Back 4 Blood

Turtle Rock Studios’ Back 4 Blood is a glorious tribute to Valve’s Left 4 Dead series, and while it definitely has a few flaws – that doesn’t detract from the fact that it is a really fun time with friends. There are plenty of enemy types and the encounters do a good job of mixing things up on a consistent basis, which makes it a consistently enjoyable experience that’s even better with friends. 

“Record live services performance and increased engagement, particularly from our EA Sports FIFA franchise, drove better-than-expected Q4 net bookings, capping a strong finish to the fiscal year,” said Chris Suh, chief financial officer Chris.

The success should be no surprise, since EA reported back in February that FIFA 23 was on pace to become the best-selling title in the franchise’s history. EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated that year-to-date net bookings had grown by 4% for the franchise year-on-year, and North America alone saw its market grow by 50%.

Even during launch, FIFA 23 was breaking records. Back in October 2022, EA revealed that the FIFA 23 launch saw a record-breaking 10.3 million players playing across all platforms in its first week alone.

The success of FIFA 23 is priming EA for its next major football title, which will be the first one released by the company to leave the FIFA branding behind. TItled EA Sports FC, the game recently got a short teaser trailer.

But that’s not all as FIFA 22 arrives on consoles and PC on June 23rd via EA Play. Martial arts battle royale Naraka: Bladepoint goes live on the same day for cloud, consoles and PC. On July 1st, Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5 becomes available for Xbox consoles, PC and the cloud. This follows other titles like Assassin’s Creed Origins, which was updated for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S and added to Game Pass.

As usual, a select number of titles will be leaving the Xbox Game Pass library so either finish them quickly or use the 20 percent discount with the subscription to purchase the same. Check out all of the games leaving the service on June 30th:

• FIFA 20 (Console and PC)
• Jurassic World Evolution (Console and Cloud)
• Last Stop (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• MotoGP 20 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

The test will be limited to the above two modes in order to reduce “the chance for introducing new issues into the game.” Once it goes live, players can select a widget in the bottom right-hand corner of the game and enable cross-play from there. It will also be possible to block and/or mute players along with searching for friends.

Cross-playing with friends requires adding them to your friends list in-game. If your friend also has cross-play enabled, then there will be an indicator revealing their platform (which is also displayed when playing against randoms in Online Seasons). Stay tuned for more details when the test goes live.

Those interested in diving into FIFA 22, which features a number of improvements over its predecessor, can also avail a bonus FUT Pack via PS Plus. It includes 11 players that are rated 82 or above along with the Icon Moments Loan Player Pack for adding a stellar player to your roster. Tribes of Midgard is a survival action RPG experience by Norsfell which sees players guarding the seed of Yggdrasil from the forces of Helheim, including the Jotnar.

By venturing out into the world during the day, one can discover powerful items and resources to upgrade their base before night falls and the raids begin. Finally, there’s Curse of the Dead Gods, an action rogue-like set in a cursed temple with Relics, powerful weapons and lots of ways to die. As one progresses further, they’ll accumulate Curses which can either adhere to or punish your playstyle.

It’s also worth noting that Persona 5 will be leaving the PlayStation Plus Collection on May 11th. It can still be downloaded and accessed if you add it to your library before then (as long as the PS Plus subscription is active).

FIFA 22 and Tribes of Midgard will be available for both PS4 and PS5 players. Curse of the Dead Gods is on PS4 but PS5 players can play it via backwards compatibility. FIFA 22 is the latest in Electronic Sports’ yearly football franchise (which could be renamed EA Sports FC next year). Tribes of Midgard is an action RPG survival title that sees players exploring the world of Norse mythology and protecting the seed of Yggdrasil from forces of Helheim and the Jotunn.

Curse of the Dead Gods is an isometric rogue-lite taking place in a randomly generated temple full of traps, enemies and treasure. As players progress, they’ll accumulate different Curses which can be dangerous (but also provide some benefits). There’s a hefty amount of content and weapon variety to be had overall.

Sony hasn’t officially announced the PlayStation Plus titles coming in May so stay tuned for confirmation in the coming days

FIFA 22 rose to second place even with sales dropping 32 percent week-on-week. Pokemon Legends: Arceus also had a decent jump to third place despite a 20 percent sales drop. Last week saw a number of PS5 titles in the top 10 thanks to more PS5 stock but they’ve now suffered significant drops. Horizon Forbidden West has gone from third to seventh place as sales fell by 65 percent.

Gran Turismo 7 sales dropped by 75 percent, dropping it from second all the way to 11th place. The only new debut this week was MotoGP 22 but it came in at 39th place with 37 percent sales on PS5. Check out the full Gfk top ten in the UK for the week ending April 23rd below.

As per a report by GamesIndustry, several of last year’s games such as Far Cry 6, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart, which were some of the best-sellers of the year, performed very well, selling more physically than digitally. The only exception to this is Resident Evil Village, which was marginally a little bit more popular on the digital front.

Nintendo games continue to perform well physically, unsurprisingly. Of all the physical copies sold, Switch had a share of 47%. Apart from that, FIFA 22‘s digital sales share was 61%, making it the fastest-growing digital product in the country, whereas the Call of Duty franchise saw the digital share drop year on year, with Call of Duty: Vanguard’s share being 58%.

EA’s F1 2021 in the end takes the bag for the biggest digital sales share for a new release, enjoying a 64% digital sales split.

Below, you can have a look at the 2021 UK sales chart with digital sales split to get an overview of the current market situation.

In light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in the region, EA has announced that it is removing the Russian national team and Russian football clubs from its FIFA games. This includes FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile, and FIFA Online. The company says that the reason for the decision is to stay in line with their partners, i.e. FIFA and UEFA, and their respective stances.

Even though EA as a company and the FIFA organization may not be entirely happy with each other in recent times from a business point of view, it makes sense, given the gravity of the situation, that during these times, they are aligning their stances.

A statement from EA SPORTS FIFA: pic.twitter.com/v3pZvpblgS

— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC) March 2, 2022

Of the total digital sales for Horizon Forbidden West, 67 percent were for the PS5 version which is interesting considering the PS4 version’s free upgrade option. Hype around the sequel seemingly affected the original game as well, which re-entered the charts at seventh place.

As for Total War: Warhammer 3, digital sales were slightly down compared to the previous game. It still performed well enough to make FIFA 22’s second place victory a close one. Check out the top-selling digital games in the UK for the week ending February 19th below.