Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales sold through 4.1 million units in 2020.
Revealed during Sony’s Q3 FY2020 results, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales contributed to the total PS5 and PS4 game unit sales in 2020 that reached 103.7 million. First-party sales accounted for 18.4 million units sold, which Miles Morales qualifies for.
In our Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales review, we said, “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales may not be quite as packed with content as the original, but it stands out as an essential story in Insomniac’s Spidey Universe. It earns its spot as a fantastic follow-up, telling a wonderful Miles-specific story while improving upon the fundamentals of the first game with distinctive moves and enemies.”
Also in 2020, PlayStation Plus saw its subscriber count reach 47.4 million, and there were 114 million monthly active users on the PlayStation Network in the quarter. It was also announced that 87% of PS5 users are subscribed to PlayStation Plus.
Sony has announced that the PlayStation 5 shipped 4.5 million units in 2020, matching the PlayStation 4’s launch in 2013.
Revealed during Sony’s Q3 FY2020 results, the game and network services segment of Sony saw a 40% increase year-on-year, in large part due to the launch of the PS5 on November 12, 2020.
Sony also confirmed that there was “loss resulting from strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than manufacturing costs.” It also noted that it is still on track to meet its goal of 7.6 million PS5 sales by the end of March 2021.
The PS4, which shipped 1.4 million units in the same time frame, saw “higher profit margins” in hardware costs. In the same quarter last year, PS4 shipped 6.0 million units.
PS5 and PS4 game unit sales reached 103.7 million, up from 83.3 million in the same quarter in 2019. First-party titles accounted for 18.4 million of the total game sales. Year-on-year, total game sales and first-party game sales are up from 83.3 million and 16.3 million, respectively.
While digital game sales were down from 59% to 53% of the total game sales, they were up from the 50% in the same quarter in 2019.
PlayStation Plus saw its subscriber count reach 47.4 million, and there were 114 million monthly active users on the PlayStation Network in the quarter. Furthermore, 87% of PS5 users are subscribers to PlayStation Plus.
Borderlands developer Gearbox has today announced it will be joining Embracer Group as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swedish holding company formerly known as THQ Nordic AB. The deal, reportedly worth up to US$1.3B, will see Gearbox and its 550 staff in Frisco, Texas and Quebec City become Embracer Group’s seventh official operating group.
Embracer’s existing operating groups include THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, Koch Media, DECA Games, Amplifier Game Invest, and Coffee Stain Holding.
“Lars [Wingefors]’s vision of Embracer as an allied partner group committed to fuelling and accelerating the ambitions of a series of decentralized, successful entrepreneurial companies while magnifying the collective value and advantages of diversification across the entire group is the most brilliant strategy and design for short, medium, and long-term success in this industry that I have ever encountered in my 30 years in this industry,” said Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford in a statement accompanying the announcement. “The feeling at Gearbox is that we are just getting started and this transaction is not merely a stimulant for the talent of our employee-owned company, but a propellant for the exciting future we have planned.”
Pitchford will continue as Gearbox boss following the merger.
Gearbox and Aspyr join a long list of acquisitions for Embracer, which spent 2020 scooping up an exhaustive list of developers from all over the world (including 13 companies announced on a single day). Embracer now has access to more than 200 game franchises and more than 5,500 employees.
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Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter sporadically @MrLukeReilly.
George R.R. Martin has shared an update on The Winds of Winter, the sixth installment of his fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire that was adapted into HBO’s Game of Thrones, revealing that he’s written “hundreds and hundreds” of pages in 2020.
Martin explain in a Not a Blog entry that, while he has made a lot of progress in The Winds of Winter, he still has “hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion.”
Despite that, he claims that 2020 was “the best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it.”
He hopes to reach this “satisfactory conclusion” in 2021, but makes no predictions on when he will finish the much anticipated novel.
“Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a ‘promise,’ and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful.” Martin wrote.
Martin also discussed the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on him and his loved ones, Trump, and how he has “a zillion other things to do as well.”
The Mass Effect trilogy is returning almost 10 years after BioWare wrapped up the story of Commander Shepard in its sci-fi RPG series. BioWare is re-releasing all three of its original Mass Effect games as the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which brings a host of improvements to the original games and puts them together in one big package.
BioWare released a whole lot of information about what we can expect from the Legendary Edition, including what it improves, what it changes about the trilogy’s story, and what it leaves out from the original games. Check out the complete rundown of everything we know about Mass Effect Legendary Edition right now, including when you can play it.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition Release Date And Platforms
Mass Effect Legendary Edition releases on May 14 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It’ll also be available on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 through backward compatibility.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition Preorders
You can preorder the new Mass Effect trilogy right now in a variety of versions, including digital and physical copies. The game itself will run you $60, and there’s also a physical collector’s edition that comes with a host of physical goodies–but bear in mind, it doesn’t include a copy of the game, so you’ll have to snag that separately. Head over to our Mass Effect Legendary Edition preorder guide to see all your options.
