Month: October 2018

Nintendo reported earnings for its latest period today, and as part of that, the Japanese gaming giant also updated its sales charts for the Nintendo Switch console. As of September 30, the Switch had sold 22.86 million units, along with 111.1 million games sold for the system.

Nintendo previously forecast that it would sell 20 million Switch consoles during the current fiscal year, which ends on March 30. Over the first half of the fiscal year, Nintendo has sold 5.07 million Switches, so the company needs to have a successful holiday season to hit the mark, it seems.

The company’s new CEO, Shuntaro Furukawa, said during a news briefing that Nintendo, like other game companies, often does significant business during the holiday shopping season.

“The Switch’s momentum has been in line with our expectations,” Furukawa said, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. “While the 20 million goal is not an easy target to achieve, the year-end holiday season is when we get the largest revenue.”

Nintendo has a few major releases coming up in the balance of the year that will undoubtedly help sell systems. Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee launch in November, followed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in early December.

Regarding game sales, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze shifted 1.67 million units following its release in May, while June’s Mario Tennis Aces has sold 2.16 million copies. Overall, Super Mario Odyssey is the best-selling Switch game with 12.17 million copies sold. Like other companies, Nintendo is seeing an uptick in digital sales. Sales of downloadable games and add-on content combined for Switch amount to ¥39.1 billion ($345 million) for the six-month period ended September 30.

Microsoft has already confirmed it’s working on multiple new Xbox consoles, while Sony recently for the first time acknowledged it may make a fifth PlayStation console. It’s obvious and expected that Microsoft and Sony, as well as Nintendo, will continue to release new hardware as time goes on. Now, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has spoken up to say you’ll have to wait a while longer to learn about new consoles. However, he intriguingly suggested that new consoles could place more of an emphasis on streaming and the cloud.

“There are a few articles out there; a few rumours; and a little hearsay as to what [the new consoles are] and when they’re coming and what they might be,” Wilson said. “I don’t think we’re in a position today to have a conversation about that. But just know that we’ve worked with Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo for many, many years and we look forward to working with them for many, many years more, even if we all collectively seek to move–either some portion of or all of our experiences–to the cloud.”

That last line about Wilson believing that all platform-holders might be looking at streaming more seriously is particularly interesting. There are rumors that one of Microsoft’s new Xbox consoles is a streaming box, while Nintendo already has streaming support for games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Resident Evil 7 (though only in Japan). Sony, meanwhile, has its PlayStation Now streaming service already running. Another player in the market could be Google, which recently showed with its own game-streaming tech that you can play AAA games in your browser.

Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive, has said he believes streaming will help accelerate the industry’s transition away from “closed” systems. Bethesda boss Pete Hines recently talked about how he would like the industry to get to a place where you can buy a game and play it wherever you want. Wilson, the CEO of EA, said during the same presentation today that he sees a future where you can play games on any device you want, with streaming/cloud gaming help accelerate that shift.

Presumably companies like EA, Bethesda, and others are briefed on announcements before they are made public, so it’s intriguing to hear top executives at each company independently say much the same thing. EA itself is working on a game-streaming service as part of its ridiculously ambitious-sounding Project Atlas.

There is no word yet as to when Microsoft and Sony will officially announce their new consoles. Nintendo, meanwhile, is expected to release a new version of the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

Microsoft’s next big event is X018 in Mexico City, which takes place in November. If Microsoft has some kind of big announcement to make soon, X018 could be the venue for it.

Fortnite launched for Nintendo Switch back in June in the midst of E3, and the popular battle royale game is unexpectedly a huge hit on Nintendo’s hybrid console. Now, Nintendo has revealed more details on just how wildly popular the game is on Switch.

In an earnings report, Nintendo revealed that Fortnite has been installed on “nearly half” of all Nintendo Switch consoles worldwide. As of September 30, Nintendo sold 22.86 million Switch units, so that means Fortnite is downloaded on around 11 million of them.

While that is a massive figure, Fortnite is free-to-play, so the more important data point is how much time people are playing the game and how much money they are spending on its various microtransactions. Nintendo said only that “many people” are playing Fortnite on Switch, which is “boosting the overall utilization ratio of Nintendo Switch.”

