Category: Video Game

FIFA 20 and Sports Video Games

On By grosso611In Video GameLeave a comment

EA (Electronics Arts) just released its newest edition of their most popular video game franchise “FIFA”, named after the international soccer governing body. This game, for those unfamiliar, allows players to control computer copies of real professional soccer players from around the world in soccer matches against other teams. The new game, “FIFA 20”, came out last Friday with better graphics, an improved line up, and a new mode that changes the setting from sports arenas to common areas like city streets. While the release was much anticipated, it reintroduces the concept of sports games and how they never fail to sell copies.

Video games that fall under the sports genre have become the highest selling video games of the year consistently. “FIFA” has been the number one sports game globally while “Madden” tops the chart in the US every year. In addition, “FIFA” has been responsible for 14% of EA’s profit every year, making it the reason EA is able to stay in business.

Obviously, the story itself isn’t all that groundbreaking, but I find the sports video game genre so interesting. Personally, I don’t see the appeal of buying the same version of a game annually, but every year the games become the highest selling games. One person in the article commented saying, “New players, new roster, new rules team and stadiums all encourage the annual release timing.” In addition to that, the Reddit related to FIFA has 260,000 subscribers with daily traffic and 2 million-page views a day, so obviously the momentum is not stopping any time soon. The biggest competitor for “FIFA” is “NBA 2K”, but none has topped “FIFA” for the past couple of years.

Article: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/tech/fifa-20/index.html

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Twitch opening doors to more diverse content

On By William StroughIn Consumer behavior, Streaming, Technology, Video GameLeave a comment

Twitch.tv, a mostly video game streaming service, is opening up its platform for more than just gaming. The platform that saw over three months 2.7 billion hours of content being viewed by users is far and above the largest streaming platform right now for video games. At peak times more than a million people in just a single category but twitch is looking for how to create a more diverse platform than just gaming. 

At the annual twitch con, which is held in San Diego every year, it was announced that twitch would start creating more categories and avenues users can upload and explore other than gaming. Their new slogan “You’re already one of us.” exemplifies the new mindset of twitch that anyone even you can be apart of the community twitch has created. New talk-shows where users can share anything they want without having to play a game or using the platform to help inform people. This past year, the Great National Debate was released on twitch. Produced by the French government, they streamed for more than 10 hours of debates to reach the young audience of twitch in a way the audience would never find out about any other way. 

Twitch has even entered the sports market with partnerships with Major League Baseball and National Football League. Twitch users can stream the game hosted by streamers in their browser and have a direct chat with the broadcaster. Something non existent in sports broadcasting today. Users can ask questions, interact with each other, and interact with the broadcasters and creates a community while watching sports. This interactivity does not seem to be going anywhere with the advances in technology and could very well be the future of how we receive and interact with the content available to us.

Sony’s State of Play excites Gamers

On By Chris ColeIn Streaming, Technology, Video Game, YouTubeLeave a comment

Yesterday was a big day for video gamers as Sony held their State of Play press conference. State of Play is a video program that showcases all the latest updates, announcements and new trailers from PlayStation. State of Play allows fans and video game critics to watch the stream live on the official PlayStation Twitch, YouTube or Facebook channels. Many people were excited about yesterdays conference because Sony has been teasing an announcement regarding one of their biggest games, The Last of Us II. They teased this announcement by simply putting up promos for the State of Play conference with items that resembled weapons from the first, Last of Us, game. Fans were ecstatic to see a more in-depth trailer showcasing scenes from the story and were even more excited to see that the game is set to release in February of next year. Even though this seems a little far away, Sony has built up a lot of hype with their compelling and action-packed trailers. Other announcements during the conference was a PS4 Pro bundle deal including another big game title for the Playstation platform, Death Stranding. Death Stranding is starring actors Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen with writing and directing from Guillermo Del Toro and Hideo Kojima, a video game legend. Other announcements included a new trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and trailers for new games like Humanity and Wattam. Last but not least, Sony is remaking Medievil and Civilization 6 for the PlayStation platform. Hopefully this ‘end of the year’ press-push will get fans excited to participate in the video game world that Sony is creating for the near future.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/24/20882361/sony-state-of-play-ps4-announcements-trailers-the-last-of-us-release-date

Will Gamers continue stopping at GameStop?

