From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


Time to openly mooch off of somebody else's hard work! There's an
article on GameSpot* that lists the top selling games of 2025 (so far)
and I thought it might make an interesting starting point to a
discussion.

To save you from actually having to click a link, I'll just link the
games here:

1) Monster Hunter Wilds
2) Oblivion Remastered
3) College Football 26
3) Assassin's Creed Shadows
4) Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
5) MLB The Show 25
6) Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
7) WWE 2K25
8) Elden Ring Nightreign
9) Split Fiction
10) NBA 2K25
11) Forza Horizon 5
12) EA Sports MVP Bundle
13) Minecraft
14) Civilization VII
15) Grand Theft Auto V
16) PGA Tour 2K25
17) Doom: The Dark Ages
18) EA Sports FC 25
19) Red Dead Redemption 2
20) Donkey Kong Bananza

So, looking at the list, here are some of my thoughts:

First of all, yes, I know there are two #3s, and no, I don't know why
either (a tie maybe? The article doesn't say).

Secondly, the fact that sports games are in the top 20 is no surprise;
those always sell well. EA has apparently rebounded well with its loss
of the FIFA license.

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact
that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy
RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come
games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete
against other similar games... if any were released).

That games like "Minecraft", "Grand Theft Auto 5" and "Red Dead
Redemption 2" are still selling so well just boggles me. Okay, maybe
Minecraft makes sense; there was the new movie this year, and it came
out on Switch 2, and there are always new kids to buy it. And GTA5 has
a rampant gambling economy built around it, so bots gotta keep buying
new copies. But "Red Dead Redemption 2"? Sure it's a great game, but
it's seven years old now, and it doesn't have a HUGE multiplayer
aspect to it. It's weird.

Good to see a slightly offbeat title like "Split Fiction" make the
list.

Surprised to see "Civilization VII" rank so high. I suspect that's the
result of satisfaction with earlier Civ games driving sales; I'm not
so sure that Civilization 8 will do as well.

It's unusual (and probably, to Nintendo, quite disheartening) that
there's only one Switch 2-exclusive game on the list. This only
confirms what a lot of other reporters are saying; the Switch 2
hardware sales are doing very well, but the software? Not nearly as
good as expected.

That the "Oblivion Remaster" is number two on the list makes me quite
grumpy. I think it, again, speaks to an unfulfilled need in the
open-world fantasy RPG market (the same one that "Kingdom Come
Deliverance 2" is similarly feeding). But it also means that we'll
probably see an endless string of similar remasters coming from
Bethesda for the next few years too. <sigh>


Ah well. What occurs to you, looking at that list?













--- --- --- --- --- ---
* show the original authors some love and read it here https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/2025-best-selling-games/2900-6281/



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Time to openly mooch off of somebody else's hard work! There's an
article on GameSpot* that lists the top selling games of 2025 (so far)
and I thought it might make an interesting starting point to a
discussion.

I doubt there was any hard work involved. Everyone's data is gushing out
of their machines like a stuck pig. Analytic software can digest and
collate that in seconds. So don't feel bad.

To save you from actually having to click a link, I'll just link the
games here:

1) Monster Hunter Wilds

Got this as a freebie with my new Ryzen. Haven't played yet.

2) Oblivion Remastered

No. Already played it.

3) College Football 26

No.

3) Assassin's Creed Shadows

Ubi. Their corporate culture is gross and abusive. No.

4) Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Absolutely no.

5) MLB The Show 25

Might get this one, it's supposed to be pretty good. And it's 2K, not EA.

6) Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Dunno. Maybe? It wasn't on my radar until you posted.

7) WWE 2K25

Virtual fake sporty sports.

8) Elden Ring Nightreign

Riding on the coattails.

9) Split Fiction

Huh?

10) NBA 2K25

Virtual *real* sporty sports.

11) Forza Horizon 5

Doesn't everyone have enough racing games already?

12) EA Sports MVP Bundle

Oh my. /All/ the sporty sports?

