Every category, from hardware and accessories to software, saw increased spending. Check out the top 20 best-selling games based on dollar sales in the US for January 2021 below.

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War
2. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
3. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
4. Madden NFL 21
5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
6. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe*
7. Ring Fit Adventure
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
9. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
10. NBA 2K21*
11. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
12. FIFA 21
13. Immortals: Fenyx Rising
14. Mortal Kombat 11
15. Just Dance 2021
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
17. Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition
18. Cyberpunk 2077*
19. Super Mario Party*
20. UFC 4

*Digital sales not included

However, it’s important to look back on several other problematic titles that were released last fall. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War received some positive feedback on Zombies and the campaign but there’s no denying that it was rife with bugs and issues including crashes. Multiplayer is a different matter altogether – from the initial alpha till now, it’s been criticized for its map design, lack of content, balance issues, matchmaking, the list goes on.

Watch Dogs: Legion also had a number of bugs when it launched, not the least of which included saves becoming corrupted. Complaints of lost progression would continue to be an issue on Xbox Series X/S (and it’s not clear whether they’ve been addressed yet or not). The development team made the decision to delay multiplayer to focus on polishing the base game and fixing bugs, which should indicate just how many problems there were. Then there’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla which, despite critical acclaim, launched with its own share of bugs from progression blockers to floating ships (which have been addressed recently). Other complaints also cite the problematic audio and animation quality.

One has to ask the question then – why don’t such titles go into early access? It sounds like a joke but triple-A titles are becoming bigger, if not more ambitious. Development teams number in the hundreds with budgets easily exceeding tens of millions of dollars. The challenges of optimizing for current-generation hardware also can’t be overstated and when crises like the current global “situation” come up, development is bound to be affected.

From that perspective, early access makes some degree of sense. Granted, the development team could still push out features that don’t make sense while not offering the complete game at release. Expectations are more managed in this regard – the consumer knows what they’re getting into, after all. Development is also at a stage where things can change pretty significantly.

The amount of feedback that can be garnered is also much higher – at least, depending on how many people play – and certain issues can be ironed out before the final release. Furthermore, if someone is interested in an early access title, there’s that feeling of waiting until the game is complete before venturing forth. It helps provide some much needed information on the actual development during this time. Are milestones being met? Features being dropped? How is the performance and optimization shaping up?

One might think this is only applicable for titles (like Hades) which are decidedly indie (and still incredibly worth your time and money). But there’s certainly a precedent for big-name titles entering early access. Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord has been in the works for years and launched into Steam Early Access last year for $50. Impressions were very positive but it still faced issues with optimization, bugs, crashes and lack of content. TaleWorlds Entertainment has been fairly transparent on all of this, providing regular updates on goals and breaking down major upcoming features. It’s a slow process, one that not every fan of Mount and Blade: Warband is happy about, but it’s working.

Baldur’s Gate 3 from Larian Studios launched for the $60 price tag – its overall team size started at 200 developers internally and was stated to cross 300 in external developers. Before launch, the development team was incredibly transparent about what to expect. When it first debuted gameplay at last year’s PAX, it was from a work-in-progress build that didn’t even have the saves implemented, not to mention numerous bugs. As time went on, it showcased more features and outlined all of the classes and content that could be expected in early access while reiterating that it was for fans who wanted to play a part in the development process. It pretty much told players who expected a full, polished experience to wait until the game released.

And once again, there have been issues throughout early access, from corrupted saves to numerous bugs. But throughout it all, Larian Studios has remained transparent. Its most recent update saw animations improved, several non-combat situations providing XP and even reworked cinematics. Even with the current party members made to be evil, players complained that they nitpicked way too often and thus they were changed to be more tolerable. Various combat balance changes, quality of life features and UI improvements were also implemented.

Early access titles aren’t without their faults though. For every major success, there are several other titles that linger for too long, release half-baked or don’t release at all. Among the successes as well have been plenty of titles, from Dead Cells to Torchlight 3, that received criticism for their choices (with the level of severity varying). Furthermore, putting a title into early access may provide consumers with more transparency into the overall development process and afford opportunities for the developer to further polish its game, but all effort is still on the developer.

If the actual development process is highly flawed, then early access will simply expose this problem to more consumers. The final result may have less bugs yet even that isn’t guaranteed. You need only look at the various insider stories on development troubles at BioWare, Treyarch, CD Projekt RED and so on to see how anything from technology issues to a flawed vision and unrealistic deadlines can mire a project.

You’d think that’d be the only reason that major publishers wouldn’t have their titles in early access and are content to go with limited time betas before launch. Why allow fans to have a closer look at the process and attract criticism before launch? This is besides betas serving as incentives to drive up pre-orders, of course. The reality is that many triple-A titles won’t look at early access because of the loss of sales.

