Pirlo’s “thousand-yard stare” in the top right..
The EA Sports FC 25 Demo will not be released. To try the game, you will need to subscribe to the EA Play service.
If you played FC 24...you have played FC 25. Expect little to no improvements...especially AI.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Hence why I stopped buying sports games NHL 25 would be no different then NHL 24 or NHL 23.
"This is GSD figures, which tracks all digital game sales from most major publishers (Nintendo data is absent), and physical game sales in all major European markets."
"The No.1 selling game in May this year was EA Sports FC 24, followed by Grand Theft Auto 5. F1 2024 races in at No.3. The PC release of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut sends the PlayStation game up to No.4."
"11.6 million PC and console games were sold across European markets in May. Compared with the same five week period in 2023, that's a drop of nearly 17%."
"Hellblade 2, System Shock Remake, and the Rogue Prince of Persia all missing out on the Top 100."
I need an xbox fan to explain to me how Hellblade didn't even enter the top 100 since Game Pass doesn't effect sales and you guys are all just using the service as a trial to buy the games later.... /s (for sigh)
Also tell me again how 3.5 M sales first month for FF was bad...
If Microsoft didn't buy the developer this could have been a multiplatform game and if they wanted they still could have got it day 1 on Game Pass.
If I worked at Ninja Theory I'd be sprucing up my resume right about now.
Think it's pretty obvious to most that Hellblade 2 was a flop, it was setup to fail by skipping playstation and being sent to die on gamepass, especially on a platform where they openly mock playstation 'movie games', this being way more movie than any PS game.
But in defense of GP and HB2:
If the Game Pass strategy is continuesly working out and drawing in new subscriptions, wether monthly nor yearly ones, then lower box office sales ARE the logical consequence.
I sure wouldn't have expected HB2 missing even the Top 100, but if I would have wanted to try it out, I would have rather subscribed for a month than buying it.
I understand what Microsoft is trying to do with game pass.
But I guess the point is that this game had a five or six year dev cycle, the revenue this game needs to generate to cover the cost of it's creation is high. There is a zero percent chance that Hellblade 2 brought in enough subscribers to offset the loss of sales or pay for it's creation and the continued developmental costs of other game pass games in development.
Keep in mind as I recall this game didn't even make it into the top 20 most popular games on the xbox platform. And on Steam it was equally if not more unsuccessful with very low sales and player counts..
This is the whole problem and why Microsoft is closing studios and putting games on other devices, they aren't generating enough profits to maintain developmental costs.
" I would have rather subscribed for a month than buying it."
Well yea, that's how everyone thinks, that's the problem $9 vs $50 so Microsoft needs to attract 5 people to game pass for every single sale. But it's more complicated because they also have to pay for things like the monthly games they add to the service as well as continual developmental costs.
it's a sustainability problem.
@Einhander1972
No worries, I get you.
I personally dislike the GP model, too, because I view it as a useful tool to lock games behind licensing agreements you never know when they will get expired, forcing you to pay for it again.
I just wanted to point out that HB2 was, if anything else, heavily played through GP, otherwise it would have entered the charts.
So lower rankings in the charts could in fact just mean a game is (well) received over GP.
Going forward, it's one of the most interesting things to watch in the following years how Microsoft will be able to hold up to the effect GP has on box office revenue.
I am thrilled to see how the Xbox brand will evolve around this with their next hardware iteration.
Looking at the recent hardware sales news, you can bet their heads must be steaming right now to come up with a proper strategy around GP.
My take is that you can bet Microsoft will be going or at least heavily evaluating becoming a full 3rd-party-publisher, even with their biggest IPs.
As of now, I can't see any other way how they would be able to keep the GP sustainable pumping out AA-AAA games day one.
Many of them with development costs well above 50 or even 100+ million USD. And subsequent support work going into them over years after release.
I feel like, you have a rational view of the issues, and I also "get you".
Just one thing I disagree with, though you say could so I assume your just being optimistic or glass half full.
"I just wanted to point out that HB2 was, if anything else, heavily played through GP, otherwise it would have entered the charts. So lower rankings in the charts could in fact just mean a game is (well) received over GP."
I don't think that is what happened, the game didn't even crack the top 20 on xbox's own ranking system. That is my opinion on the performance of the game.
I'm not sure there is a path to sustainability, game pass is a bit like an ouroboros the more people adopt it the more it canabalizes the platform and the industry over all.
"I don't think that is what happened, the game didn't even crack the top 20 on xbox's own ranking system."
