Wednesday, March 31, 2021
It Takes Two: How to Pass the Kaleidoscope Section
Monster Hunter Rise Multiplayer: Everything You Need to Know
Breaking Down Cyberpunk 2077 and CDPR's Future
Elder Scrolls Online Comes to PS5, Xbox Series X in June
The Best Metroidvanias
10. Shadow Complex
Hitting Xbox Live Arcade back in 2009, Shadow Complex was the right game at the right time to reinvigorate the Metroidvania genre. An excellent blend of sci-fi action with a compelling story, satisfying progression, and its 2.5-D perspective offered some of the best graphics we’d seen in the genre to date. It was a refreshing update to a beloved style of game that, at least in 2009, seemed to have fallen out of favor with developers and the public at large. It would go on to be one of the highest-selling Xbox Live Arcade games of all time, and a remastered version hit PC in 2015 and consoles the next year.9. Blasphemous
Blasphemous introduces you to the sprawling and hauntingly beautiful Cvstodia, a 16-bit world teeming with secrets in every corner. Despite its beauty, it is also a world overrun by truly horrific and difficult bosses blocking your path. And to make matters more trying – and ultimately more rewarding– Blasphemous tantalizes players with items and upgrades often dangling just out of reach. These are almost always accompanied by an inactive piece of the environment that becomes instantly recognizable, goading you into a search for a way to turn bundles of roots into bridges, or blood trails into platforms. The quest to uncover these environment-transforming relics are almost as enthralling as progressing through the main story of Blasphemous, ensuring that you’ll rarely want to leave any stone unturned as you explore one of the most memorable lands in the genre. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/09/blasphemous-review"]8. Yoku’s Island Express
Much like olive oil and ice cream are somehow a bizarrely complimentary duo, Yoku's Island Express combines two wildly different flavors of game to create something totally unique that leaves me yearning for more after its delightful adventure. Yoku take's the complexity of a Metroidvania and applies it to the rigid structure of pinball. It forces players to rethink everything they know about "platforming," with movement being a combo of familiar 2D navigation and pinball flourishes, like paddles that send you flying around on your collectible quest. It makes that surprising mix work like a charm while simultaneously drip-feeding teases of upgrades to come through inaccessible areas that whiz by while you're rocketing off a bumper. The cherry on top of this strange concoction of unusual genres is the setup: you are the brand new mail bug of a small tropical island and, primarily, you're there to deliver mail. The handpainted art style, witty writing, and cheerful tunes keep you smiling all while pulling off careful skillshots to progress through Yoku’s unexpected but memorable world.7. Cave Story
Cave Story was created by a single developer, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. That in and of itself is worth bringing up only because Cave Story is a massive achievement, with a sprawling world, fleshed-out lore, and beloved characters.. From the unique weapons, to an overworld that's filled to the brim with creativity, every part of Cave Story feels lovingly hand-crafted. But don't let the cuddly cast fool you, Cave Story will break your heart and mend it back together by the time the journey ends. Decades later, and Cave Story still feels like a treasure. And as one of the most famous freeware games, it's easy to download and play today, and at an unbeatable price to play a piece of gaming history.6. Axiom Verge
It’s no wonder fans have been waiting so excitedly for Axiom Verge 2, given how expertly Axiom Verge serves as a love-letter to Metroidvanias of the past. The one-man designed adventure from developer Thomas Happ provides players with an inventive arsenal of weapons and abilities. But this throwback never feels dated as you drill, teleport, and pixel-nuke throughout your adventure on the alien world of Sudra. Combine that with a fantastic sense of progression that makes backtracking and uncovering new areas a consistent joy, and an intriguing and mysterious plot that will keep you guessing, and Axiom Verge is easily one of the best Metroidvanias around. It may be inspired by games released years prior, but it can sit among the best of that, or any, era.5. Steamworld Dig 2
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/09/21/steamworld-dig-2-review"] Steamworld Dig 2 isn’t the only Metroidvania on this list that sends you exploring underground, but it is the one that requires you to dig your way through its sprawling world. That digging gameplay loop is by no means a chore, though. It’s a total blast: bore as far down as you can, return to town to harvest resources, upgrade your gear, and you’re off to (happily) do it all again. It’s so satisfying that it’s easy to fall into the mindset of “Just one more run” turing into four or five. And with about a 10-hour run time, it never outstays its welcome. Upgrades are plentiful enough to be a near-constant reward system, and the various upgrade paths allow for some welcome customization in how you build out your robotic heroine. It also helps that the finely-tuned controls make maneuvering around its caverns as smooth and enjoyable as the act of actually mining in-game. Add in some optional puzzle rooms that reward you with bonus upgrade items and Steamworld Dig 2 is a “dig down” Metroidvania you won’t want to put down.4. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the closest we come to cheating the 'no Castlevania" rule, but it’s too good an experience to ignore. Koji Igarashi, a father of the genre, set out to make a new game in the vein of the best-loved Castlevania, and by Dracula he did it. This kickstarter success story takes elements of all the great Castlevania games and combines them into one, wall-meaty package. It uses the equipment system of Symphony of the Night with quality of life changes – meaning the menu isn’t totally ugly – the shard system that lets you assume the magical abilities of enemies a la Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, and more. Add on top of that the option to play as a completely different character after completing it, tons of hidden content, and a slew of other intriguing inclusions -- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night taps into that special late 90s/early 2000s era of Castlevania that is beloved by so many to create something thrilling in its own right.3. Guacamelee 2