While Baldur’s Gate 3 will surpass developer expectations and Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord will rack up over 110,000 user reviews on Steam, big publishers are looking for millions of sales, at the minimum. They know that on the customer side, “early access” for content that will take time to release in full isn’t what their most rabid fans want. It’s more of the same and at a rapid pace, regardless of quality, bugs or development problems.

For big developers and publishers that aren’t bound by yearly releases, it’s about receiving the largest return on investment as soon as possible. If Rockstar Games launched Red Dead Redemption 2 into early access, would its fiscal year sales be high enough for shareholders? Probably but a publisher like Take Two Interactive knows that even more money can be made from a complete release.

Early access development has its ups and downs, providing some of the best titles over the years along with some of the least compelling. While a massive RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3 benefits from feedback over a longer period of time, the same principles just can’t apply to a different game with a different pipeline, developer practices or publisher expectations. It’s a difficult problem to solve, one that requires sacrificing profit, either short-term or long-term, for the sake of developers and the overall quality of the product. Whether most companies are willing to make that sacrifice while revamping their internal policies and practices will continue to be one of the biggest questions for triple-A development in the years to come.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

2020 is done and over. It was a year almost assuredly many won’t forget, even if they desperately want to. The final month of the year tends to be something of a snapshot of the entire year, and December 2020 wasn’t much different. In the US, the charts had a lot of the usual suspects, with one franchise on top as you’d expect it to be, and Nintendo in the strongest position they’ve been in in decades.

As per data provided by the NPD Group (via VentureBeat), December’s top 20 saw Black Ops Cold War at #1, which is no surprise since it was also the best selling game of the year in the region. Right below it was Cyberpunk 2077, which we know sold at least 13 million copies last month in total across all regions. Keep in mind, 2077 hits this list without digital sales, apparently. Whether that would have helped it topple Cold War is somewhat iffy, but even so, number 2 is impressive.

While the rest of the list is populated by a lot of games you’d expect such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Miles Morales, and the various sports entries, what is maybe the most noteworthy is how much Nintendo dominated this list. Their first party titles are seeing strong sales all throughout, even early releases such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and many of the sports titles are on the Switch and being factored in such as NBA 2K21 and FIFA 21. All Nintendo first party titles are also in here without digital numbers being provided, just to add to how incredible a feat it is.

1.  Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Cyberpunk 2077*
3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
4. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
5. Madden NFL 21
6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
8. NBA 2K21*
9. Immortals Fenyx Rising
10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
12. Just Dance 2021
13. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity*
14. FIFA 21
15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
16. Super Mario Odyssey*
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
18. Super Mario Party*
19. Ring Fit Adventure
20. Mortal Kombat 11

* Indicates that digital sales are not included.

As the new year of 2021 begins, it is always fun to go back and look at what 2020 was like and what topped the charts for the whole year. Most of the time these lists tend to be pretty predictable by and large with a few surprises. This year Sony did that with their PS4 and PS5 download charts, and that largely stays true.

As detailed on the PlayStation blog, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the big winner, just in case you had any delusion the series was fading . It topped the PS4 and PS5 charts for the US/Canada, and even in Europe for PS5. The only place it wasn’t number 1 was Europe’s PS4 chart where it was actually 4th below FIFA 21 (that took the top spot), FIFA 20 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

The charts are largely what you’d expect, including the mainstays of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Minecraft and the annual sports titles such as NBA 2K21 and Madden NFL 21. Big AAA titles are here, too, such as The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Maybe the biggest surprise that jumps out is that Ghost of Tsushima actually sold more than The Last of Us Part 2 on the US PS4 charts.

The PS5 charts ended up being a bit more diverse just due to the lack of native options, but still had a lot of what you’d expect. Games like Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Watch Dogs Legion and, obviously, Demon’s Souls made their presence there. You can check out the full list below

PS4 – US/Canada

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Grand Theft Auto 5
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
4. Minecraft
5. Ghost of Tsushima
6. The Last of Us Part 2
7. NBA 2K21
8. NBA 2K20
9. Final Fantasy 7 Remake
10. Madden NFL 21

PS4 – Europe

1. FIFA 21
2. FIFA 20
3. Grand Theft Auto 5
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
6. Minecraft
7. NBA 2K20
8. The Last of Us Part 2
9. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
10. Red Dead Redemption 2

PS5 – US/Canada

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
4. NBA 2K21 
5. Demon’s Souls
6. Madden NFL 21
7. FIFA 21
8. Sackboy: A Big Adventure
9. Immortals Fenyx Rising
10. Watch Dogs: Legion

PS5 – Europe

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
4. FIFA 21
5. Demon’s Souls
6. Watch Dogs: Legion
7. Immortals Fenyx Rising
8. NBA 2K21 
9. Sackboy: A Big Adventure
10. Rainbow Six Siege

CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 debuted on top of the UK physical sales charts last week but it’s reign was short lived. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla took the top spot as per Gfk. Pre-Christmas discounts helped in this regard as sales went up by 66 percent.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was in second place with sales remaining the same as last week. Cyberpunk 2077’s sales dropped by 80 percent compared to last week. Despite the many issues being faced, this is cited as normal for big releases – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for example, saw a similar drop in sales for its second week.

