"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.

NEW RELEASES: This week's major release is a virtual reality version of Capcom's (CCOEY) "Resident Evil 4," which originally launched in 2005. The game is set to release exclusively for Facebook's (FB) Oculus Quest 2 on October 21.

NPD HARDWARE: Earlier this week, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said that September 2021 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories grew 3% when compared to a year ago, reaching an September record $4.4B. Year-to-date spending reached $42.3B, a 12% increase versus a year ago. Hardware was once again a primary driver of spending gains in September, increasing 49% compared to a year ago. Mobile and Subscription offset declines across other segments to keep content spending flat versus a year ago. September video game hardware dollar sales increased 49% when compared to September 2020, to $412M. Year-to-date hardware spending has also gained 49% when compared to the same period a year ago, totaling $3.4B. PlayStation 5 (SONY) was the best-selling hardware platform of September in both units and dollars. PlayStation 5 is the best-selling hardware platform of 2021 year-to-date in dollars, while Nintendo Switch leads in units. September 2021 snaps the remarkable 33 consecutive month streak that Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) was the market's leading platform in hardware unit sales. November 2018 was the last month a platform other than Nintendo Switch led the market in unit sales, Piscatella said.

NPD SOFTWARE: NPD's Piscatella also noted that aid that Electronic Arts' (EA) "Madden NFL 22" repeated as the best-selling game of the month. It now ranks as the #2 best-selling game of 2021 year-to-date, and is the 4th best-selling title of the 12 month period ending September 2021. Madden NFL 22 led on both PlayStation and Xbox (MSFT). Bandai Namco's "Tales of Arise" set a new launch month dollar sales record for any "Tales Of" franchise release. "Tales of Arise" ranked as the 4th best-selling game of September 2021. Square Enix's (SQNXF) "Life is Strange: True Colors" launched as September's #10 best-selling game. "Life is Strange: True Colors" generated the highest launch month dollar sales for any "Life is Strange" title to date. Nintendo's "WarioWare: Get It Together" debuted as the 15th overall best-selling game of Sept, while also ranking 2nd on Switch. "WarioWare: Get It Together" achieved the highest launch month sales for a "WarioWare" franchise release since "WarioWare Smooth Moves" in January 2007. Other games in the top ten in software sales in September included EA's "FIFA 22," Take-Two's (TTWO) "NBA 2K22," Blizzard's (ATVI) "Diablo II: Resurrected," and Bethesda's "Deathloop."

EA/FIFA: Electronic Arts said that its "FIFA" soccer sim franchise will "adopt a new commercial positioning in gaming and eSports to ensure that it is best placed to make decisions that benefit all football stakeholders." FIFA is engaging with various industry players, including developers, investors and analysts, to build out a long-term view of the gaming, eSports and interactive entertainment sector. The outcome will ensure that FIFA has a range of suitable parties with specialist capabilities to actively shape the best possible experiences and offerings for fans and consumers, EA said.

The news came after the New York Times reported that at least two years of talks about renewing the contract that allows EA Sports to use the FIFA name have hit a wall, with EA now exploring renaming the series of soccer games. The report noted the possibility of a permanent break after next year's World Cup in Qatar, when the current 10-year agreement ends, was made explicit in a letter released last week by Cam Weber, the executive president and general manager of EA Sports. Weber wrote in discussing the future of the series, that "we're also exploring the idea of renaming our global EA Sports football games."

OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:

• Microsoft's Xbox boss Phil Spencer said during a Wall Street Journal tech conference that the company's game software unit, Xbox Game Studios, is "definitely not done" with acquisitions, The Verge's Tom Warren reported [more]
• Activision debuted a new Ricochet anti-cheat system for "Call of Duty" [more]
• Nintendo announced that its Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will start at $50 per year and include Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games, as well as downloadable content for "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" [more]
• Nintendo Switch's OLED edition sold over 138,000 units in Japan in its first three days, Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft reported [more]