News business Xbox Series, PS5, Take-Two / Zynga… the business news of the week
Sales figures, studio buyouts, financial statements, developer transfer window, investments… if these topics interest you, you’ve come to the right place. We offer you an update on the business news of the past week.
Xbox Series X|S: sales higher than previous Xbox consoles following 14 months
After making the best launch in the history of Xbox, the Xbox Series X|S remains on an excellent momentum. More than a year following their release, demand continues to exceed supply as explained by Phil Spencer in the columns of New York Times :
When you’re trying to get an Xbox or a new PlayStation right now on the market, they’re really hard to come by. And it’s not because the supply is lower than it has ever been. In reality, supply is greater than ever. It’s just that the demand exceeds the supply for all of us. At this point, we have sold more of this generation of Xbox, namely Xbox Series X and S, than any other generation of Xbox. So it’s our job to provide the supply to meet that demand.
If no precise sales figures are revealed, this statement from the boss of Xbox allows to estimate that the Xbox Series X | S have sold around 12 million copies in fourteen months. For comparison, Sony announced that it had exceeded 13.4 million PS5s distributed in September 2021. The Japanese manufacturer therefore retains a lead over its American competitor, but the difference is much smaller than during the Xbox One / PS4 generation. 116.6 million PS4s have been sold, compared to an estimated 50 million Xbox Ones.
In addition to console sales, Microsoft can be delighted to have had a good year 2021 in the PC market thanks to games like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Forza Horizon 4, Age of Empires IV, Halo The Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves or even Flight Simulator, which are included in the top 100 biggest hits of the year on Steam. As for Game Pass, Xbox’s spearhead, no official figures have been released since the announcement of 18 million subscribers in January 2021.
PlayStation Store: what were the best sellers of 2021 on PS5 and PS4?
sony parts unveiled the most downloaded games on the PlayStation Store in 2021. Significant rankings when we know that the share of games sold in dematerialized form has been higher than that of games sold in physical form for a few years now. And as always, it is sports games (NBA 2K, FIFA, Madden NFL, MLB The Show) and consumer licenses like Call of Duty, Battlefield, GTA and Minecraft that occupy the first places, whether on PS5 or PS4.
A few exclusives put forward by PlayStation still did well on PS5, to start with Marvel’s Spider-Man : Miles Morales (3rd in North America, 4th in Europe).Ratchet & Clank : Rift Apart, which was firmly expected as a major PS5 exclusion from 2021, is in 6th position in North America, but it does not manage to climb into the top 10 in Europe (14th), which preferred production independent Kena : Bridge of Spirits (7th) in particular. Deathloop finds itself at the bottom of the ranking (18th in North America, 19th in Europe), while Returnal is content with a 19th place in North America and is not even present in the top 20 in Europe despite its qualities.
No surprises on the PS VR side, with safe bets (Beat Saber, Job Simulator, Superhot VR…) which continue to sell while awaiting the arrival of the PSVR 2. As for the free-to-play ranking, note the entry of Splitgate, an FPS at the crossroads between Halo and Portal, which is installed alongside the usual Fortnite, Rocket League, Call of Duty Warzone, Apex Legends and other Genshin Impact.
Most downloaded games on PS5 in 2021
| Europe | North America | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | FIFA 22 | NBA 2K22 |
| 2. | Call of Duty Vanguard | Call of Duty Vanguard |
| 3. | FIFA 21 | Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales |
| 4. | Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales | Madden NFL 22 |
| 5. | Battlefield 2042 | Battlefield 2042 |
| 6. | Among Us | Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart |
| 7. | Kena Bridge of Spirits | Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War |
| 8. | Far Cry 6 | MLB The Show 21 |
| 9. | It Takes Two | Resident Evil Village |
| 10. | Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | Far Cry 6 |
| 11. | F1 2021 | Assassin’s Creed Valhalla |
| 12. | Resident Evil Village | FIFA 22 |
| 13. | NBA 2K22 | Among Us |
| 14. | Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart | Mortal Kombat 11 |
| 15. | Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War | NBA 2K21 |
| 16. | Rainbow Six Siege | It Takes Two |
| 17. | GTA The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition | FIFA 21 |
| 18. | Diablo 2 Resurrected | Deathloop |
| 19. | Deathloop | Returnal |
| 20. | Mortal Kombat 11 | Kena Bridge of Spirits |
Most downloaded games on PS4 in 2021
| Europe | North America | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | FIFA 22 | GTA V |
| 2. | GTA V | Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War |
| 3. | Minecraft | Minecraft |
| 4. | FIFA 21 | NBA 2K22 |
| 5. | Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War | Call of Duty Vanguard |
| 6. | The Crew 2 | Madden NFL 22 |
| 7. | Red Dead Redemption 2 | NBA 2K21 |