Regardless, it’s still ahead of FIFA 21 which saw its sales increase by 40 percent. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in fifth place and saw its sales drop by 11 percent week-over-week. It’s worth noting that competition among the top five is very tight with Animal Crossing: New Horizons trailing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla by only 9,000 units.

Of course, these are only taking physical sales into account so the overall picture for each game in the UK could be vastly different. In the meantime, check out the Gfk’s top ten best-selling physical titles for the week ending December 19th.

1. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
3. Cyberpunk 2077
4. FIFA 21
5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
6. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
7. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
8. Just Dance 2021
9. Ring Fit Adventure
10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars

Despite so many big releases last month, Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War soared to the top of software sales charts. The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella told VentureBeat that not only was the best-selling game for November 2020 but also of 2020 year-to-date. “Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War represents 2020’s biggest launch. The title ranks first on both PlayStation and Xbox platforms for the month of November, as well as year to date.

“This is the 13th consecutive year a Call of Duty game has ranked as the best-selling game of its release month.” Assassin’s Creed Valhalla didn’t fall too far behind though. It was the second best-selling game of last month and the seventh best-selling title year-to-date. While it set a new record for first week launch sales as per Ubisoft, Piscatella confirms that it also had the highest launch month sales for the franchise since Assassin’s Creed 3 released in 2012.

In third place was Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales with launch month sales being the highest for superhero games on PlayStation platforms in the history of the US. It also ranked second for PlayStation, only trailing behind Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Check out The NPD Group’s top ten best-selling titles of November 2020, with digital sales omitted for specific companies.

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War
2. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
3. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
4. Madden NFL 21
5. NBA 2K21*
6. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity*
7. Watch Dogs: Legion
8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
9. FIFA 21
10. Demon’s Souls

Marvel’s Avengers

Where do we even start? Despite the iffy reveal and games-as-a-service trappings, Marvel’s Avengers looked somewhat more appealing in those War Table streams. Unfortunately, we were soured on the recent beta with its numerous bugs, repetitive mission design, lackluster enemies, boring loot and unstable multiplayer. Forget about Spider-Man being exclusive to PS4 and PS5 versions – right now, we’re worried about online play even being stable enough for launch.

Later today, we’ll get the official unveiling of Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War. The game has long been rumored, and is being revealed far later than usual for the series, but such is the state of the world now. The shooter franchise has been on an annual schedule for years, but one thing has changed: the free to play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone. The game launched shortly after last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and has become something of a beast all its own. And that will continue with Cold War.

In an interview with Redbull, Infinity Ward’s Joe Cecot recommitted to the continuation of Warzone, saying that it will merge with the upcoming Cold War. He’s obviously light on details here, since the game has still not been revealed as of yet, but he’s confident that this will help to breathe even more life into the popular Warzone.

“With the recent reveal of Black Ops Cold War, there’s definitely opportunities to merge that content in and keep pushing Warzone forward with that franchise and Modern Warfare in mind,” Cecot said.

“I’m really excited. I think with that stuff we’re still… we’re working through that, we’re solidifying that and we don’t have specifics on that [yet]. But I think that is gonna breathe more life into Warzone, I think it’s exciting.”

Warzone has said to now be tied with the franchise and will evolve with new entries. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War will be unveiled later today via Warzone, which could very well be a new thing with all that in mind. Right now it’s looking like Cold War will be available across current and next generation consoles, though unfortunately, it’s not looking good for a free upgrade option. We’ll keep you updated.

Typically, by now we would have seen a lot from the annual entry in the Call of Duty series, but 2020 has been far from the typical year. While there have been several leaks beforehand, the game was only officially announced earlier this month. We still know very little about it on the official side, having only leaks and datamines to go by. And speaking of which, a leak also could be showing us our first look at the multiplayer.

As shown by the aptly (and very on the nose) named Twitter user Leaker, we have a look at two maps. One of these is older and appears to be some very early footage and take place on a boat, but the other is new and placed in a desert setting. You can also see the medals being gained looked almost identical to Black Ops 4, though it’s possible those are placeholders depending on what stage of development this is in. The game is planned to get its big reveal later today, so it’s also possible this could be part of that.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War will be unveiled later today via Call of Duty: Warzone, though it’s still unclear exactly how that will happen. We don’t know what platforms it’ll be on, but odds are good it’ll be for all major current and next generation systems with rumors pointing to a November release date. We’ll be here for when the reveal happens.

https://twitter.com/Leaker72664228/status/1298402805934223361?s=20

https://twitter.com/Leaker72664228/status/1298417699026923520?s=20