Steam Crashing Bug – Resident Evil Village

Before the Winters’ Expansion, Resident Evil Village suffered a strange bug on PC. It occurred after installing the new patch on Steam, with the game telling players to restart and then crashing. Oddly enough, this only affected the Steam version. While eventually fixed, the cause was never really discovered, which is even more ominous.

If you’ve been paying attention to the look back of 2020, at this point it’s become pretty obvious that one title has seemed to stick out the most. While very few things really surprised at the top of the charts, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons went far and beyond. The franchise had always been a popular one, but New Horizons blasted off in a way few expected. Whether we’re talking about Europe or the US, the game has topped all the 2020 charts on a consistent basis. Now it seems the story is much the same in Nintendo’s homeland.

Nintendo released the top 30 downloaded Switch titles and, surprise, the top download was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. No numbers are given here, and it’s worth keeping in mind that Japan is still largely physical-driven, but it’s never bad to be number 1.

The rest of the list is largely unsurprising with the like of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Party, Minecraft, Among Us, etc. filling out the list. You may be a tad surprised to see Clubhouse Games so high, getting in at number 2, and then Human: Fall Flat really sticks out as somewhat random. The original Final Fantasy 7 also made it on near the end, just to show how much staying power it has had in over 20 years, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe just missed the top 10, though we do know it’s the best selling entry in the region. You can check out the full list below.

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
3. Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban!
4. Human: Fall Flat
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
6. Splatoon 2
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
8. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
9. Minecraft
10. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
11. Pikmin 3 Deluxe
12. Overcooked 2
13. Among Us
14. Pokemon Sword
15. Together! The Battle Cats
16. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
17. Minecraft Dungeons
18. Ni no Kuni
19. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
20. NBA 2K20
21. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX
22. eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2020
23. Super Mario Party
24. Undertale
25. Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy – Deluxe Edition
26. Paper Mario: The Origami King
27. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
28. Final Fantasy 7
29. Pokemon Shield
30. Fitness Boxing

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

Among many companies sharing their financial results for the quarter ending June 30th 2020 was Take Two Interactive. The publisher revealed that its main breadwinner, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5, had sold over 135 million units till date. As GamesIndustry.biz notes, the free giveaway on the Epic Games Store helped bolster sales with Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stating that the initiative was about “increasing the size of the audience.”

Red Dead Redemption 2 has also performed very well with 32 million units sold but it seems that NBA 2K20 was the biggest winner. Along with selling 14 million units since launch, recurrent consumer spending year-over-year was up by 126 percent in the first quarter. Net bookings are the highest ever for a title in the franchise.

Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 sales crossed 10.5 million while Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds managed to hit 2.8 million units sold. No sales numbers were provided on V1 Interactive’s Disintegration, which Take Two’s indie label Private Division had published, but Zelnick noted that its performance was a “bit disappointing.”

Next month is special for Sony’s PlayStation Plus. It will be celebrating its tenth anniversary of service and for this occasion, three PS4 titles will be free in July for subscribers. Visual Concepts’ NBA 2K20, Crystal Dynamics’ Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration and Flavourworks’ Erica will all be free.

In terms of quality, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration is arguably near the top. Despite its age, the action adventure title provides a great mix of third person shooting, platforming and puzzle solving. This edition also includes all of the DLC and bonus content for even more fun.

NBA 2K20 gained some notoriety last year for its extensive microtransactions but the story mode seems decent enough. You can check out our review of the game here. As for Erica, it’s a cinematic live-action adventure that sees the titular protagonist trying to uncover the truth behind her father’s murder. The game offers multiple endings and a branching narrative based on choices.

These titles will be free from July 7th to August 3rd. There will also be a free online multiplayer weekend from July 4th to July 5th at one’s local time for all players so stay tuned.

Take-Two Interactive must have their head in heaven, because they just announced that Grand Theft Auto 5 had shipped over 130 million copies. That alone would make any other company successful, but for Take-Two, it’s just a shining beacon on a pile of gold.

Via their most recent financial report going up to March 2020, they revealed that Rockstar’s other game, Red Dead Redemption 2, has been successful all its own with over 31 million units shipped. The other big “core” title Take-Two recently released through 2K Games was Borderlands 3, which has now moved over 10 million units, up over 50% of Borderlands 2 in the same time frame from that game’s launch.

It wasn’t too bad in other areas either. On the sports side NBA 2K20 has shipped over 12 million units, and on the smaller scale, The Outer Worlds from their Private Division publishing label has moved 2.5 million even before the Switch version has released.

Net revenue for the quarter was $760 million, up from $539 the year before, and gross profit was $365 million, up from $280 million. They recorded a record net bookings of $2.99 billion and also record breaking digital net bookings of $2.4 billion, up an incredible 35% year over year.