Ouch.
I did not know that. Sorry if you had mentioned it before, I must have overlooked it.
Well, what can I say.
HB2 wasn't meant to be for everyone, but leading up to its release it got definitely hyped like it was by a part of the Xbox community.
I am saddened for Ninja Theory, I bet they would have had a bigger success if they still were 3rd party.
But I have to say that HB on its own was probably never created to be a system seller, but rather fullfilling their own vision of creation. Which in fact is what videogames are all about in the first place.
I wrap it up.
Indiana Jones and COD incoming - wonder how their numbers will look like.
It's exciting, I mean it truly is, to see GP effects on so many titles still coming up. especially on the juggernaut that CoD is.
Here we go.. too much barking about EA CEO getting a big bonus when the same ones are buying his games. So pathetic
Interesting that EAFC 24 still made top sales, considering it was the free game on PS+. Unless that counts as a purchase?
Hellblade has always been overrated, even the original. Just because a game does something different, doesn't make it amazing. Great graphics and a unique experience... that's really it. That doesn't make up for the rest. Gameplay is terrible, puzzles are terrible, no replay value, extremely short.
The original was only $30, so it was more acceptable. But the sequel brought nothing new to the table.
The boss of EA got a £4 million bonus last year, for launching EA Sports FC, at the same time as he was laying off hundreds of developers.
Good for him, sponsored by those who buy his games.. not first second or third time they do it.. same people who trash him in the tread are the same ones who buy EA’s yearly half baked releases..
Havent bought fifa since 2020.. enough is enough with this garbage company
Exactly u definitely can get a off type of feel from just looking at that Pic of that weirdo
Sadly It’s all about budget and bonus they get bonuses for staying under budget and a easy way is to cut on salaries by cutting older employees and hire new at cheaper salaries or just have one employee do the job of two
Yeah, mean while in Japan they take a pay cut on themselves just to keep each dev on the job. Different worlds and let's be honest the people needs to know why they take home millions. Give us a walk through of what makes then deserve that $
that's only nintendo. Sony laid off 900 people this year and no mention of a paycut anywhere
@Michiel
Speaking in general as in many studio companies in Japan hell non gaming companies. I said nothing of nintendo by name or Sony by name as said in general of studios in Japan. Sony is not a Japanese company like they use to be case in point headquarters not in Japan so your motive of bringing them up is .....
According to Sony, their registered head location is: 1-7-1 Konan Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-0075 Japan
I was really starting to wonder when did Sony stop being Japanese. Nope, they're still Japanese.
https://www.sony.net/corpor...
^ From Sony.
@Nort
Let me redo it for you they arent the Japanese company they use to be. A real Japanese company wouldnt have so many foreigners at the top.
Isn't that how it always works? A Ceo, chairman or some group of higher ups fire people then get a giant fat ass pay raise or a big bonus. And I bet the exec doesn't even know the name of the person who runs to get him coffee and a donut. Every company does this I think Stellantis also did the exact same thing. I know Bell Media in Canada did the same thing a few months back as well. The exec got a bonus and fired all the peasants. In this world its the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Basically screw over the normal people who helped make a company what it is.
Check Nintendo execs out (and plenty of other non-gaming Japanese companies for that matter). Lots of stories of them taking pay cuts to reward employees etc.
It's western corporate culture especially that is driving inequality, poverty etc.
I agree crazy how US prints money etc and still have their hand put towards the American people
Japan got its own issues with corporations. Borderline slave labor, to the point where people off themselves. Greed is the same wherever you go.
Inverno, I agree there are issues in this respect too, but that is as much a cultural thing than anything, that kind of behaviour or attitude is even replicated in respect of children and their education in Japan. Point still stands that corporate greed and hyper capitalism is much more prevalent in the US and Europe.
No that's how it works in America. Here we have the highest disparity of worker vs CEO in the world. That's just what we accepted but it's not 'how it is'
I'm trying to think of anything EA has done in the last 10 years that could even be slightly considered pro worker or pro consumer and I've got nothing run by greedy fat cats killed by greedy fat cats
they put Vince Zampella in charge of I can't remember exactly what, but it was a pretty high position but besides that I couldn't name a thing.
My Lord... looks like The Sims, but ugly
🤡
Some of those hands/gestures look like AI generated quality stuff.
I'm sure their mothers love them.
Reminds me of when they used to do this on Dreamcast and PS2 sorts game covers
https://upload.wikimedia.or...