70°

Black Friday aftermath sees sales dip at retail | UK Boxed Charts

EA Sports FC 24 remained at the top of the UK boxed charts this week, followed by Hogwarts Legacy despite a slight decrease in sales for both titles.

GfK's report showed that all titles in the Top Ten saw a decrease in sales this week, as Black Friday promotions came to an end.

Super Mario Bros Wonder moved back into the Top Three, while Assassin's Creed: Mirage dropped out of the Top Ten falling from No.8 to No.11 experiencing a 39% decrease in sales.

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gamesindustry.biz
Obscure_Observer554d ago

Yes!

COD and Minecraft are doing great making that sweet money to help and fund our first party games.

Einhander1972553d ago

Did you click on the wrong link or something? CoD is failing to take the top spot and it's at 4'th and is performing about 30% less than the last installment, I'm sure Microsoft will be bragging about "players" soon enough. And if you actually read the correct article you'd notice it's the Switch version of Minecraft which is published by Nintendo.

BTW ya know what's missing from the top 20 Starfield, which performed worse than Forspoken. But ya know whats still in the top 10 Spider-Man.

So YES!

Christopher553d ago

This is one of the worst performing CoD in ages. All blame on Activision rushing this likely intended to be DLC out the door, tbh. But, losing their top spot like this? Not good.

Eonjay553d ago

The idea that Microsoft needs the 'sweet money' to fund their first party games is ridiculous the 69 Billion they just spent would have funded new games for the rest of our lives.

anast553d ago

I couldn't open the article .

60°

Nintendo Switch eShop deals - MAR10 Day sale live

Nintendo Switch eShop deals released featuring the MAR10 Day sale and more with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Mario RPG, Mario Maker 2, and more.

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nintendoeverything.com
70°

Top 10 best Nintendo Switch exclusives

NE: "As the Nintendo Switch's life cycle comes to an end, we rank 10 of its greatest exclusive games and experiences."

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nintendoeverything.com
260°

Two Years Later, Forspoken Still Feels Like One Of The Worst-Written Games Ever

Forspoken's horrible writing makes it come across as an instant turn-off for so many, despite its fantastic traversal and passable combat.

-Foxtrot173d ago

It feels like an example of having to many cooks in the Kitchen as there was 4 writers for this alone and it's sad because Amy Hennig was one of them who has a great track record for female characters or writing in general.

_SilverHawk_172d ago (Edited 172d ago )

i cant believe people are still pretending or being willfully ignorant about why forspoken failed and it hasnt anything to do with storyline bad gameplay or performance issues like some would try to assert. ive seen so many games get lauded for being amazing while having terrible storylines and having terrible performance issues that i know quite a lot of gamers encounters but theyll be quiet because the games were highly praised by reviewers. i think forspoken is a very good game.

TheEroica172d ago

Silverhawk really struggling with reality on this one. Lol

-Foxtrot172d ago

To name some

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Soul Reaver 2
Jak 3
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Knushwood Butt171d ago

Thanks.
Haven't played the first three, but am a big fan of Uncharted.

Armaggedon168d ago (Edited 168d ago )

@silverhawk

Good point. I didnt think Forspoken was a bad game by any means and I see what you mean about how strangely inconsistent and chaotic people are in general with their expectations. I call it the “They Live” phenomena, in which people will wear the shades that show the “flaws” with games they dont want to like, but take the shades off when looking at things that they want to like.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 168d ago
Eonjay172d ago (Edited 172d ago )

One of my favorite games in the last few years is Star Ocean: The Divine force. The story and it's main male character are absolutely trash and far worse than this game by miles . But I still like the game because I love the crafting and combat system.

Not all games need to have a great story. I actually prefer gameplay over story any day. Forspoken also has an excellent combat system which is what sells it for me.

barom172d ago

People will enjoy this game if they’re open minded. Character and writing isn’t bad at all. The marketing was kind of bad but honestly give it a shot and see how you like it.

Pyrofire95172d ago

4 writers isn't even a lot tho.

coolbeans171d ago (Edited 171d ago )

I guess I get to be the "ACKSHUALLY" guy, so here goes. Amy Henning is only credited as a "consultant" and there were actually *more* than 4 writers credited for Forspoken's story.

https://www.imdb.com/title/...

