Consumer spending in the US gaming market experienced a notable resurgence in October, driven largely by the highly anticipated launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The latest installment in the iconic first-person shooter series not only claimed the top spot in monthly sales but also bolstered overall industry revenue, particularly in the content and subscription sectors.
Data from Circana reveals that total spending across hardware, software, and accessories grew by 10% year-on-year, reaching an impressive $4.7 billion. Of this, content sales contributed the lion’s share at $4.23 billion, marking a 12% increase compared to October 2023. Hardware sales, however, saw a decline, dropping by 23% to $249 million.
The debut of Black Ops 6 was a significant catalyst for this growth. The game quickly ascended to the top of October’s sales charts and secured its position as the third best-selling title of 2024 to date. Its availability on Game Pass played a pivotal role, as subscription spending for non-mobile platforms saw a 16% uptick. Xbox reported record-breaking Game Pass subscriptions during the game’s launch window, underscoring its impact on the platform’s ecosystem.
Console content emerged as the standout contributor to the rise in spending, with digital full-game sales driving a remarkable 27% increase compared to the same period last year. PlayStation platforms dominated Black Ops 6 sales, accounting for 82% of the game’s console revenue during October. Furthermore, the title’s initial two-week sales outpaced its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023), by 23%, highlighting the series’ enduring popularity.
The month also saw a surge of new entries in the top ten charts, with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero debuting at No. 2 and Silent Hill 2 (2024) taking third place. Other notable releases included Dragon Age: The Veilguard at No. 6, Sega’s Metaphor: ReFantazio at No. 5, and Sonic X Shadows Generations at No. 9.
Overall, October’s gaming market dynamics showcased the continued dominance of blockbuster franchises and the increasing influence of digital and subscription models in shaping industry trends. As the holiday season approaches, the momentum set by titles like Black Ops 6 positions the industry for a strong finish to the year.
Top 20 best-selling video games in the U.S. in October 2024:
*Digital sales not included, ^Xbox and Switch digital sales not included, ^^Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included.
The Nintendo Switch has slowly making its way toward become the best-selling console of all time, having recently hit 146+ million units sold. That number puts it around 9 million away from the current record holder, the iconic PS2. Or at least, it was 9 million away. You see, Sony has updated its records, and somehow the PS2 has shifted a few more million units.
The last time Sony officially updated us on how many PS2 consoles had been sold was way back in 2011 when the company said 150 million had been shipped. A year later that number was updated to 155 million. A year after that, the PS2 was officially discontinued and since that day Sony has never updated its sales, even though we all knew it must have sold at least a few more units.
It turns out, it did. 5 million of them to be exact. According to the newly updated history of PlayStation on Sony’s official website, somewhere in the last 11 years the PlayStation 2 managed to ship another 5 million consoles, bringing its total to 160 million.
That means the Nintendo Switch now has to achieve another 14 million sales to take the crown. Honestly, that seems quite likely though, as even with the announcement of the Switch 2 coming in 2025 the Switch is still selling very well indeed.
As for the 160 million number, it isn’t the first time we’ve heard it. Former PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan revealed in the official PlayStation that the PS2 had sold 160 million. However, since it was a passing comment and because Sony did not update its records, people were not sure whether to believe Ryan’s claims.
Now we just need to wait and see if that number will increase as the Switch inches closer. Perhaps next year Sony will reveal it flogged another few million down local pub. Or if they want to be extra devious they could always produce a PS2 mini pre-loaded with classic games, and use its sales to help the PS2 keep its place at the top of the mountain.
Earlier this year, Star Wars: Hunters landed on mobile devices and Switch. The free-to-play third-person hero shooter was a very fun and good game that was trapped on mobile devices. Well, except for Switch, but that port wasn’t great. Now, Hunters is finally making the leap to PC, alongside some visual upgrades, too.
Ranking Overwatch 2 Season 10’s Biggest Changes
First announced back in 2021, Star Wars: Hunters finally launched in June but only on iOS, Android, and Switch. The third-person Overwatch-like 5v5 shooter pits different and original Star Wars characters against each other in fast-paced matches set in maps based on different locales from the popular sci-fi franchise. While the game wasn’t the most innovative shooter I’ve ever played, my time with Hunters was mostly positive. Still, it felt like a game trapped on mobile and Switch, so today’s news of a PC port is exciting.
On November 26, Lucasfilm Games and Zynga announced that Star Wars: Hunters will be arriving on Steam on January 27, 2025. Hunters is launching in early access, which is a bit odd considering how its already been out on mobile for months and was in development for years, but whatever, I’m still excited to play this competive Star Wars shooter on my PC.
Before its January release, Hunters is getting a limited-time playtest in December. You can sign up for that test now via Steam.
