Author: Trafficblast

Valve Reveals The Top-Selling Games Of 2020 On Steam

As part of Steam’s “Best of 2020” extravaganza, Valve has announced the highest-grossing games on the platform by revenue, and there are few surprises.

Valve did not provide any specific revenue numbers, nor did it rank any of the games in order of how much they sold, but the company did categorize the games into Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers, presumably based on the gross revenues.

Games in the Platinum category include Valve’s own free-to-play games CS: GO and Dota 2, which make money from microtransactions. Other games that made the cut for Platinum include Red Dead Redemption 2, Destiny 2, Fall Guys, PUBG, Doom Eternal, Monster Hunter World, Among Us, Cyberpunk 2077, and Rainbow Six Siege.

Rockstar’s enduringly popular Grand Theft Auto V also made it onto the Platinum list, which is an especially noteworthy achievement given that the game was released on PC back in 2015.

Games in the Gold category for sales in 2020 included Borderlands 3, The Elder Scrolls Online, Civilization VI, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Phasmophobia, Sea of Thieves, Ark, Warframe, Crusader Kings III, Dead by Daylight, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Mount & Blade III: Bannerlord.

Steam’s Top-Grossing Games Of 2020

(Alphabetical order)

Platinum

  • Among Us
  • CS: GO
  • Cyberpunk 2077
  • Destiny 2
  • Doom Eternal
  • Dota 2
  • Fall Guys
  • Monster Hunter World
  • PUBG
  • Rainbow Six Siege
  • Red Dead Redemption 2

Gold

  • Ark
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Borderlands 3
  • Civilization VI
  • Crusader Kings III
  • Dead by Daylight
  • Halo: The Master Chief Collection
  • Mount & Blade III: Bannerlord
  • Phasmophobia
  • Sea of Thieves
  • The Elder Scrolls Online
  • Warframe

You can see a full breakdown of Steam’s top-grossing games of 2020 here.

In other news about Steam, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was named Steam’s Game of the Year for 2020, with Valve’s own Half-Life: Alyx picking up the VR Game of the Year award. Here at GameSpot we enjoyed Half-Life: Alyx quite a lot as well, awarding it our own Game of the Year.

And if you’re looking for a deal, Steam’s latest Winter Sale is now live and ending soon–and it’s offering some fantastic offers on a wide range of games.

Now Playing: Cyberpunk 2077 Review

New Uncharted Movie Images Released To Ring In The New Year

After more than 10 years of development, the Uncharted movie finally finished filming in 2020 and is now awaiting its release later this year. Ahead of that, the movie’s official Twitter account shared some brand-new images from the film that offer a glimpse and tease about what to expect.

The key and the map stills were released earlier by Uncharted video game actor Nolan North. The other two appear to be new–check them out below.

The Uncharted movie stars Spider-Man actor Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake, with Oscar-nominated actor Mark Wahlberg portraying Victor Sullivan AKA Sully. Also starring in the film is Best Actor nominee Antonio Banderas, while Tati Grabrielle (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Sophia Ali (Grey’s Anatomy) are playing major roles as well.

After multiple delays, the Uncharted film is due in theatres on July 16, 2021. It’s a prequel of sorts to the games, and it does not follow any of the storylines from Naughty Dog’s games. The movie is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Venom).

Uncharted is not the only Naughty Dog video game that is being adapted for the screen. HBO is working on a TV series based The Last of Us, and it’s apparently getting fast-tracked. HBO recently announced that the project, which is written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl, The Hangover series) and game director Neil Druckmann, has been picked up for an entire season instead of just a pilot.

As for the Uncharted video game series, 2017’s Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is the most recent entry in the franchise. Naughty Dog has said it will not make any more Uncharted games, but that doesn’t mean the series is finished; another studio could make Uncharted 5.