| 8. | The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt (Edition GOTY) | Red Dead Redemption 2 |
| 9. | Call of Duty Vanguard | MLB The Show 21 |
| 10. | The Forest | Mortal Kombat 11 |
| 11. | Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout | Call of Duty Modern Warfare |
| 12. | Gran Turismo Sport | Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales |
| 13. | Ark Survival Evolved | FIFA 22 |
| 14. | Need for Speed Heat | The Forest |
| 15. | NBA 2K21 | Need for Speed Heat |
| 16. | Gang Beasts | UFC 4 |
| 17. | Rainbow Six Siege | Ark Survival Evolved |
| 18. | PES 2021 Season Update | Gang Beasts |
| 19. | Among Us | Rust Console Edition |
| 20. | Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | Naruto to Boruto Shinobi Striker |
Most downloaded PS VR games of 2021
| Europe | North America | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Beat Saber | Beat Saber |
| 2. | Job Simulator | Job Simulator |
| 3. | super hot VR | super hot VR |
| 4. | Creed Rise to Glory | GORN |
| 5. | Swordsman VR | Swordsman VR |
| 6. | The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners | Creed Rise to Glory |
| 7. | GORN | Vader Immortal : A Star Wars VR Series |
| 8. | Rick and Morty : Virtual Rick-ality | The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners |
| 9. | Vader Immortal : A Star Wars VR Series | Rick and Morty : Virtual Rick-ality |
| 10. | Astro Bot Rescue Mission | The Walking Dead Onslaught |
Most downloaded free-to-play on PS5 and PS4 in 2021
| Europe | North America | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Fortnite | Fortnite |
| 2. | Rocket League | Call of Duty Warzone |
| 3. | Call of Duty Warzone | Rocket League |
| 4. | eFootball 2022 | Splitgate |
| 5. | Genshin Impact | Apex Legends |
| 6. | Apex Legends | Genshin Impact |
| 7. | PES 2021 Lite | Destiny 2 |
| 8. | Brawlhalla | Rec Room |
| 9. | Destiny 2 | Brawlhalla |
| 10. | Splitgate | Rogue Company |
Take-Two to buy Zynga for $12.7 billion
The last few years have been rich in major acquisitions in the video game sector, which is in full consolidation. Microsoft which offers Bethesda for 7.5 billion dollars, EA which buys Codemasters and Glu for 1.2 billion and 2.1 billion respectively, the ogre Embracer Group which does not stop growing… 2022 continues this trend already with a landmark operation: Take-Two announced on Monday January 10 that it had found an agreement to buy the publisher and developer Zynga on the basis of a valuation of … 12.7 billion dollars (11.1 billion euros).
It is simply the second largest transaction made in the video game industry, ahead of the takeover of Supercell by Tencent ($10.2 billion) in 2016, and behind that of Activision by Vivendi ($18.9 billion) in 2008. has been struggling for a few years. You probably know this American company, founded in 2007, for its social games such as FarmVille, CityVille or MafiaWars which have been a hit on Facebook. Very mainstream games that allowed it to grow rapidly and achieve an IPO in 2011… before starting a decline in 2013 marked by massive layoffs and years of losses. The firm has been slow to take the mobile turn, a sector in which it is now very present with titles such as Zynga Poker, Words with Friends, Harry Potter Puzzles & Spells and Game of Thrones Slots Casino.
For Take-Two, the interest of this takeover is clear : strengthen its mobile division which, during the third quarter of 2021, generated “only” 115 million dollars … once morest 704 million dollars for Zynga. The expertise of the company, which employs more than 2,200 people, should be used to roll out the flagship licenses of Take-Two, which, it should be remembered, owns Rockstar Games (GTA, Red Dead Redemption) and 2K. Games (NBA 2K, BioShock, etc.). A strategy reminiscent of the one that prompted Activision Blizzard to buy King (Candy Crush) for 5.9 billion dollars in 2015. Since then, the mobile game market has continued to grow. According to a study by Newzoo, the video game market as a whole generated $180 billion in 2021… 52% of which came from mobile games.
Briefly in the business news of the week
- According to information from Oscar Lemaire for his site Madness, the PS5 would total 765,000 sales in France once morest 300,000 for the Xbox Series. For its part, the Switch would have exceeded 6 million in sales in just under five years, while the PS4 is around 6.1 million in eight years.
- Genshin Impact and Apex Legends were the most mentioned games on Twitter in 2021. You can find the full rankings here.
- The excellent and atypical card game Inscryption has sold more than a million copies, announced its publisher Give back. It was released on PC last October.
- Jurassic World Evolution 2 has also exceeded one million sales, three months following its launch on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
- Facepunch Studios released its review of 2021, a year in which Rust exploded on Twitch. The game, which was also ported to PS4 and Xbox One, broke attendance records and now reaches 12.5 million sales.
- Good performance also for Deep Rock Galactic, which has passed the milestone of ten million players. Available for some time on PC, Xbox and in the Game Pass, the FPS coop landed on PS4 and PS5 in January by being included directly in the PlayStation Plus.