I’m really happy to see Hunters is also getting a visual upgrade on PC, with maps in particular looking much more detailed and better-lit than what is currently available on Switch and mobile devices. Hopefully the PC version also supports high framerates and controllers, too.
As for people already playing Hunters, the game’s Steam page confirms that the Star Wars shooter will support crossplay and cross progression across all platforms.
That’s right, folks, you can finally start counting down the days to the next Witcher game, as production has finally kicked off at CD Projekt Red.
Now, don’t get too excited as it’s almost definitely still years away, but those of you desperately hoping for some Witcher updates finally have a juicy one: the director of the next Witcher game has confirmed that production has started on Project Polaris (the codename for the next entry in the popular RPG series). “I’m thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered the full-scale production phase!” wrote Sebastian Kalemba on his personal Twitter account. “With new challenges just around the corner, it’s the talented and hard-working people who make me believe we can together make the upcoming Witcher Saga a remarkable experience. No stopping now! Stay tuned for what’s on the other side of the coin!”
I’m thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered the full-scale production phase! With new challenges just around the corner, it’s the talented and hard-working people who make me believe we can together make the upcoming Witcher Saga a remarkable experience. No stopping… pic.twitter.com/2pJdsg2sWX
— Sebastian Kalemba (@Skalemba) November 26, 2024
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That last line is in reference to a photo paired with the tweet, which you can see above, of a few coins laying on a stone floor. Obviously if production has only just started on the game, we’re still a good few years out from being actually able to play it. How many years? Don’t ask me! Haven’t the foggiest, but I’ll cross my fingers for all you Witcher fans that it’ll be sometime this decade at the very least (we’ve about five years to go until the next one, but we all remember what happened to Cyberpunk 2077, don’t we).
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One important thing to note about this upcoming sequel is that it seems unlikely to outright be The Witcher 4. Next year it will have been a full decade since The Witcher 3 came out, and with game development taking so long a lot of games are designed to be welcoming to new players even if they are sequels (just look at Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and how little it references Breath of the Wild).
The voice of Geralt himself has even said the next one isn’t about the series’ mainstay protagonist, though he doesn’t know who it will be about. Back when the sequel was revealed it even noted that it’s the start of a new saga, so it’s pretty safe to say this’ll be starting fresh, more or less. I’m sure we’ll find out more when CD Projekt Red is ready to show more.
The creators of Lone Wolf Fists are preparing to release Acid & Steel, the game’s first expansion. This supplement introduces new character options and settings, focusing on the mechanical world of Bebal-Ki-Menar and the infernal realm of Naraka. Each setting adds distinct elements to the game, offering opportunities for players to explore new stories and challenges.
Bebal-Ki-Menar is a vast clockwork world inhabited by Artificial Heroes, robotic beings with advanced augmentations and the potential for human-like qualities. This setting incorporates intricate societal systems and martial disciplines shaped by its technological foundation. Naraka, in contrast, is an underworld ruled by the Asura, powerful fallen beings who grant the Damned Heroes incredible abilities at a significant cost. The expansion explores themes of power, morality, and transformation through these character types.
The Acid & Steel supplement will be released as a hardcover book with over 200 pages of content, including new techniques, bestiaries, and tools for creating customized settings within these worlds. The book’s visual design includes black-and-white artwork from Kazuki David, reflecting the tone of the game.
The Kickstarter campaign for Acid & Steel launches on December 1, providing an opportunity for fans to support the project and receive a copy of the supplement. A free quickstart adventure is available on DriveThruRPG for those looking to experience the game before the expansion’s release.
Time Walker: Dark World bills itself as a “roguelike auto-battler with strategic combat.” I’d say that’s accurate. Your have four heroes who you are free to modify how you see fit. You have a melee focused mage or a healing archer. The choice is largely yours. You start off by picking 4 base classes which you can upgrade your units into. You can also pick a contract, which effects the amount of soul tokens you get. You go through seventeen stages in a single world(the number of worlds depends on the difficulty level). You have normal stages of enemies. Elite stages have more powerful enemies. Treasure stages just give you skills. Stage 16/17 in a world is always a shop, where you can buy skills. Following that is always a boss battle.
At the end of every stage in Time Walker, you get one of 40 skills. These can range from healing to defense modifiers, to fire bolts. Any skill can be equipped on any character. You can also merge a few of the same skill with the same level(1,2,3) to make a more powerful skill. Three level ones turns into Level two. Three level twos turns into level three. Then two level threes turn into an ultra powerful EX skill. Now at the end of every run you get soul tokens. These can be used to buy upgrades in a series of panels. Buying the requisite number of upgrades unlocks the next panel. Most upgrades center around new classes and modifying those classes.
Get grinding!
