Sparkers Blog

Level Up: EA Sports hits, Netflix's game expansion, and retro collectibles!

Written by Sparkers | Wednesday, 31 July 2024

      

 

    Top News Items

           Industry News   (15/07/24 - 28/07/24)

EA Sports College Football 25 is a massive hit in the U.S.
  • EA Sports College Football 25 is a game that hardly got noticed in Europe (GSD all regions 51K units), but in the U.S., it is a massive hit. It sold 2.2M copies of its $100 premium edition alone, which offered access to the game three days ahead of launch. In addition to the 2.2M players in early access, the game also saw 600K people play the game early through subscription service EA Play. Two reasons why it is such a runaway hit is because the last College (American) Football game released back in 2013, resulting with some pent-up demand for this new title and because this is the first time college athletes have been paid for their likeness to appear in-game, with EA offering $600 per year to over 11,000 players.

 

  • EA will be adding another level of monetisation to EA Sports FC with a new Premium Tier of in-game rewards. The new tier will launch with EA Sports FC2. 5EA has yet to specify pricing for this additional tier, but the publisher has said players will be able to unlock it with Ultimate Team coins (which are earned in game) or FC Points (which are purchased with real money).

 

  • Netflix currently has over 80 games in development, with plans to release a game a month to its subscribers from July, implying Netflix has plans to release games for the next 6 years. The Netflix mobile app includes several third-party games as part of the subscription, like Grand Theft Auto, Football Manager, and Sonic Mania, as well as original Interactive Stories based on Netflix shows like Love is Blind and Perfect Match.

 

  • Xbox 360 physical games has officially entered the retro collectors market with game prices rocketing on auction sites. By the time you read this Microsoft will have closed the Xbox 360 digital store and this has resulted in a price hike for existing games. According to TheGamer, the overall price of many of the Xbox 360's most popular titles increased by over 14 percent across 30 titles, with over 85% of the games researched seeing a price hike.

 

       New games

      Weeks commencing Monday 29 July 2024

Date Title Platform(s) Genre(s) Developer(s) Publisher(s)
July 30 Deadlink PS5 First-person shooter Gruby Entertainment Crunching Koalas
  Sword and Fairy Inn 2 PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Life simulation Softstar, CubeGame eastasiasoft
July 31 Deadlink XSX First-person shooter Gruby Entertainment Crunching Koalas
August 1 AirportSim XSX Simulation MS Games, MK Studios Iceberg Interactive
  Dokapon Ikari no Tekken[a] NS Role-playing Sting Entertainment Sting Entertainment
  Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom NS Visual novel Idea Factory eastasiasoft
  Hiiro no Kakera: Tamayori Hime Kitan – Omoi Iro no Kioku[a] NS Visual novel Otomate Idea Factory
  Mars 2120 Win, NS, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Metroidvania QUByte Interactive QUByte Interactive
  Operation: Tango NS Puzzle adventure Clever Plays Clever Plays
  Spark the Electric Jester 3[g] NS Action, platform Feperd Games FreakZone Games
  Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Win, NS, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Action-adventure Aspyr Aspyr
  Tomba! Special Edition Win, NS, PS5 Platform Whoopee Camp Limited Run Games
August 2 Aero the Acro-Bat NS, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Platform Ratalaika Games, Shinyuden Sunsoft
  Closer the Distance Win, PS5, XSX Simulation Osmotic Studios Skybound Games
  Fragment's Note+ Win Visual novel Ullucus Heaven Ullucus Heaven
  Fragment's Note+ AfterStory Win Visual novel Ullucus Heaven Ullucus Heaven
  Fragment's Note 2+ Win Visual novel Ullucus Heaven Ullucus Heaven
  The Mortuary Assistant PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Horror DarkStone Digital DreadXP
  World of Goo 2 Win, NS Puzzle 2D Boy, Tomorrow Corporation Tomorrow Corporation