Guacamelee 2 punches up nearly every aspect of the original, expanding on what worked with new skills, a new, ludicrous and meta story, and one damn charming Metroidvania from beginning to end. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/08/21/guacamelee-2-review"] At the heart of what makes Guacamelee 2 so clever is its combination of level design and its platforming fundamentals. Essentially all of your actions – from uppercuts that boost you upward to sideways lunges – work twofold: the combination of the right attacks against certain enemies is essential to racking up combos and surviving combat sections. But all of those moves are also necessary to pull off the increasingly complex platforming sections. And while you’re exploring Guacamelee 2’s world, uncovering more of its map as either Juan the luchador or Juan the chicken, don’t ignore the optional side challenges you’ll come across - they’re some of Guacamelee 2’s most difficult but purest platforming sections, and they’re some of the most rewarding to pull off. Throw in a new hookshot ability, unlockable skill trees that encourage you to explore more of its wonderful, vibrant world, and some genuinely hilarious stories, and Guacamelee 2 may have you crying from laughter as much as it may make you tear up from its most challenging levels.2. Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Either Ori game could have comfortably landed on the list, but the sequel, Will of the Wisps, takes an already stunning game and makes it even more robust. No other series looks or sounds quite like Ori does, with a gorgeous world full of vibrant landscapes and strange creatures complemented by some of the best game music around. Flowing through those areas with its diverse suite of movement abilities can almost become a zen practice, hopping between grab points and whipping dangerously close to death as you do. Will of the Wisps elevates all of the aspects that made the first game great as well, partly by borrowing some ideas from the number one game on this list. The introduction of equippable items to enhance your preferred playstyle and an adorable little town for you to grow full of friendly faces adds more layer and nuance to the world and your character. Its combat is also more fleshed out, coupled with a story even more grand and ambitious than the original’s. Ori sticks out from what most people usually picture when they think of a Metroidvania thanks to its warm, inviting look, but it’s that unique take on a well explored genre that makes it stand so tall above the rest. Well, except for one.1. Hollow Knight
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/06/22/hollow-knight-review"] Even when compared against actual Castlevania and Metroid games, Hollow Knight would probably still be pretty close to the top of a list like this. It’s a Metroidvania that takes influence and inspiration from plenty of clear places, but combines those concepts with countless fresh ideas of its own to make something truly incredible. And it’s the combination of all those individual parts that makes the whole so much more impressive: its charming hand-drawn art style, its haunting soundtrack, its flexible combat systems, its satisfying movement mechanics, and the mysterious catacombs… the list goes on and on, as all those aspects and more are packed in to work in beautiful tandem. Hollow Knight is filled to the brim with interesting decisions to make the whole way through, too – from choosing to go left or right first, to deciding whether or not to challenge an imposing optional boss, or to figuring out which of its deluge of Charms you should use to modify your playstyle. As a result, its exploration and unlocks feel personal, providing a natural sense of progression to its meticulously laid out halls. And don’t let the appearance of its tiny bugs fool you - Hollow Knight’s world is a sprawling subterranean maze that gives you enough paths to chase down and creative enemies to fight to keep you exploring for dozens of hours. Hollow Knight is without a doubt, a modern classic.IGN Prime Free Game: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures
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- Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees – Wallace’s idea for accelerating his honey business’ growth with supersized flowers has unintended side effects.
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CD Projekt Says Leaked Cyberpunk 2077 Add-Ons Aren't DLC Names, So What Are They?
- Ripperdocs Expansion
- Body Shops Expansion
- Fashion Forward Expansion
- Gangs of Night CIty
- Body of Chrome
- Rides of the Dark Future
- The Relic
- Neck Deep
- Night City Expansion
- Expansion Pass
The company reaffirmed the plan to release free DLC and paid expansions during their strategy update yesterday where the company also announced it would change its marketing strategy to prevent misleading customers. That said there was some confusion yesterday regarding comments from CDPR president Adam Kiciński who said plans for Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer mode are being reconsidered. Despite promising clearer marketing going forward, Kiciński's comments only created further confusion. Since CD Projekt won’t confirm what exactly these titles from the Epic Games Store are referring to, it remains speculation. All we know for sure is that Cyberpunk 2077 will get free DLC sometime this year, and we’ll likely hear more about it closer to launch. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.
