As the holidays come to a close, gamers around the world are rejoicing with their new game consoles (assuming they found one) and ringing in the new year with joy. Game Rant has compiled some of the biggest gaming news stories from this past week together into a concise post for fans and enthusiasts to stay up to date on the most important events in the industry per week. Highlighting the most relevant stories, this list is not inherently and totally objective, and will not contain every news story this week. Rather, this is intended for gaming fans who want a quick rundown on the largest/most impactful stories that occurred in the last week in games.
In this week’s holiday-fueled gaming news roundup, like every year, numerous games have ushered in their holiday events to celebrate the last hurrah of 2020. Marketplaces like Steam and the PS Store have also started end-of-year holiday sales for any last-minute games to snag. In some not-so-jolly news, Cyberpunk 2077 garners even more controversy as a class-action lawsuit is filed against CD Projekt. Gamers also echoed a collective groan over the severe lack of PS5 consoles, largely thanks to scalpers. Here’s a recap of the biggest gaming industry news this week, and happy holidays to all the gamers out there.
Throughout the gaming sphere, various games celebrated the holidays with plenty of in-game goodies for the break. Whether players are devout Assassin’s Creed fans making their way through Valhalla, or Fortnite players who want some holiday cheer at the Zero Point, several games are hosting Christmas/holiday-themed in-game events and festivals this year:
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Yule Festival
- Fortnite – Operation Snowdown
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Toy Day
- Sea of Thieves – Festival of Giving
- Destiny 2 – The Dawning
- Overwatch – Winter Wonderland 2020
- Fall Guys – Season 3: Winter Knockout
- Pokemon GO – Winter Wonderland 2020 Holiday Event
- Fire Emblem Heroes – A Festival Miracle
Of course, alongside big in-game events come the inevitable winter-themed sales as wells. Mainstays like Steam’s Winter Sale return for PC, Green Man Gaming is hosting its own Winter Sale, along with the Epic Games Store giving away daily free games alongside store discounts. Meanwhile on console, both PlayStation and Xbox are hosting their own holiday sales as well.
Even brick-and-mortar stores are holding sales, like Best Buy’s flash sale. There’s a ton of great deals out there for games, whether its last-minute holiday shopping or players just want to cash in on the last great deals after the strange year that has been 2020.
While plenty of gaming fans are snagging some awesome games this holiday, it hasn’t been the jolliest end of the year for Cyberpunk 2077. On Christmas Eve, Rosen Law Firm announced the firm has filed a class action lawsuit against CD Projekt Red’s retro-futuristic RPG. Rosen Law Firm is filling the suit in relation to the “false and/or misleading statements… [that] Cyberpunk 2077 was virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or PlayStation,” due to the various performance issues.
No specific class has been certified, but this lawsuit comes in the wake of CD Projekt’s stock dropping significantly thanks to the game’s controversial release. Other than Rosen Law Firm, a few additional law firms had been looking into organizing a class action suit against the Polish company as well.
Along with the not-so-jolly news are the many disgruntled gaming fans who were looking to get a next-gen console this holiday. While getting the Xbox Series X/S this winter hasn’t been comparatively as bad, PS5 consoles have been especially hard to come by. Console shortages, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, are the result of manufacturing slowdown throughout this fall. Numerous gaming fans chimed in on Twitter to get the “No PS5” phrase trending on Christmas Day.
To be fair, the onus isn’t entirely on Sony and the manufacturing companies. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have been victims of a serious scalping problem this holiday. Similar to Nvidia’s new graphics cards, scalpers have been snatching up the next-gen consoles in droves to try and cash in on the console launch year. The situation was unfortunately exacerbated this year, with many quarantining and sheltering-in-place throughout 2020.
In lighter news, an unlikely competitor seems to have entered the console gaming market this holiday. That’s not entirely true, but KFC has created its own dedicated, simultaneous gaming and chicken-warming console dubbed the “KFConsole.” PC hardware company Cooler Master, alongside Intel, partnered with the restaurant business to develop a custom PC with some interesting capabilities.
For those curious, this unique KFC PC build has some pretty serious specs behind it: the KFConsole boasts an Intel Nuc 9 Extreme Compute Element CPU, NC1000 Cooler Master case, a custom-built and “hot-swappable” ASUS graphics card, alongside 2 1TB Seagate SSDs for storage. This is a VR-ready, 4K 240 FPS, chicken-frying gaming innovation, which nobody ever expected or seriously asked for, but here we are.
While 2020 will certainly prove to be an unusual year for the gaming industry, some interesting metrics point to what’s become an emerging trend in recent years. According to a market report conducted by Gamesindustry.biz and Newzoo, 91% of the revenue accrued in the gaming industry at large was through digital sales. With 2020’s global gaming revenue topping out at $174.9 billion, that equates to around $158 billion in total sales ($14.9 billion in physical revenue).
Considering 2020’s pandemic, it’s no surprise that most gaming revenue was accrued digitally. Most brick-and-mortar stores like GameStop or Best Buy either shuttered entirely, or moved to appointment-based physical presence and limiting the amount of customers in the store. The full 2020 market report can be found here.
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