Retail video game industry bounces back to life in June

Batman: Arkham Knight was the best-selling game of the month, despite a disastrous launch on the PC.Warner Bros.

In the same month in which the video game industry held one of its largest conferences dedicated to upcoming titles, sales of physical games and game hardware jumped to record highs for the year.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the marketing extravaganza dedicated to the video game industry's biggest titles of the year was held in Los Angeles this June. Some of the biggest game makers, from Microsoft to Sony, and Electronic Arts to Ubisoft, held events to tease upcoming blockbuster titles such as the space-age shooting game "Star Wars Battlefront" and the action adventure title "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate."

The response from consumers appears to be positive as retail sales of physical games on discs and accompanying hardware saw year-over-year growth in June, according to market researcher NPD Group. Overall sales of software, hardware and game accessories in the US grew 18 percent for the month to $869.4 million.

Since the introduction of new game hardware from Microsoft and Sony in November 2013, the retail game industry has been struggling to stabilize itself as it transitions away from old hardware, released a decade ago, to new devices released in the past few years. Sales of these upgraded consoles have been strong, but software sales have fluctuated and, on the whole, have tended to fall from year-ago comparisons. That's due to a lack of enthusiasm and lack of diversity in new games, analysts say, at least those titles that are purchased from US retail outlets like GameStop and Amazon, which is the only segment NPD tracks.

That appears to be changing, if only in small bursts of positive growth. Yet the renewed enthusiasm for new releases shown during E3 indicates that momentum for rising retail game sales may be building.

Software sales of games on discs grew 19 percent to $354.1 million. The best-selling retail game of the month was Warner Bros.' comic-inspired action game Batman: Arkham Knight -- despite its controversial and buggy launch on PC -- followed by the long-awaited console release of popular fantasy game The Elder Scrolls Online. Warner Bros. had even more good news last month, taking the third spot with LEGO: Jurassic World and continued success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which came in fourth.

"This is the fourth month of year-over-year [software] increases so far in 2015; through the first half of the year, software is up 3 percent," NPD analyst Liam Callahan wrote in a statement. "With a strong lineup of games for the remainder of the year, there is the potential for a positive growth in the second half of the year as well."

Game console sales in particular were up 8 percent in June to $313.1 million from this time a year ago. That's a reassuring jump after months of slumping console sales had indicated that perhaps a majority of players had already upgraded to newer hardware, and the remainder of consumers were simply not interested.

Sony was pleased with the results in June thanks mostly to a special bundled version of its PlayStation 4 along with Batman: Arkham Knight. The PlayStation 4 was the top seller.

Callahan noted that these types of hardware bundles that include brand new games, and not simply older and less popular titles, helped boost the overall share of console bundles to 82 percent of sales in June 2015, u[ from 35 percent a year ago. "June 2015 was especially strong for hardware bundle sales as the 82 percent share of hardware attributed to bundles in June 2015 is above the year-to-date total of 67 percent share," Callahan wrote.

Microsoft was undeterred by Sony's performance, saying in a statement that "Xbox One sales in the US were up 51 percent over June 2014 and active global Xbox Live users (Xbox One and Xbox 360) grew 22 percent."

As has been the case in previous months, sales of games over the Internet are an even brighter spot for the industry. SuperData Research, which tracks sales and deliveries over the Internet of games and game add-ons, said the market grew 18 percent in June to $1.02 billion year over year.

"Generally speaking, Western [countries] engagement with mobile games often falls during the summer, but last month's mobile revenue was up 4 percent over May," said SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen. SuperData's report also added that sales of mobile games were up 20 percent to $367 million. Sales of console and PC games hit a combined $314 million, up 30 percent.

Bethesda announces new Fallout, Doom games as it jostles its way to becoming a top game maker

Bethesda's Fallout series of games is one of the most popular in the industry.Bethesda Softworks

There's competition to be the next big video game maker.

Bethesda Softworks, the company behind some of the most popular video game franchises in the world, is launching a specialized social network connecting game players together to compete and discuss its games, as well as share modifications they'd made, such as custom multiplayer maps.

