"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NPD GAME SPENDING: Late last week, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella reported that January 2021 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories achieved a January record $4.7B, 42% higher when compared to a year ago. Gains were achieved across all spending categories. Sales of video game hardware were 144% higher than January 2020, reaching $319M. This is the highest total for a January month since the $323M achieved in January 2011. The Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) was the best-selling hardware platform in units sold for the month of January, Piscatella said. Unit sales of Nintendo Switch were the highest of any platform in a January month since the Nintendo Wii in January 2010. Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 5 was the best-selling hardware platform in dollars sold in January, with the highest dollar sales total for a January month since the Nintendo Wii in January 2009, Piscatella said.
On the software side, the analyst said Activision Blizzard's (ATVI) "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War" was January's best-selling game in the U.S. "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War" has been the best-selling game in the U.S. each month since its November launch, and it now ranks as the 20th best-selling video game in U.S. tracked history. Ubisoft's (UBSFY) "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla" was the 2nd best-selling game of January. When comparing each title's first 3 months of sales, "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla" is now the 2nd fastest selling Assassin's Creed franchise release in U.S. history, trailing only "Assassin's Creed III." Nintendo's "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" ranked as January's 5th best-selling title, the first time it has ranked among the top 5 since ranking 5th in July 2020. "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" repeated as the month's best-selling title on Nintendo Switch. Other games in the top 20 for January include Sony's "Spider-Man: Miles Morales," EA's (EA) "Madden NFL 21," Take-Two's (TTWO) "NBA 2K21," Warner Bros.' (T) "Mortal Kombat 11," and last year's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare."
CYBERPUNK: Meanwhile, CD Projekt's (OTGLY) latest game "Cyberpunk 2077" failed to maintain top ten status in U.S. software sales last month, according to NPD's data. Despite the game's rocky December launch, which included numerous game-altering or game-breaking bugs and glitches that resulted in CD Projekt offering refunds to players, "Cyberpunk 2077" managed to reach second place in terms of game software sales for the month of December, trailing only "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War." Since CD Projekt began offering full refunds for the game, and after Sony pulled the title from its PlayStation Store, sales have slowed, with "Cyberpunk 2077" coming in 18th place for the month of January, behind several games that have been out for years, including "Mortal Kombat 11," Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" and "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," and Microsoft's (MSFT) "Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition."
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
- Nintendo announced earlier that a 50-minute Switch-focused Nintendo Direct presentation is scheduled for 5:00 pm ET on February 17. The company said it will provide news on "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" as well as upcoming Switch titles.
- Sony subsidiary Insomniac Games announced last week that its upcoming game "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart," which will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive title, will launch on June 11, 2021.
- The Verge's Tom Warren reported that Microsoft is testing a browser-based version of its xCloud game streaming service.
- IGN's Jordan Oloman said last week that legal documents indicate that Microsoft plans to establish a new subsidiary known as Vault in order to complete its acquisition of Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media.