PlayStation Plus Games for April 2021 Announced
Oddworld: Soulstorm is actually launching the same day it's available for PS5 PS Plus subscribers. It was shown in Sony's February 2021 State of Play, which is when it was given its April 6 release date. If you're excited for this game to drop next week, be sure to check out this 12-minute gameplay video featuring developer commentary from Oddworld creator, Lorne Lanning. Days Gone was originally released in 2019 as a PlayStation 4 game, but has since been given a PS5 update that allows the game to run at 60 FPS with a dynamic 4K resolution. You can check out our thoughts on the game in IGN's Days Gone review. If you're a PS5 PS Plus subscriber, you already have access to Days Gone as part of the PS Plus Collection. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/25/days-gone-review"] Zombie Army 4: Dead War was released last year and you can read our thoughts on the game in IGN's Zombie Army 4: Dead War review. If you're excited to jump into this game next week, check out this Dead Zeppelin trailer and then check out this video featuring co-op campaign gameplay running at a 4K resolution and 60 FPS. You have until April 5 to claim March's PS Plus offerings, which includes Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Farpoint VR, Remnant: From the Ashes, and Maquette. Oddworld: Soulstorm, Days Gone, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be available to download the following day on April 6. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.Days Gone and Zombie Army 4: Dead War are your PS4 PlayStation Plus games for April, with Oddworld: Soulstorm also available for PS5: https://t.co/WlVLGGMOQg pic.twitter.com/nRH2euYAn1
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 31, 2021
Xbox Backwards Compatibility Games Added To Cloud Gaming, Including Oblivion
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Banjo-Tooie
- Double Dragon Neon
- Fable II
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Gears of War 2
- Gears of War 3
- Gears of War: Judgment
- Jetpac Refuelled (touch controls enabled)
- Kameo
- Perfect Dark
- Perfect Dark Zero
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Viva Piñata (touch controls enabled)
- Viva Piñata: TIP (touch controls enabled)
Cyberpunk 2077's Multiplayer Stance Confuses Investors and Consumers Alike
New Amnesia: Rebirth Mode Removes Horror Elements and Turns It Into an ‘Indiana Jones-Style’ Adventure
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Updated With Classic Killhouse Map
Oddly, these new maps have been added without any fanfare from Activision. Take a look at the Call of Duty Twitter account, and there’s tweets referencing the latest Black Ops Cold War and Warzone updates, but nothing about Modern Warfare. It’s been down to fans and accounts like Call of Duty Tracker to let people know about the update. For more from Call of Duty, check out the massive new Black Ops Cold War patch that reduces the game's huge file size, or our round up of the top roofs in Verdansk (they all make great Warzone sniper spots). [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.A new Multiplayer map quietly went live in #ModernWarfare following tonight's update!
Killhouse and its accompanying 24/7 Mosh Pit playlist is now available. pic.twitter.com/nKlWMzvcwH — Call of Duty Tracker (@CODTracker) March 31, 2021
Genshin Impact Coming to PS5 'Soon' With Enhancements
No Man's Sky: Expeditions Update Adds Big Shared Journeys
Why Digital Games Could Totally Dominate Physical Formats In Just a Few Years
Analysts suggest that, in as little as six years, digital game sales could entirely dominate the video game market. It's a shift that’s been brewing throughout the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console generation; but now, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X generation could become the turning point where physical media becomes all-but obsolete.
Unlike other entertainment industries, video game fans have clung on to the nostalgic draw of boxes, discs, and cartridges — so, why is this acceleration happening now, after years of healthy physical game sales?
For collectors who love adding the latest releases to their shelf, this shift might be frightening to consider. But does digital's dominance necessarily spell the end of physical games, or will collectors show enough interest and spend enough money to keep physical media alive, albeit in a new, more specialized form? And will digital change game ownership, standard pricing, and collecting as a whole?
IGN spoke with several video game industry analysts to get their thoughts on this rapidly evolving marketplace.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/will-you-go-all-digital-during-the-covid-quarantine"]
Digital Game Sales Are On the Rise
Overall sales of digital versions of video games have slowly been catching up to physical game sales over the last few years. Now, the scale is tipping towards digital more than ever — partially due to the trends set throughout the last few years, and partially due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic keeping consumers from shopping in-person — and pushing them towards digital storefronts.
Digital games have hit big milestones over the last few years. Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly saw the biggest digital game launch of all time. Elsewhere, developers are seeing digital sales outpace physical sales numbers, with Capcom reporting approximately 80% of its game sales are from digital downloads.
Reflecting that shift, Sony and Microsoft have now both released digital-only consoles that eliminate the option of using physical media entirely, but offer enticingly cheaper prices. If you have a more expensive PS5 or Xbox Series X with a physical disc drive, you're still given complete freedom when choosing how to buy your games. See a sale online you can't pass up? Go ahead and order the game with 2-day shipping. Want to make an impulse grab you see in a second-hand bargain bin? No problem.
For years, gamers have been offered that freedom as par for the course. Now, the reality of digital-only consoles effectively funnels consumers down a digital pipeline to PlayStation or Xbox’s more controlled stores. But the reason for that is simple — more gamers than ever prize the ensured convenience of digital over the potential freedom of physical.
Taking a deeper look at sales numbers globally supports the idea that more gamers are starting to favor digital downloads. Instead of lining up at GameStop for the latest release, players are waiting for their digital downloads to unlock at the strike of midnight. In Sony's recent Q3 FY2020 results, we saw digital sales outnumber physical sales throughout the entire current fiscal year.
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Even when we exclude games that are typically digital exclusives, digital sales still have the upper hand. In Sony's "Full Game Software" results for the three quarters of the current fiscal year, digital sales accounted for 74%, 59%, and 53% of overall sales, respectively.
This means, when given the choice between retail and downloads, the majority of players on PlayStation consistently choose digital over physical.
It's not just Sony seeing this shift in numbers. In Nintendo's recent earnings report, the company said digital sales made up 40.9% of all software sales, which is a sizable 12.3% increase year-on-year. Nintendo's digital sales also saw an increase of 104.9% when compared to 2019.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has to be taken into account. Sony's 2020 fiscal year began on April 1, 2020, when lockdowns across the world were reaching their peak. Customers who suddenly found themselves housebound could explain the huge 74% statistic in Sony's first quarter, which ran from April 1 to June 30.
"It's very straightforward: in a pandemic, downloads are the safest and most convenient option for concerned gamers," says industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games Inc.
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But as we look at 2020, analysts noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was not an instigator for the rise of digital media, but simply an accelerator of a trend we've seen take shape throughout the last console generation.