The new software, called Bethesda.net, is similar to efforts by other major game makers such as Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and Valve, whose social networks have helped to expand their influence.

"It will be at the heart of all our games going forward," said Pete Hines, head of public relations and marketing at Bethesda.

The new announcement is part of a larger effort by the video game maker to elevate its position within the industry. The company's major presentation kicked off E3 in Los Angeles, the largest showcase event in the video game industry.

The game maker discussed new instalments for some of its top games, including the first-person shooter Doom and the post-apocalyptic adventure game Fallout 4. The games, first released in 1993 and 1997 respectively, have become some of the most influential in gaming. Doom's last instalment was released in 2004, and Fallout's in 2010.

For Fallout 4, six years in the making, the company said it had created intricately detailed new features to help make the latest instalment more immersive and fun. The open-world roleplaying games, set in the United States after a series of nuclear blasts nearly wipe out the population, are among the most popular in the industry. The newest title in the series will launch November 10, 2015.For Doom, the company discussed new ways for gamers to create their own levels to play with one another. The company said its new feature, called Snapmap, makes it easy to create levels and change the way monsters in the game interact with one another and the players.

One of the newest features of the new game is how it begins. Bethesda said that, rather than the traditional opening on the ruined Wasteland, the game begins in the world that existed before the bombs fell in Boston, Mass.

Todd Howard, head of the team that made the game, said the company built the game to allow players to choose however they want to progress, exploring the game's world to whatever degree they like. They can also build villages or use parts from various toys or tools they find to create up to 700 different types of weapons.

"Player freedom remains our absolute number one goal," he said. "We like to fill our worlds with thousands of items so you can interact with them, and now they have purpose."

Following a trend in the industry, Bethesda also announced a companion smartphone game with Fallout: a fully functional in-game inventory management system players can use on their phone while wandering the Wasteland.

As part of the marketing effort for Fallout, Bethesda also built a separate game for tablets and smartphones meant for managing the fallout shelters that the game's protagonists live in. "The goal of this game was to do something we want to do on our phones," Howard said. It's being released for free on Apple and Google-powered devices Sunday, he said.

E3 2014: Heavy on games and toys, light on hardware

by Ian Sherr 
 and Nick Statt 

Halo's remaster collection of older games was a highlight of the show.343 Industries

LOS ANGELES -- Each year, the video game industry converges on downtown LA for the Electronic Entertainment Expo to show off their latest games and hardware, setting the tone for the coming months and beyond.
The 2014 edition of E3 saw a raft of game titles -- many of which relied upon the established goodwill of staid franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Halo and Assassin's Creed . The show also saw validation of interactive figurines as a legitimate trend in the industry.
Despite a focus on console products, the 2014 show stands in contrast to last year's E3, which was dominated by the announcements of the prices for Microsoft's and Sony's new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. The excitement and subsequent debate about the two company's upcoming products, and the slate of new games to go with them, carried on well beyond both devices' November launch dates.On the hardware side, virtual reality and alternative video game consoles were poised to draw the industry's attention away from the traditional hardware makers. That didn'thappen.
The following is a reporter's notebook summarizing the highlights and hot trends at the confab.
Virtual reality a no go (yet): The buzz over VR games and system has been steadily building for the past couple of years, but E3 2014 saw few announcements. That's because most companies just aren't ready to discuss everything they're doing. Almost every major game maker has begun research or development of VR games, but the only one who discussed it on stage was Sony.



CNET

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, said although his company is researching the technology, he's waiting until there are signs of demand and strong sales before moving forward. "There's not a benefit to leading with regard to someone else's peripheral device," he said. "We don't need to be first in line."
That doesn't mean products made by the popular virtual reality company Oculus VR were hard to find. The headsets lurked everywhere on the show floor, including the IndieCade independent game developer showcase.
At Oculus's own booth, the company showed new titles such as Lucky's Tale, an innovative platforming game made by former Words with Friends co-creator, Paul Bettner.
While the world waits for virtual reality games to land on retail store shelves, the Onion, a satirical publication, published a video report about a fake new Sony product called Intraplay. The new "update for the PlayStation 4," asked players to close their eyes and "imagine that they're playing a really fun game." Of course, some people still felt disoriented.
Toys are the new video games: Perhaps the most popular conversation topic was Nintendo's Amiibo figurines which interact with games on its Wii U and GamePad controller.
Activision's Skylanders and Disney's Infinity have seen sharp upticks in sales, something Nintendobelieves it can emulate.



