Episode 58 – Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Gears 5 Sales Data
recorded on 2019-09-20
Headliners
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Remake launched today to a 88 Metacritic score
Little Bits
Some initial sales data for Gears 5 has come in and it shows that Game Pass is a winner
- Gears of War 3 sold 20x and Gears of War 4 sold 4.5x more packaged units
- Gears 5 saw 3 million players in its opening weekend which is 2x that of Gears of War 4
- This is the reason Xbox has been advertising and pushing Game Pass so hard
The ESA tries changing E3 2020 by making it a fan, media, and influencer event (PushSquare)
- The ESA is branding next year’s E3 as a “festival” and not a convention
- They are heavily relying on influencers and fans to power the event next year
More details on upcoming COD: Modern Warfare cross-play beta for this weekend (GameSpot)
- September 19: open beta for PS4, early access for Xbox and PC start 1pm EST
- September 20: open beta for everyone PS4, Xbox, PC starts 6pm EST
- September 21-23: open beta for everyone PS4, Xbox, and PC
- New 32 vs. 32 player Ground War mode will also be playable during this beta
- Almost all post launch content will be available at the same time on all platforms
Rapid Fire
Rockstar Games has unveiled its own PC launcher called Rockstar Games Launcher (Kotaku)
- A place where you can buy and play Rockstar games similar to Blizzard’s Battle.net
- There are 7 games currently on sale include GTA: San Andreas for free
Stadia Founder Edition sold out in most of Europe; you can get the Premier edition (Google)
- This edition comes with the white controller, chromecast ultra, 3 months of Stadia Pro, and the full Destiny 2 collection
Google Stadia is coming to Android TV in 2020 maybe with Android 11R (xda-developers.com)
Sony’s next State of Play presentation is scheduled for September 24 at 4pm EST (PlayStation)
FFVII Remake will have a “Classic Mode” turning combat into the OG version (GamesRadar+)
The new Steam Library is in beta period and is available for everyone to try (Valve, Wario64)
GameStop new store design video “leaked” on Facebook…..looks nice, I like it (IGN)
Microsoft will no longer include gaming revenue or XBL monthly users in earning reports; instead they will report “Xbox Content and Services Revenue Growth” (resetera)
- This is a clear shift to a digital future focusing on XGP and xCloud in the future
Upcoming Releases and Deals
The Surge 2 releaes Tuesday September 24 and Code Vein drops next Friday September 27
Some new games are coming to Xbox Game Pass and they are listed below: (GameSpot)
- September 19: Jump Force and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
- September 26: Bad North, Dirt Rally 2.0, and Lego Worlds
The Epic Game Store free games for this week are Batman focused and are below (Heavy)
- Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition
- Batman Arkham City GOTY Edition and Batman Arkham City (strange to have both)
- LEGO Batman The Videogame, 2 DC Super Heroes, and 3 Beyond Gotham
Call of Duty: Mobile launches free-to-play worldwide iOS and Android October 1 (COD Twitter)
Razer and Overwatch join for a Lucio inspired headset; cool but priced at $230 (DualShockers)
PlayStation Europe tweeted a PSVR Mega Bundle
that will be available in the UK later this fall
- PSVR Headset
- PS Camera
- Astro Bot
- Skyrim VR
- Resident Evil 7 VR
- Everybody’s Golf VR
- PlayStation VR Worlds
Rumor Mill
According to Zenji Nishikawa, Sony will release a “PS5 Pro” alongside the base PS5 (wccftech)
- Nishikawa correctly leaked the Switch Lite and PS4 Pro before their releases so he has a reliable track record
Data miners reveal Fortnite’s delayed 10.30.1 patch has a lot of Batman themed stuff (resetera)
- Batman themed weapons, challenges, Gotham City POI, and explosive Batarang
- This makes sense as Epic is giving away some Batman games for free on its store
Alan Wake could be getting a remaster for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch (resetera)
- Word is Switch port specialist Virtuous is working on the Alan Wake remaster