As you can see, the company is doing about as well as possible. It’s Take-Two’s world, we’re just buying stuff in it.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks, if not months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many are stuck at home, either through layoffs or self quarantine working remotely from home. While for some it’s little comfort, there are a lot of free and cheap games right now to at least keep you entertained. And now you can both do that and help out with the efforts to combat the virus.

It was announced via 2K’s official Twitter account that they will team with Humble Bundle for what they’re calling the Game Together bundle. It will include three tiers. For just a $1 you can get Spec Ops: The Line, Sid Meier’s Pirates!, The Darkness 2 and Carnival Games VR. If you donate more than the average you’ll also get BioShock: The Collection, Civilization III: Complete, The Golf Club 2019 and NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. If you go all the way and donate at least $20 (or more than that), you get all of that and WWE 2K20, NBA 2K20, XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Edition, Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.

However much you spend, it will go to support the International Medical Corps, which is one of the leading organizations working with the World Health Organisation to combat COVID-19. And you get a pretty good batch of games to help fill the time.

2K is partnering with Humble Bundle to offer a selection of titles as part of the @Humble 2K’s #GameTogether Bundle, with a portion of 2K’s revenue going to support @IMC_Worldwide in its COVID-19 relief efforts.

Get it here: https://t.co/XMR2CifUvu pic.twitter.com/EIP5fabQsM

— 2K (@2K) April 14, 2020

The NPD Group has released its February 2020 report (via VentureBeat) on video game spending in the United States. Due to the lack of major new releases, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare would top the charts, followed by NBA 2K20 and Grand Theft Auto 5. Total dollar sales for video game software amounted to $307 million, a 36 percent drop compared to last year.

Though Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the best-selling game of the month and the best-selling game for the 12 month period ending February 2020, another title dominates sales for this year. It’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot which topped January 2020 charts and is currently in fourth place for February. The Division 2 followed in fifth place thanks to its massive price drop in preparation for Warlords of New York.

The only new release for the month was Yakuza Remastered Collection which released physically for PS4 and debuted at 33rd place. Expect March to be significantly better thanks to releases like DOOM Eternal, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nioh 2, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. In the meantime, check out the ten best-selling games for February 2020 based on dollar sales.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2. NBA 2K20
3. Grand Theft Auto 5
4. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
5. The Division 2
6. Mario Kart 8*
7. Ring Fit Adventure
8. Madden NFL 20
9. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
10. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

*Digital sales not included

Another month means another batch of titles for the Xbox Game Pass service. We already got a good breakdown of what’s coming to the PC version of Game Pass, which you can read about through here. There’s a lot of bleed over between the service’s PC and console versions though, and some big titles on different spectrums will be there, with Microsoft having revealed the Xbox One March lineup for Game Pass as well.

The two biggest titles are by far the latest entry in the mammoth basketball franchise, NKA 2K20. It will come March 5th along with Train Sim World 2020. The other big title is the upcoming Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the sequel to the beloved artful platformer. That game will be added on March 11th, with Pikuniku coming a day afterward on March 12th. The Bleeding Edge beta will also be available on March 13th.

As always, it’s a good mix of titles for everyone who has the service. The new titles will begin coming to the service to all Xbox One devices starting on March 5th.

The NPD Group has released plenty of new data for video game software and hardware sales in the US for the past month, year, and decade, and some interesting but not-too-surprising details have emerged. Here’s another one- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the best-selling game in the US (in terms of dollar sales) throughout all of 2019 (via GamesBeat). It also topped the software charts for the month of December.

In fact, much of the list for the year of 2019 is quite predictable. NBA 2K20 and Madden NFL 20 are right behind Call of Duty, while Borderlands 3 and Mortal Kombat 11 are at No. 4 and No. 5. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order seems to have performed much better than EA would expect of a single player title, and is in at No. 6. It is followed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the seventh spot.

Some other major 2019 releases like Kingdom Hearts 3, The Division 2, Pokemon Sword, Resident Evil 2, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Days Gone also chart in the top 10. Meanwhile, last year’s Red Dead Redemption 2 is at No. 12, while perennial sellers Grand Theft Auto 5 and Mario Kart 8 are also in the top 10.

You can check out the full list below.

Meanwhile, seven out of ten spots in the best-selling games of the decade list were also occupied by Call of Duty, while the PS4 was the best-selling platform of the decade.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2. NBA 2K20
3. Madden NFL 20
4. Borderlands 3
5. Mortal Kombat 11
6. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
8. Kingdom Hearts III
9. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
10. Mario Kart 8
11. Grand Theft Auto V
12. Red Dead Redemption II
13. Minecraft
14. FIFA 20
15. Anthem
16. Pokemon Sword
17. Resident Evil 2 2019
18. Luigi’s Mansion 3
19. Days Gone
20. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe