The report shows that Among Us clocked over half a billion active users just in the month of November, which SuperData says makes it the most popular game ever by this metric. Despite these huge numbers, however, Among Us doesn’t even crack the top ten games of the month by earnings, due to its low level of monetization. “The PC version (which has a $5 upfront price) accounted for the majority of revenue from August to November (64%),” the report adds. “Despite having an extremely small share of the total player base (3% in November).”
Among Us’ popularity in November was likely helped by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s record-breaking Twitch stream of the game in late October, which was then followed by a second stream at the end of November. The social deception game has found widespread popularity among game streamers at all levels of fame in 2020, even leading to the cancellation of a planned sequel so the team could focus on the first game.
Switch owners in the US and Canada (but sadly not other regions) can log in here and have a look back on their 2020 with the Switch. Nintendo’s tool will show you a bunch of stats, including how much time you spent on the Switch in total, and how many games you played over 2020.
It’ll break down how much of that time was spent in different games, too, so you can find out which game dominated your time in 2020. The stats breakdown will also show how many hours you spent gaming per month–which is likely to align closely with the time you spent in lockdowns or social distancing.
Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra has revealed in a CNBC interview that Sony’s various divisions will be working together more closely in the future–including more TV shows and movies based on PlayStation franchises. While he didn’t specify which games are being adapted, he revealed that there are currently three films and seven TV shows in the works at Sony Pictures based on PlayStation games.
While the interview was mainly about Sony Pictures’ plans to continue with more traditional theatrical release schedules into 2021, in opposition to Warner Bros’ plans to release theatrically and digitally at the same time, Vinciquerra also talked about how Sony cooperates between its different divisions.
“We have a program within the company called One Sony,” he explained. “We’ve seen lots of things happening in that regard–for instance, the Uncharted movie, which we shot completely during the pandemic and will be released next year based on a Sony Playstation IP.”
Silent Hill and Gravity Rush creator Keiichiro Toyama has shared some details of the upcoming debut game from his new studio, which will be a horror-themed action-adventure, aiming for a 2023 release, that will appeal to Toyama’s fans.
Toyama’s Bokeh Game Studio was founded on August 13 and announced publicly in December. Speaking with IGN Japan, the acclaimed developer explained that he is working on “an action-adventure game that will appeal to fans of my previous work”. He explained that the game will include “battles and story elements” in the kind of richly authored worlds you might recognize from his games at Sony’s Japan Studio and Konami.
When pressed on whether this new title will lean more toward the horror themes of Silent Hill and Siren or the cuter anime-styled paranormal setting of Gravity Rush, he explained, “If anything, this will be more of a horror-oriented game. But we will focus on making this a broader entertainment experience, rather than a hardcore horror game.”
While Toyama has been a first-party Sony developer for the past 20 years or so, he said that this new game will be a multi-platform release. “We are developing with PC as the lead platform, but we hope to release the game on as many console platforms as possible,” he said.
Bokeh Game Studio founders Junya Okura, Keiichiro Toyama, and Kazunobu Sato.
The new title is being developed by a “fairly large” team, and Bokeh cofounder and producer Kazunobu Sato explained that they are still in the early stages of development, with an estimated target release date of 2023. “We’re just entering prototype development, and development will probably take nearly three years. So we hope to get this game into your hands in about three years from now.”
Regarding the studio’s foundation, Toyama explained that a combination of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic and turning 50 prompted him to think about his future, and to answer the beckoning call of independence. He turned to longtime collaborators Sato (producer on the Siren series and The Last Guardian) and Junya Okura (lead level designer on the Siren and Gravity Rush series, whom Toyama credits with giving shape to his gameplay ideas), and the three Japan Studio colleagues set up Bokeh Game Studio together, with Toyama as Creator, Sato as Producer and Okura as Game Director. They initially considered creating smaller mobile games, before eventually building up a team of “mostly veterans” to increase the scale of their ambitions.
“I took a lot of inspiration from genDESIGN,” said Toyama, referring to the studio founded by Ico creator Fumito Ueda, who was yet another Japan Studio alumnus. “Ueda told me so much about his experiences that it inspired me to follow suit.”
While Bokeh’s first game may be a way off, Sato and business development manager Yohei Hart (also ex-Japan Studio) promised that the studio’s newly launched Twitter account and Facebook account will show peeks behind the curtain as the team progresses with development. “When you work at a major studio like Japan Studio, there is a limit to what you can share publicly, so now that we are free from those restraints, we’d like to take the opportunity to share as much as we can … so that the audience can see how the game comes together over time,” explained Sato. “We hope it might help people to not forget about us.”
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate version 10.1 update is now live, bringing with it Sephiroth and the rest of Smash Bros.’ new Final Fantasy-themed content. The update has also made a handful of fighter adjustments, with Nintendo now releasing the list of fighters that have been tweaked.
The Sephiroth Challenger Pack is now available to purchase and use for players who didn’t already unlock him early, along with a handful of Final Fantasy-themed outfits for Mii Fighters. 13 new Final Fantasy characters have been added as Spirits in the shop, including Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and even summons like Shiva and Ifrit.
Cloud has also received a minor cosmetic tweak, with his Final Smash now triggering Omnislash Ver. 5 instead of a regular Omnislash for P2, P4, P6, and P8 color variants. The effect is the same, with the change being purely aesthetic.