On By Chris ColeIn Consumer behavior, Video GameLeave a comment

As video gaming continues to evolve, the market for video gaming evolves as well. Technology continues to redefine the way we spend our money. GameStop, a primary retail store for video games recently announced that they are closing over 200 stores across the country. Many video gamers have been buying their games digitally, as opposed to buying a physical copy in stores. According to Business Insider, GameStop is “…applying a more definitive, analytic approach, including profit levels and sales transferability, that we expect will yield a much larger tranche of closures over the coming 12 to 24 months,” Jim Bell, GameStop CFO, said on Tuesday. GameStop is trying to manage its budget while they breath new life into the gaming chain. GameStop has a lot of competition. Digital video game purchases are made to feel so much more convenient. Like physical CD’s, soon video games will be primarily streamed/downloaded on the internet. The past few years have been rough for GameStop, they have continued to fire people, their sales were down 14.3% and throughout the year the company has lost 415 $million. Hopefully, GameStop can evolve with the times and provide their customers with an experience that makes going to GameStop worth it.

Google vs. Apple: The Future of Video Game Streaming

On By grosso611In Video GameLeave a comment

With the subscription model becoming the new business model for all things media, it was only a matter of time before the gaming industry saw it too. Over the past year, Google and Apple have released their plans for two separate video game platforms named Google Stadia and Apple Arcade, but they are not the traditional video game services people are used to. Instead, both offer unique experiences with different ways to deliver games, leaving everyone to wonder which platform will succeed, and which one will bite the dust.

Google Stadia is an online video game streaming service specifically for streaming popular titles and existing games through the internet. Similar to streaming videos, Stadia will use the internet and the power of Google’s data center to process the games and stream them directly to a Google Chrome Web Browser extension. Starting at $10.00 a month, anyone with a high-speed internet can stream games to their computers, opening up the gaming world to anyone who wants to play, even those who do not have a powerful computer with strong hardware.

Apple Arcade took a slightly different approach. While Apple Arcade still uses the subscription model for consumers to access the video games, costumers are going to be able to download the games directly to their Apple devices from the gaming library. While most games will be exclusively for Apple, this service allows the option to download games and play them regardless of internet access. The starting price for the service is $4.99 a month and is launching September 30th.

Google and Apple are considered to be the biggest tech companies in the world, and the fact that they both are launching a gaming subscription platform is really exciting. While both are clearly competing for the same costumers, there’s no telling which one will win. One thing is for sure; the gaming community is about to change.

Article: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-stadia-vs-apple-arcade-streaming-game-services-everything-we-know/

Cyberpunk 2077; Was the deep dive too deep?

On By Chris ColeIn Video GameLeave a comment

Last week CD Projekt RED, the development company behind games like The Witcher 3 and the upcoming, Cyberpunk 2077, released a demo video showing Cyberpunk fans the new additions the game has to offer. In this “deep dive” demo, we can see more of the character/class creation, learn about one of the cities located in the game and we get a better explanation of Keanu Reeves’ character, Johnny Silverhand.
So far, we know that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be a big, story-driven open-world role-playing game that encourages players to make a variety of dialogue/character choices that not only impact your character and your story but also impact the world your character lives in. Cyberpunk follows the story of a character named V, a mercenary/outlaw looking for the key to immortality. Players seem excited about the game and are interested in seeing how unique each playthrough of the game can be. However, like all big games with a lot of hype, there are many speculations that Cyberpunk will not be able to live up to all the expectations. Games like Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 remind me of the situation that Cyberpunk developers are in. RDR 2, like Cyberpunk 2077, is an open-world role-playing game that emphasizes customization and survival (eating, sleeping, and hunting in the game to increase health/stats). Even though RDR 2 is a great game and is respected as such, many fans did not like the many nuances that made the game seem alive. They did not like having to micromanage the variety of day to day activities like eating and sleeping in the game because they felt as if it was time-consuming. People want a game that feels real but doesn’t inconvenience them with real-life mechanics. Hopefully, Cyberpunk will give fans the game that they want, while also keeping things fresh and innovative. If you are interested in seeing what Cyberpunk 2077 will look like, check out the Deep Dive video and look for the game when it releases on April 16, 2020.

https://www.cyberpunk.net/us/en/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2018/10/29/the-5-biggest-problems-with-red-dead-redemption-2/#1738495d15d4