"The game industry, as well as consumers, have been gradually shifting towards digital sales before the pandemic already," says Dr. Toto. "COVID-19 has of course been a strong accelerant for that trend, as some physical locations were simply forced to shut down or people generally were not eager to go out anymore."
In 2018, digital games accounted for 43% of Sony’s Full Game Software download, and in 2019 it was 55%. Both are large year-over-year increases from even before the pandemic hit.
The acceleration is significant compared to the start of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation. Daniel Ahmad, a Senior Analyst at Niko Partners, said on Twitter that we entered the last generation of consoles in 2013 with digital downloads accounting for 5-10% of total sales. Now, we enter the PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X generation, and digital downloads account for half of the sales.
It's worth noting that we entered the current console generation (2013) with digital downloads accounting for around 5-10% of unit sales.
Now we're entering next gen with 50%+ as standard. Packaged sales are still strong, especially during COVID-19, digital is additive overall — Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 30, 2020
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
Websites like Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop have helped keep physical game sales alive during a time when people aren't making purchases in person as often. While you may be hesitant about going out to a store right now, it's easier than ever to go online, add a game to your cart, and checkout within seconds.
In 2020, two-thirds of games sold in the UK were purchased digitally. That's a 20% year-over-year increase from 2019. However, last year also proved players still love cracking open a new game case as 18.2 million games were sold in boxes in the UK — a 2% increase from 2019.
This means digital and physical sales both jumped, but digital increased significantly more. In this case, digital sales numbers rising is more of a reflection of video game sales numbers as a whole going up, not the immediate death of physical media.
"Packaged software sales have been on a decline for the past few years, but this year has been slightly different," Ahmad said. "The impact from COVID-19 expanded the games market as a whole. It led to a sharp increase in digital game sales and helped stem the decline in packaged software sales."
Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the NPD group, says rising digital numbers do not necessarily spell doom for physical games.
"Growth in digital premium game sales is not being offset by matching declines in physical," Piscatella said. "Changes in physical and digital spending are also often not significantly correlated."
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For now, it seems there's a place at the table for both physical and digital sales.
"Recent numbers indicate that physical sales are surprisingly holding up well, as lockdowns don't go on forever and people can still order physical games online even during a pandemic," Dr. Toto said. "At the moment, it looks like the pie has grown overall, without physical imploding."
Analysts believe that digital sales will continue to ascend, but not as quickly as we saw during the unprecedented events of the last year.
"We expect the digital sales ratio to continue increasing, but not at the same rate as 2020," Ahmad tells IGN. "That being said, we are at a point where the overwhelming majority of games sold are via digital download already."
An All-Digital Future?
"Like it or not, but there can be no doubt that the future is digital," Dr. Toto said. "Once people are starting to download games, they are likely never going back to buy them physically."
If you're a hardcore physical collector, you may have felt your heart start beating a little faster after reading that. A silver lining? Video games are as popular and profitable as ever. For the games industry as a whole, analysts expect spending to remain high as we move further into 2021.
"We expect the increased engagement across gaming as a whole to maintain post-pandemic," Ahmad said. "We predict that people who discovered gaming in 2020 will continue playing."
However, analysts do believe physical sales will slowly diminish, leading to digital cementing itself as the primary way players purchase games. Dr. Toto said an all-digital future raises some concerns for consumers.
"What about ownership of a digital game? Is there a guarantee that I can access my download in 20 years or am I effectively just renting it? Why is there no second-hand market on digital? How do platform providers on console aim to solve the storage problems that come with downloads?"
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These concerns have cropped up from time to time throughout the last few years. Some games get delisted due to licensing issues, becoming inaccessible to redownload in order to play or preserve. Also, consumers who rely on trade-ins to help fund future game purchases are hung out to dry on digital storefronts.
"The convenience outweighs any negatives for most consumers," Ahmad said. "That being said, there are moves that publishers can make to increase digital game ownership acceptance among a broader audience, such as offering timed refunds, gifting, or trading."
If you're worried about not being able to add the latest releases to your shelf, don't panic too much just yet. Analysts think the future of physical games will be sharply redirected towards the most hardcore, passionate corners of the fanbase.
"There will continue to be a market for packaged software in the future. While the ratio of digital games keeps increasing, it’s important to note that over 200 million packaged games are still sold each year across the major console platforms," Ahmad said. "We may see packaged game offerings evolve in the future, with a larger focus on special editions."
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Analysts believe physical games aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. This is partially due to the hardcore segment of the fanbase, and the group of consumers who go to the store to buy physical games as gifts for friends or family members. Most would probably agree it's more fun to gift a physical game than a download code.
But no matter how physical gaming clings on, analysts we spoke to feel set on the idea of digital becoming the true force in the industry in the not-too-distant future. "My estimate is that digital will be the totally dominant form by the end of the decade, after the life cycle of the current PlayStation and Xbox models," Dr. Toto said.
Microsoft and Sony's new consoles launched last Fall and, judging by the length of the last two console generations, this estimate pegs digital game downloads as the completely dominant form of game purchases by around 2027-2028.
Six or seven years may seem like a long time, but in the scope of video games, it's not that far off. The video game industry adapts at a rapid pace, and before you know it, mass-market physical games could feel like a distant memory.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/10/20/select-digital-only-switch-titles-may-see-physical-release"]
Looking Ahead to the Next Few Years
However, the fate of physical games could rest upon how hard platform holders push the digital-only consoles in this generation, and how much of the player base jumps on board.