Each figurine can interact with different Nintendo video games.Nintendo

"This is a business driver," said Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Nintendo's operations in America. A standout feature, he noted, is that the toys will work with multiple games, increasing appeal and likely use as well.
"That's why this Amiibo business in our view has a potential to be a large and significant part of our revenue and profit," he said.
Sony takes on Apple TV, Roku: Sony showed its PlayStation TV, a set-top streaming device it said will sell for $99, aimed at gamers between the age of six and 12 in families that want to play games together.
"The opportunity is around families playing together that we traditionally haven't been able to crack into that now is a really good opportunity because of the breadth of content," said John Koller, head of hardware marketing at Sony's PlayStation division. One version of the device, he noted, will be bundled with a controller and "The Lego Movie" from Warner Bros. Pictures in a nod to the target market.
Destiny a massive draw: One of the longer queues on the show floor was the line for Bungie's new sci-fi space shooter Destiny, which was a marquee fixture at Sony's booth on the E3 show floor.



DestinyBungie

The demo lasted for so long, and could only accommodate a dozen or so players at a time, that gamers began actively moving the line markers to widen the space so they could sit down.
Many had their heads down, buried in Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita handhelds to kill time. One gamer lamented that he was told wait times to try the demo could stretch on for hours, despite the line holding only 50 or so attendees. With a week-long alpha trial available only for PS4, which began Thursday, and an open beta that doesn't start until July 17, players seemed content with investing serious energy into trying their hand at this fall's biggest upcoming title.
What's old is new: While E3 saw plenty of new IP, the industry jargon for original games, much of the excitement was built around existing franchises. Arguably the largest applause at the Xbox press conference was the announcement of Halo: The Master Chief Edition, which contains the first four major chapters in the Halo franchise. The newest episode in the series, Halo 5: Guardians, won't be available until 2015.
Likewise, the latest entrants in established franchises such as Batman, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect were highlights at media presentations held Monday. Nintendo also generated excitement with teases of a new games in the popular The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox franchises.
Smash a pro for a T-shirt: The four-player matches of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U were among the most heavily trafficked sections of the E3 show floor. Part of the reason was a genius ploy by Nintendo.
The Japanese gaming giant allowed anyone that walked up to play the game a free T-shirt if they could beat the strangers who played with them.
At one point, four friends stepped up, only to be recognized by the booth attendant. All four had apparently been playing Super Smash Bros. the entire convention, and were vying in equal parts for a T-shirt of their own and the opportunity to best each other.
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It Was a Mad, Mad Gaming World at This Year's E3

By Peter Suciu
TechNewsWorld
06/15/13 5:00 AM PT

Microsoft and Sony both staked their claims this year -- to widely diverging reaction -- but in general, E3 was all about the games. One PC-only game, in fact, stood out as a potential for the very best at E3:Total War: Rome II, which will let players build an empire in a strategy game that now includes combined land and naval battles, enhanced diplomacy and more playable powers.

Another Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game show has come to a close, and this year, more than ever, the battle lines were drawn as Microsoft and Sony both unveiled new systems.

Sony may have gotten the upper hand by announcing that its PlayStation 4 will be US$100 cheaper than the Xbox One and free of restrictions on the buying of selling of used games, but a lot can happen in the next few months.

Here is a recap of the best and worst of E3 2013.

Top Games of the Show: Exclusives

With Microsoft kicking things off on Monday morning by presenting just a part of its Xbox lineup -- while offering little commentary on the Xbox One's other functionality, including streaming capabilities -- it was clear this was about the games.

Ryse: Son of Rome

In many ways, that is how it should be. This year's lineup included some strong showings, and exclusives were once again key to each company's strategies.

Microsoft offered up Ryse: Son of Rome, a Kinect-supported game that will allow players to take the role of a Roman general and lead his legions in an effort to "restore the honor of Rome." This game, developed by Crytek, is one of those titles that really emphasizes the "video" in video games. This is a game that likely couldn't have been developed for the Xbox 360 and looked this good.

