SuperData’s February digital games report is now out, and to nobody’s surprise, Apex Legends makes the list as one of the top-grossing games of the month. As you can see in the chart below, Apex Legends made its debut at #6 on the PC gaming chart, one spot below its erstwhile competitor, Fortnite: Battle Royale (and just above World of Tanks and Dota 2). It was also the #4 game on consoles during the month, two spots behind Fortnite. SuperData said that Respawn Entertainment’s new battle royale made $92 million in the month, giving it “the best launch month of any free-to-play game in history.” That total is even more impressive when you consider that Apex Legends launched four days into the year’s shortest month, and therefore had only about three-and-a-half weeks to accumulate its numbers. By comparison, Fortnite made an estimated $89 million in December 2017, its third full month of release. In other F2P gaming news, SuperData said that … [Read more...] about Report: Apex Legends Made $92 Million In February, While Hearthstone Tumbled
Albion Online lays out its future roadmap with hideouts, hotspots, and customization
The Oberon update landed in Albion Online yesterday, along with news that the game is going free-to-play in just a few short weeks, but we’re willing to bet money that no one has really cleared enough content in that update to say that they’re done with it. It just got here, after all. But the developers are already on the path to figuring out the next steps in the game’s development, as explained in the new development roadmap on the official site. To start with, there’s apparently a need to encourage more presence for smaller guilds in the Outlands, which has led to the upcoming Hideout system. Hideouts allow for the establishment of underground bases for your guild, and while they can still be attacked and removed, there are limited windows to do so and not much in the way of incentives, thus discouraging larger guilds from just attacking smaller ones. Sandbox Interactive is also looking into improving the various PvP hotspots that currently exist in the … [Read more...] about Albion Online lays out its future roadmap with hideouts, hotspots, and customization
Anthem promises more loot changes and no more Forge loading screen in next week’s update
If you missed Anthem’s developer livestream yesterday, you’ll be forgiven; it’s hard to find in between every dang site’s constant barrage of Stadia news. Ahem. Anyway, it had a few tidbits worth noting! According to transcripts of the stream, BioWare is planning to roll out patch 1.0.4 next week if all goes well. It’ll include fixes for several irritating bugs, including the HP bug and pilot data error bug; remove the Forge loading screen; buff javelins; tweak salvaging and inventory sorting; add random daily legendary missions; and of course, edit loot once again. As for the more distant update roadmap, BoWare says it’s not releasing any new javelins in the near future, but it’s working on player communication, scaling, achievements, the stat screen, and luck. … [Read more...] about Anthem promises more loot changes and no more Forge loading screen in next week’s update
Standing Stone Hands Out Compensation For Extended LOTRO And DDO Downtimes
Remember the dark times, i.e. when The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online were not-so-online for a few days as Standing Stone Games moved its data centers? If you were affected by either downtime — or heck, even if you weren’t and just want some free stuff — SSG’s got you covered, with a code you can use to receive free items in both games. That code is REWARD2019, and it’s valid once per account (per game) until April 30. You don’t even need to be affected by the downtimes; just apply the code on your account page on either game’s site. One person has a link to an image of everything you get in the LOTRO package, while responses to the DDO package seem to be more mixed. The only problem I see is if there’s another issue this year that Standing Stone Games feels the need to compensate players for. If that happens, what code will it use? REWARD2019AGAIN? And if it happens a third time? … [Read more...] about Standing Stone Hands Out Compensation For Extended LOTRO And DDO Downtimes
Perfect Ten: MMOs that set themselves up as spiritual successors
As with the larger video game market, sequels aren’t unknown in the MMO space. We’ve seen studios take a stab at following up successful earlier efforts with follow-ups (such as Asheron’s Call 2 or EverQuest II), and the modern trend of MMO-lites have produced sequels as well (just see The Division 2 or Destiny 2). But sometimes it is simply not feasible to create a sequel even when the desire and original team wants to do it, due to licensing and IP ownership. So what do you do when you want to make a follow-up but you legally can’t? You create a “spiritual successor” that is a sequel in all but name. We have certainly seen many of these emerge over the years, especially in the Kickstarter era when well-known devs capitalize on their popularity to engage in a game that is eerily like what they had done in the past. In today’s list, we’re going to be looking at 10 spiritual successors that attempted (or are attempting) to piggyback on an … [Read more...] about Perfect Ten: MMOs that set themselves up as spiritual successors