"If players gravitate towards the current digital editions of next-gen consoles, which are priced lower, we could see platform holders move to double down on digital-only consoles next generation," Ahmad said.
Piscatella agrees, saying, "the long-term trends will depend on the types of consoles being made, and developer- and publisher-driven initiatives."
But Ahmad was quick to point out that digital sales overtook physical sales even before the digital-only consoles launched, which suggests there are other significant factors in play.
From the publishers and developers’ perspective, digital game sales give them a boost by cutting out the middleman, leading to more profit. Capcom's latest earnings report specifically mentions how digital sales have increased the company's profits by subtracting retailers from the equation.
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"In my view, retailers large and small will be cut out of the game industry's value chain in the long run," Dr. Toto said. "Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo won't say it openly, but cutting out the middleman is clearly where the industry has been shifting towards for years now already."
Even if the goal is to cut them out in the long run, analysts believe stores will continue selling physical games until the market ceases to exist altogether. There's an unquestionable convenience to digital games, but there's also something to be said for swinging by the electronics section to pick up a game on your weekly trip to pick up milk and eggs.
"As long as there is physical retail, they will all keep selling physical games," Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities said. "But the evolution of sales to digital downloads will ultimately impact their health."
Some analysts believe the shift to digital will be gradual, until the point where the majority of fans are used to the digital storefront as the primary way to purchase games. At that point, we may see some big publishers pull the plug on physical game production entirely.
"The tipping point is reached when it doesn't make any economic sense to produce physical games and when the backlash of the fanbase is expected to be manageable," says Dr. Toto. He added we could even see a major publisher shift to digital-only releases as soon as sometime this generation.
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It's not just the big companies that benefit from digital sales. Indie developers and publishers rarely release physical games because digital sales help the bottom line significantly more. For many indie developers, the cost of manufacturing discs just isn't worth it. In recent years, we've seen indie developers creating boutique physical editions of their games once they’ve become a proven success, in some ways leveraging the love of a hardcore audience as a second revenue stream — a model that could be seen as a blueprint for larger developers and publishers in future.
The increasing irrelevance of physical games means less competition for digital storefronts hosted on Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo's consoles. Console storefronts almost certainly won't suffer from the internal competition seen on PC – where Steam, Epic Games Store, and more compete for digital gamers' attentions – and if retailers like Best Buy and Walmart ever fall out of the equation, it gives the publishers a larger slice of the pie. This could end up leading to an increase in prices for the consumer.
"In the future, we will see US $70 as the new standard price for single games," Dr. Toto said. "Some titles are offered with that price tag already." Dr. Toto added that platforms like Xbox Game Pass will likely see price increases as the catalogue grows and the service becomes a more popular mainstream option.
While the timetable may be fuzzy, digital game sales are looking to dominate the market completely, and evidence suggests the shift is irreversible.
"It would be safe to assume that the share of physical premium games within the overall content market should continue to decline over time," Piscatella said. "To what extent and over what time period remains opaque."
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While the speed may be subject to debate, the analysts we spoke to agree the curtain has fallen on the dominance of physical games, saying it's only a matter of time until cases, cartridges, and discs join a past era of game manuals, memory cards, and composite cables (although, somewhat ironically, memory cards seem to be making a small comeback entirely because of digital).
For physical collectors, this may raise some concerning questions about the future of trade-ins, lending games to friends, and game ownership. On the widest possible level, it’s not unthinkable to imagine a future console generation that forgoes physical media altogether, making physical game collecting itself a thing of the past. For players who already primarily buy games digitally, it may be a change that goes unnoticed – until the point when publishers might feel comfortable enough to jack up the cost of their games due to the lack of competition from physical marketplaces.
While the shift to digital sales is all-but inevitable, games companies remain tight-lipped about their long-term plans for how to react to it. Questions regarding disc drives, game preservation, and digital exclusives loom large as the industry enters a new era. Some players are embracing the change and shifting their game libraries from their shelves to their hard drives. Others are clinging on to physical media, planning to stay on the ship until it goes down.
This console generation will, without a doubt, answer some of our lingering questions about physical media's demise. Regardless, it's time we realize the question isn't if digital will become entirely dominant, but when and how the change will impact the way we buy and experience games.
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Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.
