Analyst Predicts Nintendo Switch Is The Fifth-Best Selling Tech Product Of 2017

The Nintendo Switch is the fifth-best selling tech product of the year, and is estimated to sell over 15 million units in 2017.

The estimate comes from Daniel Ives of GBH Insights, a market research firm. The portable/console hybrid had a number of things going for it this year: Both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey released to critical and commercial success, a slew of indie games found success on the console, and major companies having begun porting their current-gen games to the less powerful portable.

All of these factors could have contributed to making the console the best-selling dedicated gaming device of the year, but it was no match for more mainstream and diverse devices. The four tech products that are estimated to beat it are:

• iPhone (223 million units sold)
• Samsung Galaxy 8 and Note 8 (33 million units sold)
• Amazon Echo Dot (24 million units sold)
• Apple Watch (20 million units sold)

[Source: USA Today]

 

Our Take
It's impressive the Switch was able to make the list at all, and a testament to the console's popularity. But it also goes to show just how dwarfed it is by phones and tablets, which is why the company's recent move to publish games on them makes so much sense, even if the products haven't been all that good.

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/12/30/analyst-predicts-nintendo-switch-is-the-fifth-best-selling-tech-product-of-2017.aspx

Our Favorite Video Game Music From 2017

2017 was a year popping with fantastic soundtracks, from beginning to end. Here are our editors' favorite soundtracks to blare.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Leo Vader
Streets of Rogue
Streets of Rogue has an absolute banger of a soundtrack, which in a roguelike does a lot to make replaying it exciting. Every friend of mine who tried this game out, whether they enjoyed it or not, individually mentioned how damn good the music is. "Slum Scrum" from the third level of the game is my personal favorite track.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Javy Gwaltney
Nier Automata
"On Approach/Alien Manifestation" has been stuck in my head since I first heard it back in March. The drums. The intensity of the buildup. The piano at the ending. It's perfect for the combat sequences you often hear while you're running and slashing around in Automata, and it's also great music to do work to.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Kyle Hilliard
A Hat In Time
You can hear five of my picks for the best soundtrack songs of the year in the podcast segment embedded below, but I wanted to add one song I heard after we recorded that episode. A Hat in Time has a fantastic, bubbly soundtrack that I have found myself listening to outside of playing the game, but this piece which plays during the final confrontation is frenetic, cool, and intense. It doesn’t let up and it’s a great way to end one of the best platformers of the year that isn’t called Mario.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Imran Khan
Nier Automa
While the haunting track "City Ruins (Shade)" represents the core themes of desolation, isolation, and tinges of hope well on its own, it also holds a small secret. The melody line from the track is similar to the first Nier’s "City of Commerce" track, indicating a hidden connection in the location that is only recognizable to fans of the first game.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Matt Miller
Destiny 2
The world-renowned Kronos Quartet lends its immaculate string tones to this striking signature piece from Destiny 2's soundtrack. Echoing the player character's full journey over the course of the story, the piece opens on a melancholy melodic thread, and escalates into martial drums and vocals and on to a triumphant climax at the six-minute mark.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Brian Shea
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
I already gave my top three songs of 2017 on the podcast segment (see below), and while all three of those songs are awesome and worthy of recognition, a song that stuck with me over the entire year was the song from Hyrule Castle in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You work through the whole game to reach this point. You start from nothing and travel the world to regain your powers, enrich your gear, and retake the legendary beasts, and this song reflects the mixture of heart-pounding excitement and intimidation I felt as I made my way through Hyrule Castle toward what awaited me at the game’s conclusion.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Matt Bertz
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
From its folksy narcocorridos to the sparse, charango-driven gameplay segments, the Wildlands soundtrack transports you to another part of the world. 

