News Mash-Up - Week # 40

• • EA is currently weighing its options in retaining the FIFA brand. In a statement, EA was “exploring the idea of renaming our global EA Sports football games." The FIFA brand is separate from the licensing contracts EA has with other football licensing agreements. EA put out a statement that “300 individual licensed partners that give us access to 17,000+ athletes across 700+ teams, in 100 stadiums and over 30 leagues around the world.” This could mean future FIFA games will look the same but they will be called something different.

  • According to a Wall Street Journal article that used Sensor Tower revenue estimates, Apple in 2019 made $8.5 billion in revenue from the 30% commissions it charges on video games alone. That is an estimated half from all commission revenue and a fifth of Apple’s total revenue.

  • Speaking at the GeekWire Summit, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has stated that games could become Amazon’s biggest entertainment category, surpassing Video Prime and Amazon Music. Andy Jassy has historically supported Amazon Game Studios with investments reaching over $500 million so far. The recent release of New World has become a hit with critics and audience alike with Steam concurrent usage hitting 800,000 gamers and sales surpassing one million units. Amazon’s Studios next game is LostArk, a free-to-play RPG expected in 2022.

  • Nintendo’s OLED Switch was released on Friday. The new handheld will be priced at €365 with the older LED version getting a price cut to €270.

  • Sony has ended all credit card and debit card transactions for the PlayStation store on the PS3 and PS Vita. Any games brought from the store on those systems can only be done via wallet credit. Sony recently tried to close the PS Store for these consoles earlier in the year but backed down from pressure from fans.

  • xCloud gaming has been released on the Xbox consoles including the older Xbox One. GamePass subscribers will be able to stream 1080p at 60fps for a selection of games on their console without the need to download the game first. All saves and progressions will be saved on the Cloud, enabling a seamless continuation of gameplay if the game is downloaded.

  • Rockstar has officially announced the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition which will include GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas. The remastered games will be available for the PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Switch, PC sometime by the end of 2021. An iOS and Android app for the games will also be released next year. From this forthcoming week, all existing versions of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas from digital retailers on PC and consoles will be removed to make way for this new game. No sign yet of GTA 6.

  • Following last week’s news that GOG faced a wave of backlash over the release of Hitman on the store which included an element of DRM (digital rights management), the store site has decided to stop selling the game.

Week commencing Monday 11 Oct. 2021