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It's March 31, The Day Mario Dies (Or Nintendo Just Stops Selling a Bunch of Games)
While Nintendo has made clear that remaining stock of limited products will be sold while stocks last, and download codes will stay functional after March 31, it's clear that time is running out to grab copies for less-than-inflated prices. Amazon US has already ceased selling digital codes for Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and GamesIndustry reports that UK sales for the game rose by 276% in its final week on sale – meaning physical stock may well be hard to come by soon. As you might expect, the 'Mario Dies Today' meme is reaching fever pitch at this point, with fans turning their confusion about Nintendo's decision-making into social media silliness:スーパーマリオブラザーズ35周年キャンペーンは、本日3月31日をもって終了します。ご参加いただいたすべてのみなさまに感謝を申し上げます。
マリオはこれからもますますパワーアップしていきますので、引き続き応援をどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。#スーパーマリオ35周年https://t.co/MPvhfeQ0k8 pic.twitter.com/Xx8RL2uVj8 — スーパーマリオブラザーズ35周年 (@supermario35th) March 31, 2021
Oh yeah, Mario dies today. pic.twitter.com/l3OHRs9b0Z
— Apple2k / Daily MegaTen Music (@Daily_Megaten) March 31, 2021
before the joke dies
uhh mario dies today this means that bowser will have finally won, poor lad earned it, dude has been fighting mario for so long he deserves to win for once. — Norendera (@Norendera) March 31, 2021
Nintendo still hasn't fully explained the reasoning for arbitrarily cancelling sales, or given an idea as to what comes next. [poilib element="accentDivider"] It's a little over a week until Nintendo – for reasons it has still not satisfactorily explained – removes Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Bros. 35, Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros., and the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary merch collection from sale. It's a situation so bizarre that the internet has attempted to rationalise it by deciding that March 31 is, in fact, the day Mario will die. Last year Nintendo released a number of products to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary, with the bizarre proviso that they wouldn't be selling them beyond March 31, 2021. In the case of platformer battle royale, Super Mario Bros. 35, the game won't even be playable after that date, and Super Mario Maker on Wii U will also cease level sharing on the day. Oddly, NES re-release, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light will also be removed from sale on March 31 (maybe it's Mario's favourite game?).Mario Dies Today Bye Bye old friend pic.twitter.com/ysg3NQmoW5
— Ariana Nova .H (@mustangs2444) March 31, 2021
Despite confusion from fans – who'd quite like the option to be able to buy or play games after the arbitrary cut-off – Nintendo is really sticking to its guns on this. The company recently formally reminded fans of the removals, and VGC reports that Nintendo's official Tokyo store will even pull physical copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars off of shelves after the date. Tellingly, even Nintendo seems to understand the confusion this is causing, ending its removal reminder post by assuring fans that other Mario games like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit will continue to be sold after March 31. There is, of course, the possibility that the affected games will be re-released in new, non-anniversary form after March 31, but Nintendo's made no attempt to, you know, inform anyone about it if that is going to be the case.Mario dies on march 31
— Omega (@Omega__Aurora) March 21, 2021
The closest we've come to a reasoning behind all of this came from Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, who told Polygon that it's intended as a "celebration", and (thankfully) made clear that "it’s not [a] strategy that we’re going to be using widely, but it’s one we thought was very unique for the actual anniversary." Frankly, that doesn't feel like it's doing enough to explain the thinking here, never mind whether anything is coming after the fact. So, with a dearth of information, the Nintendo community gestalt has come to a single, immutable conclusion: Mario will die on March 31. It might sound wild, but it somehow makes more sense than Nintendo just deciding to stop people from buying or playing the things they made without explanation.All the mario games are going away on March 31 because Nintendo is killing him
— Michael Spiese (@MichaelSpiese) March 20, 2021
The meme has been hanging throughout the months since the March 31 cutoff was announced but, as we enter the final days before the deadline, interest has been picking up. Google Trends reports that searches for "Mario dies" reached a year-long high in the US last week, and Twitter and Reddit are seeing the phrase flying around more and more. You can likely expect that to continue to grow until March 31 itself. It's a very silly meme, but it does speak to the wider issue with Nintendo's messaging here. The company's done so little to explain its decisions to its fans that they've taken matters into their own hands, and come up with an answer to the question that Nintendo probably doesn't like being out there all that much. If it had just taken the time to provide a little more context, it might not be so eminently clear that Mario is on his way to the big Boo Mansion in the sky. I mean, it's not as if Nintendo doesn't have previous here - it did once kill Luigi after all. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.Luigi: We live our lives taking each second for granted.
Mario: But what would you do if you knew how much time you had left? Only a few days left before we bid farewell to Mario... forever... Memento Mario Unus Marius#mario35 #mariomemories #march31 #Nintendo #UnusAnnus pic.twitter.com/jV8j786B9T — Kenton Draws Stuff (@ken10drawsstuff) March 22, 2021
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
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Balan Wonderworld Review
It’s sad to say, but I’ve gotten used to disappointment when it comes to spiritual successors of iconic games made by their original creators. For every return as impressive as Bloodstained, there seems to be a far less successful attempt like Mighty No. 9. So, I’m disappointed but not surprised to see that Balan Wonderworld, the latest 3D platformer from Sonic the Hedgehog co-creators Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima, is a fundamentally flawed shadow of its predecessors. Its character designs, cutscenes, and music are certainly charming, but charm alone isn’t enough to make this half-baked platformer any less boring to actually play.
When you’re hopping around Balan Wonderworld’s simultaneously imaginative yet bland stages, it doesn’t necessarily feel like a total trainwreck. Some of its barebones obstacle courses can occasionally produce hints of what I might call fun, and it’s not much more than a total bore the rest of the time. But when you take Balan Wonderworld as a whole, it sinks lower than the rudimentary platforming that barely props it up. From its misguided one-button control scheme, to its haphazard transforming costume mechanic and the levels that use them, to the half-hearted Chao Garden-like hub world between them, it gets a lot wrong – and very little of what it gets right helps to balance the scales.
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This is usually the part where I’d break down Balan Wonderworld’s story for you, but there’s not much to tell about the unexplained nonsense it calls a plot. You play as either a boy who goes from happily breakdancing to being super bummed out in record time, or a girl whose housemaids whisper about her behind her back for no apparent reason. Your choice means very little, though, because either way you are quickly abducted by a magical tophat man named Balan and dropped into a dream land full of weird birds and crystals or something? It’s unclear, but that’s all the setup you’ll get before it starts parading you through 12 different worlds (each with just two levels, a boss, and an extra level once you beat the story) that are each structured around another sad person, all of whom seem completely unrelated to anything that’s going on.
