Author: Trafficblast

Just like Take-Two, gaming giant Activision Blizzard is making lots and lots of money from microtransactions. The company confirmed in its earnings report that its microtransactions, which are called “in-game net bookings,” amounted to $709 million USD for the quarter ended September 30.

This is down by $323 million, or 31 percent, from the $1.032 billion that Activision Blizzard made from microtransactions during the same quarter last year. Check out the chart posted below to see a rundown of the numbers and comparisons to previous quarters.

Activision singled out Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 as a big success story for microtransactions during the quarter. Revenue from the sale of in-game items in Black Ops 4 “grew sharply” compared to Call of Duty: WWII during the same period last year.

One reason that total microtransaction revenue might have dropped year-over-year is that Activision no longer publishes the Destiny franchise. That series features numerous microtransaction opportunities including emotes, currency, and more.

Activision’s microtransaction strategy has been at times controversial. For Black Ops 4 specifically, some players remarked that the game’s microtransaction system pushed players toward spending extra money. Just this week, Activision announced that it is changing how the Black Market works to be more player-friendly. Some scoffed at the timing, given these welcome changes come at a time when a portion of the playerbase has moved on to the new game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Modern Warfare’s microtransactions are currently limited to just one item: a calling card that players can buy to support charity. Activision will add more microtransactions to the game in December with the launch of the first Battle Pass.

Here is a look at how microtransactions are performing at Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard is a giant company with multiple business divisions that each individually contribute to microtransaction revenue. The Blizzard unit benefited from the launch of WoW Classic during the period, while the mobile/social game unit, King, sells numerous microtransactions and operates an in-game advertising business for Candy Crush.

Microtransactions are big business at many big game publishers. In its own earnings report, Take-Two announced that it made more than $300 million from microtransactions during the latest quarter thanks to games like GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.

A stream of new content is headed to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare this Friday, November 8. Additionally, Activision revealed that the new battle pass system is set to be implemented later this year in December. Per tomorrow’s update, fans will be treated to two new maps and will see the addition of the Hardpoint game mode.

Activision and Infinity Ward have decided to get rid of its traditional season pass system and opt into a battle pass instead. The decision to get rid of the season pass means that future map additions and game modes will come to all players on all platforms for no extra cost.

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Check out the new items you’ll find in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Welcome to Nintendo Voice Chat! This week, the NVC panel is answering all of your burning Nintendo questions. Join Zach Ryan, Brian Altano, Sam Claiborn, and Jonathon Dornbush for a super-sized edition of Question Block! Before that, the crew dives into the news of the week, including Terry Bogard’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate appearance, the huge Pokemon Sword and Shield leak, Bloodstain’s update on Switch, and more.

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Since the launch of Fortnite Chapter 2, Epic has decided to change things up. Starting with the crazy black hole event that ended Season 10 and began Chapter 2, fans have often been confused by what is going on in Fortnite. In fact, recently, Epic decided to delete the majority of the patch notes on the official Fortnite website, causing fans to make their own.

Fan ire over a lack of patch notes really sprung up after a Harpoon gun was released into Fortnite without any warning from Epic earlier this week. While it may seem like a minor thing, some fans enjoyed reading through the patch notes to see what was new in Fortnite. In the past, patch notes were usually released on Tuesday or Thursday of every week, but for Chapter 2, that hasn’t been the case yet.

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Though we still don’t have an exact date, Take-Two Interactive has provided a release window for the Switch version of The Outer Worlds. The Outer Worlds is currently only available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. On Xbox One and PC, The Outer Worlds is available via Game Pass.

In the company’s latest quarterly earnings report, Take-Two writes that The Outer Worlds will “be available for Nintendo Switch in calendar 2020, during our fiscal year 2020.” That limits the Switch port to sometime between January and March in 2020, so unless there’s a scheduling change, you can expect The Outer Worlds to release on Switch fairly soon.

The next patch for the current versions of The Outer Worlds addresses several in-game bugs and implements some welcome changes–such as an increase to subtitle font sizes. The patch is currently scheduled to release in The Outer Wilds sometime between November 10-16.

In GameSpot’s The Outer Worlds review, Edmond Tran wrote, “I finished The Outer Worlds wanting more, eager to jump back into the world to see extra things. It’s not a short game, but it’s one packed with such a steady stream of wonderful characters to meet, interesting places to explore, and meaningful, multi-layered quests to solve, that it didn’t feel like there was any room to get tired of it. I wanted to rewind the clock and do everything in a completely different way. The Outer Worlds is consistently compelling throughout, and it’s a superb example of how to promote traditional RPG sensibilities in a sharp, modern experience.”

Avengers: Endgame was undoubtedly one of the biggest movie releases of 2019, as it completed the first 3 phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and broke box office records. With tons of great performances by an elite acting crew, Disney has confirmed it has officially submitted the majority of the core Avengers: Endgame cast for Oscar consideration.

After initially only submitting off-screen roles, Disney decided to also push Best Supporting Actor and Actress nominations for Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and the rest of the core Endgame cast. The following candidates have now officially been submitted by Disney for Oscar consideration.

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As part of Take-Two’s latest earnings report, the company shared new sales numbers for some of its biggest games from the Rockstar and 2K labels.

Starting with the biggest one, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V has now shipped an astonishing 115 million copies, which is up 5 million copies in three months. That is a tremendous figure, especially so given the game is more than six years sold.

Gearbox’s Borderlands 3, which is published by 2K Games, has now reached 7 million copies sold in. That’s up from 5 million shipped in its first week. About 70 percent of sales of Borderlands 3 were digital, which is good news for 2K because printing discs cuts into the profitability of a game. Across all of its games, Take-Two’s digital share of console game sales reached 50 percent for the latest quarter, which is up from 31 percent during the same period last year. This is further evidence of the waning popularity of physical media.

Another Rockstar release, Red Dead Redemption 2, now stands at 26.5 million copies shipped. Sales are improving again, it seems, as the 1.5 million copies shipped during the quarter is up from 1 million copies shipped during the three-month period before that. Importantly, these numbers do not include PC, as the sales only cover the period through September 30.

Red Dead Redemption 2 needed only eight days to surpass the number of copies that 2010’s Red Dead Redemption shipped during its entire lifespan. Sales are expected to continue to climb, as Red Dead Redemption 2 was just released for PC.

Take-Two also announced that NBA 2K20 has now sold in 6 million copies, which represents growth over sales of NBA 2K19 over the same period of time.

Take-Two doesn’t just make money from outright game sales. The company’s games have microtransaction systems, and these are proving to be lucrative as well. For the latest quarter, Take-Two made $317,386,000 from what it calls “recurrent consumer spending.”