But there's also more to it. On a Kinda Funny Podcast episode after Forspoken's release, Gary Whitta (Rogue One, Book of Eli) talked about the strange situation Square Enix & the main developer set up for him. According to him, he and a few others (maybe Henning too?) were paid to discuss various concepts and lore background together in a writer's room. The idea was to iron out the grander historical details of Forspoken's Wonderland while in a dialogue with the developer about the gameplay mechanics. It's essentially paid-for workshopping which then gets turned over to another group of writers to write dialogue, quest descriptions, etc.

Your overarching point about too many cooks is still correct, but the details are more nuanced. And there seems to be a growing cottage industry of different storytelling layers to most AAA games. One potential cluster of people are paid to essentially write a spec script, another group writes the game's screenplay & storyboards, and then maybe another group are sensitivity readers who filter through it and make their own notes about problematic content. There's no way it's sustainable in the long run.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 168d ago
gold_drake172d ago

has it rly been two years already?
i wonder if they had to stick to a certain narrative instead of just write good characters.

Army_of_Darkness172d ago

Or... A quick fix would be to do a crossover and reskin the character to look like eve from steller Blade! Boobs, behind and all! Boom! Instant sales spike!

Alos88172d ago

A surface level joke that ignores the mediocre gameplay, samey open world that lacked a strong identity, and an annoying pair of main characters that had no chemistry whatsoever.
But sure, blame it all on people not gooning for her hard enough.

gold_drake172d ago

I dont think uve ever actually played stellar blade did u.

Michiel1989172d ago

probably a combination of that and incompetence

gold_drake172d ago

i wouldnt say incompetence.
id say its more lack of understanding what makes a good conversation between chsracters ha.

Michiel1989172d ago

if it's your job to write for a game and you can't write good conversations between characters, that's a prime example of incompetence

anast172d ago

The writing is bad like 99% of games. The trick is to figure out how sh%& it is in a sea of sh&%. Seems like a waste of rescues to explore this, but content is content.

Lexreborn2172d ago

Writing is definitely horrible across the board and just like how you have people who act like every movie needs to be Oscar worthy to be viewable.

You have a ton of people who believe writing in games is phenomenal because a few do it well. None of the devil may cry or bayonetta games have comprehensible story or even makes a lick of sense. All souls games are literally find the story in the items which no one but devotes do.

Gaming being arbitrarily judge on writing as if the reason we are playing it is for dialogue. We are playing for core mechanics, engaging power ups gorgeous graphics and THEN we look for the narrative. Most narratives ALWAYS are last on the list because regardless how great a story is, if the game is boring you won’t get the story.

But even if a game story is trash if it’s fun literally makes a world of difference.

VersusDMC172d ago

The devil may cry games have simple stories...if you can't tell what's going on in those games then you can't tell what's going on in any story.

Kingdom hearts is a better example.

anast172d ago

Every movie that costs millions to make should be Oscar worthy and to accept anything less sets a low bar. For the money they demand, the people who work on these projects are supposed to be the top of the creative food chain. Accepting less is rewarding expensive mediocrity.

Yui_Suzumiya172d ago

Some of the visual novels I've experienced have some of the best writing I've ever seen in any medium so I guess that's the 1%, lol

goken172d ago

Many of the Yakuza stories were pretty good too, Tales series is not bad too. FF series is generally pretty solid, Metal gears stories, silent hill, RE, Zelda…
So 2%? Lol

anast172d ago

Yes, visual novel are niche, but cool nonetheless.

anast171d ago

@goken

I would still say one, considering the sheer amount of games being released.

jznrpg172d ago (Edited 172d ago )

Were you expecting the script to change? A lot of games lack in the story department but don’t get the same criticism

ravens52172d ago

Wonder why 🤔. Smh. I beat the game and it was good. Just like I'll be doing with Intergalactic.

Eonjay172d ago

Yes people have an absurd obsession with beating down on black female leads in videogames. You can't really get them to admit it or even acknowledge it. There is zero self awareness and there is a clear effort to censor them from existing.

ravens52171d ago

No. They won't admit it. But woke folks know what it is. 👀. Using that ^ with its intended meaning. If you know, you know.

Johnh5223172d ago

Its kinda fun but open world missing the npc’s is bland and her standing in one spot talking to her arm annoying why cant we move?. But for free its definably worth it gameplay fantastic.

Eonjay172d ago

I'm sure this says more about us than the game but I totally agree with you on the talking in place issue. In FF7: R I noticed that there are a lot of intentional pauses where you can't move, run or enter certain menus at points in the game. I find it really annoying. Am I trally that impatient or is it bad design?

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