Gaming news roundup: Capcom's exciting reveals, Nintendo's Switch 2 strategy and PC player base collapse!

• Capcom Next Summer 2024 

- Capcom’s summer 2024 showcase lasted just over 40 minutes and focused on three games, two for console. The official Capcom YouTube channel got just 54K views with 2K upvotes and 0.5K downvotes making for an upvote ratio of 5:1. One possible reason for the low viewership could be the lack of publicity for the video before it dropped.

- Geekculture did a good synopsis of what was announced. The three games are Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddes, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on iOS and Mac.

- All three games will have a 2024 release.

- Two of the three games are remasters or releases of previous titles. In the case of Dead Rising, this is the second remaster.

• Nintendo Switch 2

- In a big to prevent scalpers cashing in on the expected Switch 2 Nintendo has made an announcement that it plans to meet the huge demand expected on day one.

- The Switch 2 is not expected before April 2025, Q1 being the ideal time to launch Nintendo hardware as it has previously done with the 3DS in February 2011and Switch in March 2017. A September to November window in 2025 now seems the obvious choice.

- Nintendo has had form in under-producing units when it releases a new hardware. The latest example is when Nintendo released the Switch to huge demand and limited quantities. Being aware of this negative press and to boost revenue potential, Nintendo may have delayed releasing the Switch 2 this year to anticipate a high production order for next year.

• Helldivers 2 PC player base collapses.  

The hugely popular Helldivers 2 which blew away sales expectations has seen 90% of the player base on the PC vanish. Despite its initial success, Steam numbers continue to dwindle, plummeting to around 10% of its all-time concurrent Steam peak of 459K players. Upon reading some of the comments gamers complained the gameplay became “samey” and that it needed more compelling and new content, the bane of every GAAS game. We have no data on the game’s player base for the PS5. The collapse of GAAS player bases has been seen before with Destiny, Apex Legends and recently with Palworld.

• Steam’s hardware survey for June is showing signs that Windows 11 is gaining share and that gamers are using controllers more. Windows 11 now accounts for 47% of Steam users, soon rivalling Windows 10 share of 49%. Steam no longer supports Windows 7 or 8. Windows 12 is expected to release sometime this year. Whether it’s the type of games or PC gamers becoming “consolised”, game controller use for the PC is increasing. Valve says that back in 2018 only 5% of all gaming sessions on Steam were played with a controller, but this has increased to15% of all sessions by 2024. The Xbox Controller is the most popular with 59% share followed by the PlayStation Controller with 26%. The Steam Deck accounts for 10%.
  

      Week commencing Monday 8 July 2024