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Elise Favis
Persona 5
The Persona series has long excelled at memorable soundtracks, but Persona 5’s music is my favorite of the whole franchise. "Last Surprise," the main battle theme, does a perfect job of accentuating the action with a catchy, energetic beat and strong vocals.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Suriel Vazquez
Gravity Rush 2
Gravity Rush 2’s soundtrack is simply stellar. The diversity in instrumentation, the motifs and themes it establishes throughout the story – combined with the incredible art style and fun premise, Gravity Rush 2 could have been one of the best games of the year if its mission design and combat weren’t so consistently bungled. Still, songs like “Lei Havina” are not only immaculately composed, but offer a nice change of pace from the electronics and orchestra-heavy soundtracks we’re used to seeing.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
Kim Wallace
Life Is Strange: Before The Storm
Burn it Down plays at a pivotal point in Chloe and Rachel's journey during the last episode of Before the Storm. It accurately captures Chloe's state of mind as she waits to discover more about Rachel Amber. The emotional song shows Chloe's conflicted emotions as she faces hardships and realizes that life is far from perfect.

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/12/30/here-are-our-favorite-video-game-soundtracks-from-2017.aspx

Replay – BioShock

Beneath the surface of the ocean, at a depth where not even the faintest trace of the sun’s mighty light can be seen, the cold, obdurate blackness holds the future of mankind. It’s here that the underwater metropolis known as Rapture was built with the dream of the top brass of science congregating to build a better tomorrow. As the experiments and theories began to take shape, science defeated common sense, and something went wrong. Something went terribly wrong. As your bathysphere descends toward this revered paradise, you are hit with the sinking fear that mankind may have gone too far. It’s not until you step foot in the ruins of this city that you realize just how real this fear is.

This is the intro paragraph to my BioShock review. I was blown away by this game, giving it a rating of 10 out of 10, and showering it with hyperbole along the lines of calling it "ingenious, enthralling, and a masterpiece of the most epic proportions." BioShock originally released on August 21, 2007, and has recently come back for its 10th anniversary on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Would you kindly click the play button below to see why I call it one of video games' most important titles? Seriously, click the damn button.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/12/29/replay-bioshock.aspx

Capcom Producer Promising 2018 Will Make Ace Attorney Fans Happy

Capcom producer Motohiro Eshiro has promised that Ace Attorney will have some presence in 2018 in an interview with Japanese site 4Gamer.

“I believe we’ll continue working on something that will make Ace Attorney series fans happy," Eshiro told the website. "We’re also currently coming up with a new title, so personally speaking I think it’ll be a challenging year.”

It is another hint that Capcom has not been subtle about dropping in the last few months. Last month, Capcom chief operating officer Haruhiro Tsujimoto outright said to expect a sequel to Ace Attorney on the Switch in financial year 2019, which runs from March calendar year 2018 to April calendar year 2019.

With both Ace Attorney Investigations games hitting mobile phones, it is likely whatever title is coming is being made for both.

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/12/29/capcom-producer-promising-2018-will-make-ace-attorney-fans-happy.aspx

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Hits Three Million Concurrent Players (And Half As Many Bans)

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, the battle royale game that has taken the world by storm, hits a new milestone with three million concurrent players on PC alone.

Now that the game has officially exited Early Access on Steam, it makes sense that its numbers would jump up. In September, the numbers exceeded Dota 2's at one million. In October, they exceeded two million. Now, with a new map and vaulting, the game number of players tops three million.

These numbers has been floating around for a while, but were proven fake before today. SteamDB confirmed the actual milestone on twitter.

A more concerning milestone, however, comes from anti-cheat service BattlEye, which announced that 1.5 million accounts have been banned from Battlegrounds. Of the approximately 26,370,071 owners, that means 5.688266823399907% of the player base has been banned from the game for cheating or abusive behavior.

 

Our Take
As PUBG's popularity raises, presumably the ban number will also raise proportionally. It will be interesting to see if it can break that dynamic at any point.