Steam Hits New Heights With 25 Million Concurrent Users, But One Record Didn’t Fall

It was a record-breaking holiday season for Steam, as Valve’s digital PC storefront reached a new all-time record for most concurrent users. However, the actual number of people playing games as opposed to having the Steam client open, did not break a record.

According to Steam’s own public stats, sometime around January 2, there were more than 25.4 million people logged into Steam at the same time. That’s a new all-time high.

Now, this doesn’t mean that more than 25 million people were playing games on Steam at the same time. The majority of accounts were idle on the day the record was broken, according to PCGamer. The site notes that 7.4 million people were playing games on Steam during the record-breaking day. This is not a record, as 8.1 million people were logged into Steam, and playing games, back in March 2020.

In terms of the games people are playing, Steam’s public data shows that its own free-to-play juggernaut CS:GO remains the most popular game on the platform by far with more than 1 million concurrent players on January 4. Dota 2 and PUBG follow behind in the second and third positions, while CD Projekt Red’s recently released Cyberpunk 2077 and the enduringly popular Grand Theft Auto V round out the top five, both tallying hundreds of thousands of players.

In other news about Steam, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was named Steam’s Game of the Year for 2020, with Valve’s own Half-Life: Alyx picking up the VR Game of the Year award. Here at GameSpot we enjoyed Half-Life: Alyx quite a lot as well, awarding it our own Game of the Year.

And if you’re looking for a deal, Steam’s latest Winter Sale is now live and ending soon–and it’s offering some fantastic offers on a wide range of games.

The Office: Watch A Never-Before-Seen Cold Open Involving Dwight And The Matrix

After a run of many years, the popular workplace comedy The Office has left Netflix and is now streaming exclusively (in the US, at least) on NBC’s own service, Peacock. With the move to Peacock, NBC promised some never-before-seen footage and other special content, and the network has indeed delivered.

NBC has published a previously unreleased cold open involving Dwight and The Matrix. Jim and Pam attempt to convince Dwight that he is indeed living in the matrix, with Hank the security guard playing the role of Morpheus. The sequence is best seen without knowing much more, so go ahead and watch it below. The video is dedicated to Hank actor Hugh Dane, who passed away in 2018.

NBC also released a 15-minute video that showcases some additional never-before-seen extra scenes, bloopers, and other wackiness. It’s not hard to see why some of this was cut, but it’s an enjoyable watch for fans of the show looking to get a peek behind the curtain.

While The Office has been removed from Netflix in the US, you can continue to watch it from America by using a VPN.

The Office, which is based on the Ricky Gervais show of the same name, ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013. While Netflix is losing The Office, the company is still in business with Steve Carell and creator Greg Daniels with their show Space Force, which has been picked up for a second season. The first season didn’t exactly make waves, but neither did Season 1 of The Office, and Space Force has made a series of behind-the-scenes changes to help it break out in its sophomore season just like The Office did.

There’s a Human-Made Bubble Surrounding Earth

A giant bubble of VLF radio frequencies – entirely created by human activities – is not only surrounding the Earth, but is creating weather-like effects in space.

According to NASA, the bubble was first detected in 2017, and is the result of very low-frequency radio communications, often used for coded or long-distance messaging – such as contacting submarines deep underwater. These frequencies have been “leaking” into space, and have created a barrier of sorts around Earth.

As turns out, this giant bubble is keeping charged, radioactive particles from entering Earth’s atmosphere. Various nuclear blasts over the years have resulted in belts of radioactivity around Earth, which this barrier has pushed further away than they were in the 1960s.

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“A number of experiments and observations have figured out that, under the right conditions, radio communications signals in the VLF frequency range can in fact affect the properties of the high-energy radiation environment around the Earth,” Phil Erickson, assistant director at the MIT Haystack Observatory, said, according to NASA.

In effect, VLF frequencies are creating human-induced ‘space weather’. Unfortunately, according to a new article from Science Alert, the barrier doesn’t solve the problem with the radioactive particles damaging Earth’s satellites.