I liked Time Walker, but wouldn’t give it a Must Play due to disappointing technical issues, like a crash at one point. Also, there are things like, one time I put taunt on a character and enemies targeted everyone else except the one with taunt. A little more QA and polish would go a long way to solidifying the title. But still I give this a very solid Recommended with an eight back-end score. There is tons of strategic depth in Time Walker and plenty of things I did not go into. The complexity draws you in and simply won’t let you go. Get grinding those soul tokens!
Overall: Time Walker: Dark World need just a little more polish, but as it stands, its an excellent auto-battler with tons of depth.
VED from Karaclan Studios and Fulqrum Publishing is described on the Xbox Store page as “A story -driven RPG featuring stunning hand-drawn art and animation, combined with unique teleporting system, turn based combat mechanic and rogue-lite elements”.
I’m not sure there is a lot I can add to that, as it sets the scene for the game rather nicely. What it doesn’t mention is the finished article’s resemblance to a walking simulator, but I’ll come on to that. For now, let’s go to a strange new world and see what unfolds…
Are you ready to explore?
I’m sure you will agree that in any RPG the story is the thing that keeps you playing. It either grabs you and refuses to let go, as did Dragon Age: The Veilguard, or it just leaves you cold.
The story here is a bit of an odd one, as choices that you make as you go through the chapters affect the outcome of the narrative. We’re no strangers to a branching narrative, so this isn’t a surprise, but it does add a certain amount of replayability as you can go back and play things out in a different way if the current thread isn’t to your liking.
Without wanting to give away too much, in VED we play as Cyrus, a recently graduated student who is living with his aunt while looking for a job. One day, out of nowhere, a fire breaks out next door, and in the midst of the chaos Cyrus discovers that he can teleport. Nice talent to have in a tight spot! From there, he travels to a fantasy world where he has to not only survive, but make friends, build a town and so on and so forth. Obviously there is more to it, but broad brush strokes in a review and all that…
It’s probably best to then move on to the presentation of VED as we look at the much vaunted “hand-drawn art and animation”. To be fair, the art style is very nice, with detailed models of not only Cyrus and the friends he meets on his journey, but also of the enemies met along the way. One neat trick is that when Cyrus is in the real world, he is partially sighted, and this is reflected in the way the graphics are represented, being often a hazy screen with directions to follow based on things like smells and sensations. In the fantasy world, he has no such handicap, and so the graphics are crisp and clear.
Where’s your story taking you?
The animation is a bit of an odd one to call though, as it isn’t animation as such. The various combat moves you can choose lead to almost static screens showing the result, be that a swipe with a sword or a magic attack, and the animation doesn’t flow. The effect is still pretty cool, but the animation is nothing to write home about.
Sound is also pretty good, with the voice overs being, for the most part, pretty good. There are some odd stilted conversations where I clearly remember thinking “No one would say that!”, but the rest of it is okay. Battle effects are up to par too, and while music doesn’t play a massive part in the story, what is there is up to snuff. All in all, VED tries to do something different, and largely manages to pull it off.
Now on to actual gameplay, and here the news is again somewhat mixed as VED plays as an odd combination of RPG, visual novel and a walking simulator, with all the excitement that blend promises. In the real world, the conversations that Cyrus has with people affects what they think of him, and so building relationships, both at work and in Cyrus’s leisure time, is a core component of the game.
Once we teleport to the fantasy world, things get a bit more exciting. You see, there are a lot of places to go and people to meet in this section as well, and when you find Dawn, there is some base building to do as well. This section is important, as building new structures unlocks additional abilities for Cyrus to use in the fighting sections ahead, and as the difficulty of these fights gets quite hard quite quickly, keeping on top of things is quite important. Placing the actions that you unlock in the grid of available moves also allows you to tweak the way that fights go.
Get fighting in VED
Speaking of fighting, the system here is also quite interesting as every attack that you perform moves your character on the screen in relation to the enemy, so you can end up to the left, the right or in the middle of the screen depending on the attacks that you perform. Of course, where you are in relation to the enemy not only affects the way that the enemy can attack you, but also the way that you attack them. Most enemies you fight have more than one area to attack, so destroying an arm, for instance, can give you a safe area to stand while you chip away the main body. Attacks are done in a turn based style, with a certain number of AP to spend. Each attack takes AP to use, so do you use a lot of light attacks, or one powerful one? The choice is yours.