Nintendo added that the Switch edition of Fortnite is compelling because it’s playable on the go via the tablet controller. Of course, the mobile editions of Fortnite for iOS and Android are also portable, but the PS4 and Xbox One editions are less so.

Fortnite’s next big update has been delayed, but while you wait for that you can check out the game’s new, limited-time Halloween-themed event called Fortnitemares.

The head of Electronic Arts, one of the biggest publishers and developers in all of games, has a bold prediction for where the future of video games may be headed. During an earnings call today, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that on a long enough timeline, video games may get closer to TV, movies, and music where the content you consume is not bound to any one specific piece of hardware.

“We are planning for the future,” Wilson said. “We see a world where games are no longer bound by the device, or CPU or GPU; we see a world where they span across platforms, across business models, across geographies.”

Advancements to cloud and streaming efforts in gaming may accelerate the walls coming down, Wilson suggested, and it’s not hard to see why. In the music, TV, and movie businesses, the content you purchase–either as a direct download or through a subscription to a streaming service–moves with you no matter what hardware you have. That’s totally different than the traditional gaming experience where the games you purchase on one platform only play on that specific hardware.

Wilson went on to say that it has made some organisational changes recently to help EA prepare itself for a future where games can be played on any device. Wilson specifically referenced how EA veteran Samantha Ryan is taking over for outgoing executive Jade Raymond is helping to shape the future of EA.

“Some of the decisions we made during the quarter, specifically around Samantha Ryan, … we’re bringing these types of games together that serve as a very particular player cohort in the context of action, adventure, RPG, and simulation,” Wilson said. “We feel very good about the level of collaboration we’re going to be able to achieve across that group to deliver creativity, innovation, and execution more broadly.”

EA already operates a subscription–but not streaming–service in the form of EA/Origin Access. Wilson said subscribers on average tend to play more games, spend more time in the games they play, and spend more money overall. This is all good for EA, but to get people to subscribe, Wilson said EA needs to create new games to bring them in, and then establish a back catalog of compelling content to keep them there. This sounds like the Netflix model, and there appears to be a race among gaming companies to become the first “Netflix of Games.”

To that end, Wilson said EA is always thinking about acquiring content, talent, and IP over time, which again sounds very much like what Netflix is doing to build up a robust library that gets people to sign up and stay. EA is working on a streaming service, and just this week it started to share more details on what’s known as Project Atlas.

Intriguingly, Wilson’s comments match up closely with what Bethesda boss Pete Hines and Take-Two chief Strauss Zelnick said previously about closed system walls coming down. Hines said at PAX Aus that he sees a future where you buy a game and play it on whatever platform you want.

“You might decide to play it on the Sony machine or the Microsoft machine or use the Google [streaming] service, but it will start–I think–to look more like it really doesn’t matter what you choose to play it on,” he said. “You just want to play this game on the thing you choose to play your games on whether that’s because where your friends are or whatever. Things like cross-platform play, cross-platform progression, all of that stuff.”

As for Zelnick, he previously talked about how the “closed system walls” that exist between Microsoft, Sony, and others need to come down. He didn’t mention new consoles by name, but it makes sense that Zelnick–as well as Hines and Wilson–would be among those briefed on the capabilities of new consoles.

“The closed system walls are coming down, and they have to,” he said. “Streaming is going to accelerate those walls coming down. We’re all here for the consumers. If you’re going to create rules that don’t benefit the consumers but somehow you think benefit your enterprise, you’re mistaken. Consumers will go elsewhere. You have to pay attention to what the consumer wants.”

Sony already operates in that space with PlayStation Now, while Microsoft is working on a game-streaming service of its own. Google’s Project Cloud streaming service is already showing with Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey that you don’t need a console to play the newest, best-looking games.

Looking ahead, Microsoft has already confirmed it is working on multiple new consoles, and one of them–Xbox Scarlett–could place more of an emphasis on streaming. According to Microsoft insider Brad Sams, one of the consoles Microsoft is making is a streaming box, while the other one is a more traditional console with support for local play.

Platform-exclusives like Sony’s God of War and the Halo franchise on Xbox are likely not going to go anywhere, as they help the platform-holders sell systems. Even if streaming takes up a bigger piece of the pie, companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will all surely still push their own hardware and games in some capacity.

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