Is A Switch Version Coming?
A Switch version is not currently announced–just Xbox One, PS4, and PC. But Mass Effect Legendary Edition director Mac Walters said he’d “love” to release the game on Switch as well, and suggested it could be a possibility in the future. We just don’t know at this point.
What Does The Package Include?
You get Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which are unified by a launch screen that lets you load into each of the three games. They won’t run one into the next, though; if you finish Mass Effect, you’ll have to go back to the splash screen to load Mass Effect 2.
The package also comes with almost all the DLC that’s been released for the trilogy, more than 40 pieces that includes all additional story content, weapons and armor packages, and the like.
Not all the DLC made it in, however. Mass Effect’s Pinnacle Station add-on, which was mostly combat-focused and added a few Achievements to the original Xbox title, is not part of the package. BioWare said that the source code for the DLC has been corrupted–that’s why the developer couldn’t bring it along for this package.
Is Multiplayer Included?
Nope. BioWare said it’s not including multiplayer because it wants to focus on the single-player experience for the Legendary Edition, which means it’ll be rebalancing Mass Effect 3 to take that into account. (In the original release of ME3, you needed to raise a stat called “Galactic Readiness,” which could be achieved by completing multiplayer matches.)
The Mako will take you to some great-looking locales when you revisit Mass Effect in the Legendary Edition.
Here’s a quick list of other improvements to Mass Effect’s visuals:
Tonemapping
Anti-aliasing
Volumetrics and fog
Depth of field and bloom
Bokeh depth of field (to enhance the art style)
Subsurface scattering on the skin
Ambient occlusion (previously only on a select few cutscenes in ME3; it’s now present across the trilogy
What’s Changed From The Original Trilogy?
BioWare has made a whole mess of tweaks to the original games, mostly on the gameplay side to create more consistency between each experience. There are some tweaks to the original trilogy’s story, although don’t expect cut content to be added into the games. Elevators rides are getting severely shortened. Galactic Readiness, a mechanic in Mass Effect 3, is getting rebalanced. Check out our complete rundown of what’s changing in the Legendary Edition.
Are There PS5- Or Xbox Series X|S-Specific Improvements?
Sadly, no. BioWare said it isn’t adding specific features for each console–there won’t be unique haptic feedback on the PS5, for instance, or special utilization of Quick Resume on Xbox Series X and S. Console versions will leverage the new hardware’s additional power, though, so expect some serious reduction in load times with the Legendary Edition.
How Does The Mass Effect 3 Ending Work?
When Mass Effect 3 came out back in 2012, there was a big outcry about its ending–both the content of how the ending worked, and how the aftermath of the final moments gave little context about what happens to the galaxy after Shepard’s story ends. In response, BioWare soon released a patch for the ending that added a lengthier ending cutscene to each ending of the game’s endings, running down the effects of what happened.
When you play Mass Effect 3 in the Legendary Edition, you’ll only be able to access the extended version of the ending–the original isn’t in this package.
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Following the departure of BioWare’s former general manager Casey Hudson and Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah, EA leadership is reassuring investors that it is “very, very confident” in the studio’s future.
During the company’s Q3 earnings call today, CEO Andrew Wilson responded to a question from an investor about the recent departures by praising BioWare, while simultaneously acknowledging criticism over the studio’s output in recent years.
“I think that from the outside world there have been some blips in [BioWare’s] delivery over the last couple of years, but that has come as a result of them pushing deeply into innovation and creativity, and we feel very, very confident about their future roadmap,” he said. “And we’ve talked about games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect in their future.
“With respect to Casey and Mark leaving, both good friends of mine, and we have tremendous respect for both of them. But this happens in the natural course of creative organizations from time to time, and we feel very very good about the ongoing leadership of that studio.”
Hudson and Darrah departed the studio in December, leaving Samantha Ryan in charge of the studio as a whole, Christian Dailey in the role of Dragon Age executive producer, Matthew Goldman staying as creative director on the same project, and Mike Gamble remaining as the lead on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
EA is hoping that its planned acquisition of British racing game maker Codemasters will enable it to start releasing a new racing game every year, on par with its other EA Sports franchises.
In a slide deck accompanying the publisher’s Q3 financial results today, EA highlighted the motivations behind its pending acquisition, including the desire to increase its presence in racing, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson describing the sport as “one of the few truly global sports” during the company’s earnings call.