I’ve enjoyed plenty of games with incomprehensible stories, but Balan Wonderworld’s inanity is particularly disappointing when its animated cutscenes are so well made. They’re full of life and energy, and can even tell a few genuinely entertaining bite-sized stories about each world’s subject. Cutscenes primarily play right before a boss to quickly introduce the person for that world and a problem they are facing – be it a boy trying to build a flying machine or a scuba diving girl whose dolphin friend maimed her and left her to die – but a second cutscene right after the boss then immediately resolves it (don’t worry, she and the dolphin are cool now). That pacing not only makes each character’s story feel disjointed from everything else, including your protagonist, it means the levels you play before meeting them are devoid of context. If the first cutscene had played at the start of the world, then maybe I would have connected with those characters as I played through their reference-filled levels, like a chess player’s world being littered with chess pieces. But by holding their whole story to the end, Balan Wonderworld becomes little more than a jumble of endearing but incoherent ideas.
Control Chaos
Regardless of its story, the festering rot at the heart of Balan Wonderworld is the inexplicable decision to make it a one-button game. Apart from using the joystick to move and the shoulder buttons to swap between ability-altering costumes, nearly every other button on the controller does the same thing. That concept is taken laughably too far by making them the same in the menus too, forcing you to scroll to specific “back” buttons rather than just being able to hit B/Circle, which would be hilarious if it weren’t so stupid. When you’re not wearing a costume (which is extremely rare), your lone button is a simple and underwhelming jump, but each of Balan Wonderworld’s more than 80 different outfits change that function to something else. A jack-o-lantern costume makes your sole action a punch attack, while a sheep suit lets you hover jump, and there are a needlessly large number of other options to stumble across.
The idea of a one-button control scheme isn’t an inherently bad one, but Balan Wonderworld doesn’t provide a single good reason for why it restricts itself this way. What it does do, however, is provide innumerable examples for why it shouldn’t have – most critically, it prevents certain costumes from performing that most basic of platforming tasks: jump. Some suits work fine with one button, particularly the jumping-focused ones (who would have guessed?), but others range from perplexing to downright awful as a result. Things like a clown that can only jump by slowly charging up an annoyingly small explosion, or a flower that can stretch up a uselessly short distance. If a costume uses its button to attack then odds are you can’t jump at all while wearing it, while others might still let you jump but at the cost of making their ability activate only when you’re standing still – or worse, entirely at random. Why in Wonderworld is that the better option?
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Player control is sacrificed for unnecessary simplicity again and again: a robot costume can shoot lasers only if you don’t move at all while a mantis suit can throw blades but not make it up a one-foot ledge, and neither of them make the frequently ignorable enemies any less dull to fight. And then there’s the truly baffling Box Fox, which Balan Wonderworld’s own tooltip explains will turn you into a plain cube “when it feels like it.” That’s genuinely unbelievable when the alternative would have just been to enable even a single extra button, and can make already bland costume abilities annoying or flatout unusable. And while you can carry three costumes at once and simply run around in a more maneuverable one most of the time, swapping between them is accompanied by an aggravatingly slow animation that makes doing so in a pinch a frantic affair.
Because getting hit means you lose that costume entirely, I even found myself in a few situations where taking damage sometimes meant not having the one ability I needed to progress, or potentially not being able to jump at all. That leaves you with no option but to tediously backtrack and grab another copy of the outfit you need. Costumes are contained in purple gems that require a key to unlock, but that’s yet another mechanic that’s so pointless it’s silly. Keys are almost always just a few steps away from the gems themselves, occasionally tucked around a nearby corner or behind a box to provide all the challenge and excitement of playing hide and seek with a four-year-old. Collecting them is always just added friction in a game full of it.
The visual variety of costumes is, at least, decently impressive, with a particular favorite of mine being a giant rolling BB-8 style panda. But mechanically, there’s an immense amount of overlap that can cause new obstacles to be monotonously similar to old ones – there are a half dozen different ways to hover in the air, multiple fighters that fill the same role, and countless options to destroy breakable blocks. While “over 80 different costumes!” might be a catchy bullet point for the back of its $60 box, the reality is Balan Wonderworld would have been a significantly better platformer if it only had 10 that it actually took proper advantage of.
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As is, each world has about five costumes it introduces, makes use of for some extremely basic platforming, and then throws away just as fast. Balan Wonderworld’s levels are mostly linear, but they ignore all the platforming fundamentals of introducing the basics of a mechanic and then building more interesting or challenging sections on top of it as you progress. Each stage seems like a mock-up of how a costume could be used in some better thought-out game we don’t get to play. Maybe the most glaring example of this is a costume that lets you summon a ladder on specific ladder spots (exciting, right?). It’s used to very simply get over some walls right after you get it and then basically never again, so why does it exist at all? Not all of them are quite that dry, with mildly more entertaining suits sending you bouncing between balloons or floating along air currents. But they never evolve past the lack of complexity found in the first few levels, leaving me bored and unengaged for the roughly nine hours it took to reach the credits.
Most levels have small extra bits that can only be accessed with specific costumes from other worlds too, like a recurring bandstand platform that needs a musical costume to trigger – but that means “solving” these obstacles is purely a matter of having the right costume or not. If you spot blue webbing on a wall, you can go back to the closest checkpoint and swap into the spider costume to climb it (if you have an extra of that suit, otherwise you’ve got to go back to its home world first). But that’s not an interesting challenge, a fun discovery, or even a very well rewarded task as it’s very frequently just hiding some borderline useless crystals rather than the Statues that act as Balan Wonderworld’s Super Star equivalent to unlock more worlds.