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/12/29/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-hits-three-million-concurrent-players-and-half-as-many-bans.aspx

Take A Look At A New Leon Statue Based On Resident Evil: Vendetta

Kotobukiya's latest Resident Evil statue is based on the CG animated film, Resident Evil: Vendetta. This version of Leon S. Kennedy makes him look like a Gap model trying to pull off a Han Solo fsahion, but he's actually dressed as a Division of Security Operations agent. Kennedy is equipped with his custom Sentinel Nine firearm, and the pose comes from one of the film's bigger battles against a horde of zombies. The stand features a cartridge, shells, and a spray of blood.

No price has been given yet, but Kotobukiya plans to release this statue in July 2018. Vendetta takes place in New York, and partners Kennedy with Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers. Here's hoping we get statues of these characters at a future date.

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/12/29/take-a-look-at-a-new-leon-statue-based-on-resident-evil-vendetta.aspx

Man Killed By Police After Call Of Duty Argument Results In Swatting

Police in Wichita, Kansas shot and killed a man after what a Call of Duty community is claiming is the result of a disagreement over a Call of Duty match.

A report from The Wichita Eagle stated that police were called to the victim's home on December 28 following a phone call that reported a homicide and hostage situation at the residence. When a man opened the door, one of the officers fired on him. The man, who wasn't identified by police, was pronounced dead at the hospital. His family has identified the victim as Andrew Finch.

In an interview with local news, the Wichita police department chief Troy Livingston confirmed that they are investigating whether the incident is the result of a fake phone call was part of a Swatting prank. Swatting is when a perpetrator phones in false information designed to get police and crisis units to a home under the presumption that lives are in danger, causing them to be on heightened alert and more aggressive at the target address. It has in the past gotten property destroyed, pets killed, and now people, as well.

The strangest part, however, is that it's possible the victim had nothing to do with the argument in the first place.

In the hours following the news of the shooting, users on Twitter pointed to a UMG Gaming Call of Duty match as the genesis of the incident, a wager-based match of Search & Destroy. Two teammates who go by the handles "Miruhcle" and "Baperizer" got into an argument following a loss over public Twitter posts and private direct messages with each other. Baperizer brought in a third party, a user who calls themselves "Swautistic," to threaten a Swatting against Miruhcle

For whatever reason, Miruhcle upped the ante by taunting Baperizer and Swautistic by providing them with an address in Wichita, implying that the address was his. When police arrived, Andrew Finch was shot dead in his own home despite there being no evidence he even knew any of the people involved with the argument. The mother of the victim, Lisa Finch, told the Witchita Eagle that her son is not a gamer, a claim echoed up by the rest of the victim's family.

In the wake of the tragedy, the Call of Duty community has come out with numerous screencaps of and charges against Swautistic, who many people claim has a long history of sending SWAT teams as a prank. The twitter account for professional CoD player Tommy "ZooMa" Paparatto posted screencaps of Swautistic threatening Paparatto and his girlfriend. Paparatto also suggested Swautistic was behind the bomb threats that forced evacuations at CWL Dallas earlier this month, a claim many in the Call of Duty community reiterated since last night's incident.

In a now-deleted tweet, Swautistic claimed no responsibility for the attacks, stating “I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING ASWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION [sic].”

The officer who fired the shot has been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is being investigated. We have reached out to the Wichita police department for comment and will update the story as it changes.

 

Our Take
I hated writing this story because I hate that this can happen. I hate that people have this power to ruin someone's life or even outright take it. It is too easy to say "This was one person that was disturbed" or "This doesn't reflect us as a gaming community," but at some point that just looks like denial. The culture that lead to things like this being okay, that lead to not one but two people thinking this was a valid avenue to escalate an argument, and a third person hiding behind anonymity to put someone else in the line of fire, none of it should be okay with the gaming community as a whole. When a prank has a body count, it is time to look at how such a thing ended up being considered a prank at all.

from www.GameInformer.com - The Feed http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/12/29/man-killed-by-police-after-call-of-duty-argument-results-in-swatting.aspx