EA’s presentation further outlined Codemasters’ IP line-up, which includes owned IP Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid, Project Cars, and upcoming mobile franchise Project Cars Go, as well as licensed IP F1 and upcoming licensed games for World Rally Championship beginning in 2023.
These would be added to EA’s owned racing franchises Need for Speed and Burnout Paradise, as well as Real Racing — which hasn’t had a new game launch since Real Racing 3 in 2013.
Later in the earnings call, COO Blake Jorgensen praised the viability of F1 racing in particular as a global franchise currently gaining further traction in the US, suggesting that EA hopes to become the go-to publisher for racing games more broadly, saying the genre is “one of the best growth opportunities there is.”
“On top of the fact that the Dirt Franchise, the Grid franchise, all of their franchises are incredible games, but none of them are actually taking advantage of a large publishing organization and the marketing muscle that we are able to deliver. And we think that has growth to it. Not to mention, the talent that can continue to help our Need for Speed business or our Real Racing business could be very powerful. So we know it is not a FIFA-sized business, but we know there is an incredible opportunity to own essentially all the driving business there is.”
Wilson added that EA also sees an opportunity with Codemasters’ titles to incorporate further live service elements, saying that “F1 plus live service plus our marketing muscle is a profound opportunity.”
This comes alongside a further statement from Wilson during the earnings call, stating EA’s intent to expand EA Sports into different types of sports, with more announcements planned “in the weeks and months ahead.” Wilson added that this includes “at least one new experience” launching next fiscal year — which begins April 2021.
EA announced its intent to acquire Codemasters earlier this month for an approximate price of $1.2 billion, which was initially in contest with a $1 billion offer from Take-Two Interactive before the latter retracted its offer. The acquisition is expected to complete in Q1 of 2021, or between April and June of this year, and is currently pending a shareholder vote from Codemasters.
Codemasters launched Dirt 5 in November of last year as a launch title for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Our review called it “a complete about-face” for the franchise, and an “unabashed, arcade-inspired racing experience.”
EA has spoken at length that a new Battlefield game will be released in 2021 with a reveal planned for Spring. Today during EA’s latest financial call, the company reaffirmed this timeline and says the next Battlefield game will take “full” advantage of next-gen platforms.
During the latest EA investor call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the next Battlefield game will be released on holiday this year and a reveal is planned for Spring. During the Q&A portion, Wilson shared more details on the next Battlefield, short of a reveal.
When asked about the next Battlefield game, Wilson says it will utilize the “full power of next-gen platforms to ensure this is ‘exactly’ the game that Battlefield fans want to play.”
Wilson also says that the next Battlefield will be a return to “full-out military warfare” and will support more players than ever before. The hope is for the next Battlefield game to pave the way for the series into the future.
A lot is riding on the next Battlefield game. Battlefield 5 was the last game in the series that EA released, and that was back in 2018. Reception to Battlefield 5 failed to meet expectations, and regular content updates for Battlefield 5 ended in 2020.
Apex Legends is coming to Nintendo Switch on March 9, developer Respawn announced.
Director Chad Grenier wrote in a blog post that the Switch version of Apex Legends will launch with cross-platform functionality, season 8 content, and “full-feature parity” with other versions.
Worried you’re already behind during the current season? The good news is that Switch players who purchase the season 8 battle pass will receive 30 battle pass levels for free. Players will also earn double XP during the first two weeks after launch.
Porting Apex Legends to its smallest screen yet is a major achievement, and we couldn’t have done it without our friends at Panic Button,” Grenier said. “We’re very proud of what the team has been able to achieve with some smart optimizations for the Switch port to deliver a full-featured Apex Legends experience on the go.”
Apex Legends season 8 kicked off today, featuring the arrival of its 16th character, demolitions enthusiast Fuse, a new lever-action rifle, and the usual assortment of new cosmetics and battle pass items.
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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Crypto main for IGN.
To quote a line from Halo 2 in describing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition: “There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?” Yes, we’re talking about the long-awaited remaster of BioWare’s beloved sci-fi RPG trilogy. We’ve seen it, and we want to tell you all about it. Plus: Xbox’s baseball-game curse is finally lifted – a year earlier than expected too! – and EA surprised everyone with the return of a college football game. Please welcome special guests Kat Bailey and Cam Hawkins this week!
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, featuring an interview with Brian Raffel, the cofounder of Raven Software – the studio behind Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast, Soldier of Fortune, Heretic, Hexen, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Origins Wolverine, and this year’s Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, among many others:
It’s already been an incredibly fun year of Xbox coverage, and the best is yet to come. Join us! Oh, and feel free to leave us a video Loot Box question below using Yappa and you might be featured on an upcoming episode!
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.