Those collectibles (and a hat with eyes) aren’t where the similarities to Super Mario Odyssey stop either. Balan Wonderworld clearly seems to take some inspiration from Mario’s latest major outing, but it doesn’t recapture any of the magic that made it so special. Mario’s capture forms are similarly limited in their capabilities, sure, but the vast majority of Odyssey is spent as Mario himself, whose controls are far more nuanced than a single jump button. Each level of that game is designed around Mario and his available captures with explicit intent, ramping up simple concepts into more complex ideas as you go. In contrast, Balan Wonderworld just throws a bunch of random ideas and costumes at you, let’s you swap to any of them any time you like, and never really offers a more interesting use than the ones it introduces the first moment after you put one on.
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The worlds can stretch through some neat visual styles, from jungle treetops to an M.C. Escher-style artistic maze, but even the nicest of them are undercut by repetitive terrain and peculiar dancing NPCs that disappear every time you get close (and a small handful have a downright nauseating screen warp effect that makes it actively hard to play). But all that color and some pretty great music don’t do much to differentiate their rudimentary level design. Every single one is still overburdened with a needless amount of costumes and held back by its restrictive control scheme, the combination of which prevents Balan Wonderworld’s platforming from ever forming a coherent voice of its own.
The one place this trend is ever so slightly bucked is in its bosses, which do manage to flaunt Balan Wonderworld’s knack for character design. Bosses follow the cookie cutter three-hit formula to beat, but a neat little twist is that there are actually three different ways to deal damage that you have to figure out mid-fight. Each one you manage to use earns you a Statue, which makes them more like an action puzzle. That doesn’t really make them much fun to actually fight, as dodging their attacks and hitting back is still incredibly basic and often annoyingly unintuitive, but it is a place where Balan Wonderworld’s creativity feels better expressed.
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It’s certainly a preferable way to earn Statues than the “Balan’s Bout” bonus stages hidden throughout every level. These transport you to a timing-based minigame where Balan himself flies through a generic void inexplicably punching rocks for no discernible reason, with you trying to time button presses to annoyingly vague indicators to earn multipliers on the crystals you’ve collected. Every single Balan’s Bout reuses the same small pool of animations, takes far too long, and is incredibly harsh in its judgement – getting every button press perfect will earn you a gold medal and a Statue of its own, while even a single slightly mistimed one will drop you to a silver and deny you that reward. By the latter half of the campaign there are two or three of these in every single level, and you have to completely reload a level to take another crack at them, making the prospect of 100%ing any of Balan Wonderworld’s stages an absolute nightmare to consider.
Completionists will get more bad news once the credits roll, as a third level opens up in each of the 12 worlds. These endgame stages ramp up the challenge a little bit, but probably in one of the more frustrating ways possible. The platforming puzzles are only marginally more complex, but now there are no purple costume gems scattered around except for some hidden special ones (like a somewhat familiar chargeable rocket roller skater). That means you have to rely on the supply of costumes you’ve collected elsewhere, and losing a specific one you need could not only halt your progress in that level but also potentially force you back to a different world to laboriously farm up on what you need. That crosses a threshold Balan Wonderworld mercifully doesn’t often reach: the point where my boredom transforms into frustration.
Garden of Eatin'
Between each level, you return to your pointless garden hub world full of pointless birds that spin a wheel to rack up pointless points. For anyone hoping this green, hilled zone is comparable to the Sonic Adventure series’ adorable Chao Garden, I regret to inform you that pretty much the only thing they have in common is the ability to force feed its cute critters crystals and then unceremoniously throw them through the air for a cruel laugh. There's very little interaction with these bird blobs otherwise, making the almost idle game-like nature of giving them crystals to make a generic counter go up perplexingly dull.
The process of feeding them is a tedious one too, requiring you to walk to one of four colored flower patches to throw out the matching crystals you collect during a level – the catch here is that you throw them 10 at a time and there can seemingly only be 20 spawned in at once. Since the old ones will despawn if too many new ones arrive, you have to throw some out and then wait for your fluffy workers to slowly eat before throwing out more. That will then cause them to spin a wheel that builds superfluous structures in your hub, be it a “trampoline” for them to bounce on, part of a tower for them to adorably roll down, another trampoline, or even a third trampoline. Because you’re given zero motivation or explanation for any of this (what do the different color crystals do? Why am I building them so many trampolines? Where did one get a tiny hat from?), throwing out crystals becomes little more than a chore between levels, completely unlike the nuanced care I could give my Chao.
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What’s worse, because crystals are the primary item you’re meant to pick up besides Statues, their lack of value in the hub (the only place they are at all relevant) undermines the very act of collecting them. Backtracking to equip that music costume I mentioned earlier seems relatively fruitless when using its special bandstand only gets you four crystals to add to the hundreds your birds will greedily devour. By the end of the campaign I barely even cared about picking them up anymore – and when the main collectible of your 3D platformer starts to feel like more trouble than its worth, that’s a pretty catastrophic breaking point.
Balan Wonderworld reminds me of some of the other platformers I played as a child, but not in a good way. It feels like a small subset of games that I enjoyed in the ‘90s, like Gex: Enter the Gecko or Bubsy, only to realize they were actually pretty bad once I grew out of my young naivete and looked back with more informed eyes. But both our options and our standards have increased dramatically since the days of the Nintendo 64. So even viewed with nostalgic eyes, Balan Wonderworld is less a throwback to a bygone era and more a derivative reminder of memories best left forgotten.