NASA says that tests are underway to see if VLF transmissions can be used to remove the excess radiation surrounding Earth.

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Scientists are discovering what could be a parallel universe where time goes backward and signs of life on Venus, so a man-made barrier surrounding Earth fighting off radiation shouldn’t be too surprising. There might even be a Galactic Federation that won’t let humans in yet. Maybe there will be a change of heart when they see the cool Earth barrier that humans made!

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.

Daily Deals: 144Hz Gaming Monitor for $299, Dell Laptop Sales Continue & More

This Sunday of deals brings us quite the mix of great savings. The Dell laptop deal continues over at Best Buy, so if you’re in the market for a new productivity device, that’s the place to be. Another set of protein drinks are on sale at Amazon, and there’s a healthy little mix of tech items being discounted this weekend as well. Of course, no list is complete without some games, so cruise down to the bottom to see what’s still currently on sale for the holiday season.

The Best Daily Deals for January 3rd

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PS4 “Greatest Hits” Collection for $9.99 Each at Best Buy

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More Video Game Deals

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Rubik’s Cube Movie in Development

Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group and Endeavor Content are teaming up for a feature film based on the iconic toy known as the Rubik’s Cube.

As reported by Deadline, Hyde Park Entertainment is also partnering with Glassman Media (The Wall) to create a game show based on the global brand of Rubik’s Cube.

The Rubik’s Cube was invented by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik in 1974. In 1980, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik and sold by Ideal Toy Corp. Since then, the Rubik’s Cube has sold over 450 million units worldwide.

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As of 2018, amateur and professional “speedcubers” from all over the world have competed for puzzle-based glory in the Rubik’s Cube World Championship Finals in Boston, MA.

“I’ve had a personal and nostalgic connection to the Rubik’s Cube from my early days in India,” Ashok Amritraj said. “I am thrilled to partner with Endeavor Content and Rubik’s/Smiley and look forward to creating a wonderful and complex Rubik’s universe.”

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For more on Rubik’s Cubes, check out a 17x17x17 Rubik’s Cube – the largest in the world in 2015 – being solved in 7.5 hours.

Image Credit: Marco Secchi/Getty Images.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

NieR: Automata’s ‘Final Secret’ Has Been Found After Almost Four Years

NieR: Automata’s “final secret” has been discovered after nearly four years, and it allows you to skip the entire game.

As reported by Kotaku, modder and dataminer Lance McDonald discovered this cheat code that allows players to go straight to the end of NieR: Automata after only defeating the first boss.

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NieR: Automata, which was released in 2017, has multiple endings that require players to replay the game numerous times to truly complete the story. This cheat code, however, allows you to simply go right to the last ending.

Spoilers ahead for NieR: Automata.

Once you have unlocked Ending E, players must make it through a challenging arcade shooter that has you attempting to destroy the game’s credits. Once finished, you are given the option to sacrifice you save data to assist others in that task. If accepted, you will actually lose your save file.

This cheat code, however, lets you get to that ending to help others without completing the game and having to give up your hard earned save data. McDonald discovered that this is not a glitch, but an actual cheat code that is programmed into NieR: Automata. According to him, it took “hundreds of hours of reverse engineering” to figure this out.

As of this writing, McDonald hasn’t fully revealed what the inputs are to activate the cheat code, but the video above shows him doing so near some barrels after defeating the aforementioned first boss. The screen fades to black, and he is then able to sacrifice his save data.

Following this discovery, NieR: Automata’s director Yoko Taro Quote Tweeted McDonald’s video and appeared to confirm the discovery by saying “3 years 10 months.（◎血◎）”

The Japanese NieR Twitter also acknowledged the find, saying (via Google Translate), “It seems that the last secret has been discovered.”

McDonald has said he will be releasing a full video of the game-skipping cheat code soon, but be sure to let us know if you figure it out before then!

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This “final secret” arrives just a few months before Nier Replicant Ver. 1.22474487139 will be released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on April 23, 2021.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.