VED is an unconventional game that defies easy categorisation. While it might not immediately grab your attention, it gradually becomes more engaging as you delve deeper into its story and world. See it as a slow burn that rewards patience and exploration…
VED: A Hand-Drawn RPG 12 Years in the Making Arrives on Consoles and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/ved-a-hand-drawn-rpg-12-years-in-the-making-arrives-on-consoles-and-pc/
Buy VED on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/ved/9ntsktnq2q1m
Flynn Rider is one of the new characters in Disney Dreamoight Valley added with the Storybook Vale expansion. He is one of the long-awaited characters in the Dreamlight Valley and with the new expansion, players will be able to unlock him by completing her series of starting quests. However, since he is exclusive to the expansion, players must own the expansion to discover and unlock him. In this guide, we’ll go over how you can unlock Flynn in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
How to Unlock Flynn in Disney Dreamlight Valley
As mentioned above, the first and foremost requirement for unlocking Flynn is owning the Storybook Vale expansion. Once players have bought the Expansion, they will be able to go to the Storybook Vale, a new world beyond Dreamlight Valley. The Storybook Vale consists of three different biomes and Flynn is found in the Everafter biome.
However, before getting to the Everafter biome, you will have to unlock the Wild Woods area. It is located on the west side of the Bind biome and costs 2,000 Story Magic. From here, you need to complete two quests to unlock Flynn.
The Wolf of the Wilds
The first quest is The Wolf of the Wilds which triggers automatically after unlocking The Wild Woods area. After that, you need to go to the gazebo south of the area to find a magical gateway. Once done, ask the Lorekeeper about the gateway and she will tell you about the Fairy Tale Trial.
Go back to the gazebo and find the lever at the back of the gazebo. Put the lever back on the handle and interact with it to open the portal. Interact with the portal to travel to the Fairy Tale Trial.
A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing
Upon reaching the Fairy Tale Trial, A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing quest will begin. Explore the trial area and reach the main door in the big hall. Here, you will hear a pretending wolf. You have to gather three clues around the area to prove that the wolf is a human.
After gathering all the clues, you will uncover the pretending wolf is Flynn Rider. Once you are done with the Fairy Tale Trial, you will have to place Flynn House Foundation anywhere in the Storybook Vale. Open the furniture menu to place the foundation.
Interact with Scrooge’s Sign and pay 10,000 Star Coins to build Flynn Rider’s House. Once done, you will get to welcome Flynn to the Storybook Vale and unlock him as a villager. From now on, you will be able to give gifts to him and complete Friendship Quests for him as well.
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Arrowhead has a lot plans for the future of Helldivers 2. These obviously include new content for future updates as well as warbonds. Recently we have been treated to the activation of the DSS, and we’re still waiting for the Illuminate to land. While the Illuminate should be landing anytime now, the Helldivers 2 CCO has revealed why fans shouldn’t expect a brilliant backpack feature to be introduced soon.
We’ve been waiting all year long for the Illuminate to invade Helldivers 2, and it appears they are right around the corner thanks to a new Steam update. Aside from the Illuminate finally invading, Arrowhead has discussed other plans for HD2 such as adding true customization options for players, while also adding vehicles and implementing crossovers with other IPs.
All of the above is stuff to anticipate for the future. In addition, we might one day get a nifty backpack feature that Arrowhead want to add but haven’t been successful in implementing just yet.
Helldivers 2 CCO reveals why game doesn’t have belt fed machine gun backpack
On X, Arrowhead CCO and HD2 creative director, Pilestedt, was tagged by a fan asking, “How do they not have a belt fed machine gun backpack in @helldivers2 yet?”.
In response, Pilestedt revealed that it’s not in HD2 because of “Minor technical reasons”. There’s no elaboration on what these technical issues are, but Pilestedt’s response at least tells us that such a feature is something Arrowhead wanted to implement.
Image credit: @Pilestedt on X
The implementation of a belt-fed backpack is something players have requested before in Helldivers 2 on socials such as Reddit. As for what it does, the backpack carries large quantities of ammo with the belt feeding a steady streamline to the machine gun.
It would be really cool to see the feature added to HD2 sometime in the future. However, it’s unknown if Arrowhead are still looking to add such a mechanic, or if it’s something they proposed but decided to leave because of the “minor technical reasons” alluded to by Pilestedt.
While a belt-fed backpack would be great, there are other more tangible stuff to anticipate for the future. Leaks have revealed old Dune weapons and armor possibly reserved for a premium warbond, meanwhile, leaks have also shown an updated render for a weapon yet to be deployed.
For more Helldivers 2, check out our guide to the best warbonds ranked, along with the best stratagems and best throwables. We have also a guide to the best weapons, and, if you’re coming back to HD2 for the first time in a long while, we have a bunch of tips and tricks to help you get reaccustomed to the battlefield.
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Trapped on a space station with a ruthless killer, Edward Locke must solve this mystery, or it will be his last. In this strange place, filled with even stranger people, Edward will discover more about himself than he ever could have imagined. Join Edward as he explores a hand-drawn richly conceived world, filled with danger, mystery, creativity, and memorable moments.
Murder on Space Station 52 IS COMPATIBLE WITH STEAM DECK (Playable)
.jpg?w=640&resize=640,0&ssl=1 "Murder on Space Station 52 (2024) – Game details | Adventure Gamers")