For those who can't wait until 2014 for the reboot/update of Halo for the Xbox One, there will be Titanfall, a giant mech warrior combat game that offers plenty of first-person shooter action.

All About the Games

Sony not only scored a hit with its $399 price for the PS4, but it also delivered a few more crucial exclusives, which included Infamous: Second Son, where players take the role of a young man with superpowers. This sequel to Infamous and Infamous 2 takes the story in a new and potentially shocking direction.

Sony's PS4 will also offer up the alternate history epic action game, The Order: 1886. In this world, technology has advanced in some ways thanks to an epic war against a mysterious threat, and yet Victorian morals and attire live on, making for a game that could be jolly good fun.

While the Xbox One will have Halo (again), that might not be enough, as the PS4 will offer upDestiny, an action role-playing first-person shooter. It is being developed by Bungie -- the company that made Halo -- and offers a compelling story where humans have been forced to a single walled city and must battle an alien threat to ensure mankind survives. With a set-up like that, we're sure gamers can't wait.

Nintendo also focused on games this year, and the company will offer up Super Mario 3D World, which for the first time allows four players to take part in a Mario game; Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which brings the infamous gorilla to the Wii U for the first time and in HD; and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker HD, which has been enhanced with 1080p graphics.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Top Games of the Show: Cross Platform Titles

Of course, the first-party games are meant to drive hardware sales , but the hardware developers actually make their money from third-party games. This year, there were certainly some epic games to take in.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Sony and Microsoft may have their showdown this year, but so will publishing giants Electronic Arts and Activision, which will roll out Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts, respectively. These are the latest offerings in each of the respective modern military first-person shooter franchises. While Call of Duty has outgunned the Battlefield series in recent years, it could go either way this holiday. Both franchises have determined fans.

Franchises continue to keep coming back with more, and this included Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, with protagonist Solid Snake, now voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, but with the same bad haircut; Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which takes the action to the high seas in the age of piracy; and Wolfenstein: The New Order, a post-WWII shooter where the Nazis won and where players must turn the tide.

Total War: Rome II

While many of the games will be available on the PC, one PC-only game stood out as a potential for the very best at E3. Rome wasn't built in a day, but Total War: Rome II from Sega will let players build an empire in a strategy game that will offer extended gameplay that now includes combined land and naval battles, enhanced diplomacy and more playable powers.

The Rest and Best of the Show

E3 is like Christmas and comes only once a year. Here are some reasons we already look forward to next year's show.

The Games: This year was about the hardware as much as the games. While Microsoft emphasized games at the show floor, the fact is that except for a few of the aforementioned titles, many of the games don't really deliver the full goods yet. The PlayStation 3 is nearly seven years old, and with titles such as Last of US, we are only now seeing what the system can do. Next year will be games that could really be the game-changers.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Size of the Show: While we could complain about the number of attendees, the truth is that for physical size, the show has hit a nice comfortable spot. It isn't as big as it once was, with three halls, meeting rooms and epically long days of seeing thousands of demos for too many games that would be released "when they were finished." Now the show spans a comfortable two halls and offers just enough to be seen in a comfortable couple of days.

The Rest and Worst of the Show

There are so many reasons -- at least for attendees -- to be glad this show is in the rear view mirror.

Fan Boy Press: In many ways, E3 kicks off the summer, and yet it is a trade show filled with pale-skinned individuals who only see the light of the sun while waiting to get into the various press conferences and offsite events. This is of course the largest video game trade show in the world, and yet the event has increasing blurred with ComicCon, where some attendees even come dressed in costume. For an industry event, this show has more people in shorts and t-shirts than a college frat party.

Volume Control: Somehow there is the idea that louder is better, but that just means everyone has to scream to be heard. Too loud doesn't mean too old; it simply means there will be deaf gamers in the future.

The Crowds: Because the show is smaller in physical size yet apparently lets in every shorts-wearing blogger who will travel to Los Angeles, the show is crowded. Very crowded. If we wanted this, we'd go to ComicCon.