13) Minecraft

And will be for eternity, Amen.

14) Civilization VII

Suckers.

15) Grand Theft Auto V

Still?

16) PGA Tour 2K25

Virtual *boring* sporty sports.

17) Doom: The Dark Ages

People can't get enough DOOM. They even can't get enough of the original!

18) EA Sports FC 25

Maybe that's enough sports titles, eh? Is that "Football Club?"

19) Red Dead Redemption 2

Still?

20) Donkey Kong Bananza

Wait what? We're not talking exclusively about PC games? I call
shenanigans. Why did you do this to us?! We are the Master Race! Lazy plagiarism is excusable, but off-topic is *forever*.

So, looking at the list, here are some of my thoughts:

First of all, yes, I know there are two #3s, and no, I don't know why
either (a tie maybe? The article doesn't say).

Well, when there's a tie, properly listed there are two #3s and then the
next ordinal is #5. But apparently the authors didn't know that. Or
Nintendo paid them the big bucks to squeeze DK in there. Or they don't
care. Or they did exactly what I said and left it to a hallucinating AI.

Secondly, the fact that sports games are in the top 20

Top 21. I love being "that guy."

is no surprise;
those always sell well. EA has apparently rebounded well with its loss
of the FIFA license.

And people are buying *all* of them in a package?! It's a license to
print money, I say.

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact
that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy
RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come
games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete
against other similar games... if any were released).

That games like "Minecraft", "Grand Theft Auto 5" and "Red Dead
Redemption 2" are still selling so well just boggles me.

Still? I know. Well, not Minecraft. That is a forever game, because it
never relied on shiny graphics. It's just good.

Okay, maybe
Minecraft makes sense; there was the new movie this year, and it came
out on Switch 2, and there are always new kids to buy it. And GTA5 has
a rampant gambling economy built around it, so bots gotta keep buying
new copies. But "Red Dead Redemption 2"? Sure it's a great game, but
it's seven years old now, and it doesn't have a HUGE multiplayer
aspect to it. It's weird.

Good to see a slightly offbeat title like "Split Fiction" make the
list.

Huh? What is that? /s

Surprised to see "Civilization VII" rank so high. I suspect that's the
result of satisfaction with earlier Civ games driving sales; I'm not
so sure that Civilization 8 will do as well.

Yup. That's inertia and brand recognition. 2k appears to be at the "suck
all value out of the brand" phase, and then they will blame Civ 8's
failure on piracy. It's a very common corporate response to a lack of creativity or, alternatively, firing all your creatives.

It's unusual (and probably, to Nintendo, quite disheartening) that
there's only one Switch 2-exclusive game on the list. This only
confirms what a lot of other reporters are saying; the Switch 2
hardware sales are doing very well, but the software? Not nearly as
good as expected.

The Switch 2 had no real launch titles. Really. It was a very weak
opening. Two of the "launch titles" are just HDR/hi-res enhancements of
the Zelda titles. I actually watched Nintendo Direct. The only real
launch title was MK World, which is open world Mario Kart. The hell?

The rest is probably going to be dubiously performing third-party ports. They're going to have to tidy up, or people will lose interest.

I'm not interested until Metroid Prime 4, tbh. And then we'll see if that
too is "open world."

As for ports, S2 Elden Ring is literally called the "Tarnished Edition."
That should tell you everything.

https://www.polygon.com/elden-ring-tarnished-edition-gamescom-2025-demo-port-fps-drops/

Ruh roh.

That the "Oblivion Remaster" is number two on the list makes me quite
grumpy. I think it, again, speaks to an unfulfilled need in the
open-world fantasy RPG market (the same one that "Kingdom Come
Deliverance 2" is similarly feeding). But it also means that we'll
probably see an endless string of similar remasters coming from
Bethesda for the next few years too. <sigh>

(*sigh*)

It doesn't annoy me. Newcomers to TES, looking for more than Skyrim, will
enjoy the retread more than the original, so it's a savvy move. I'm happy
that Bethesda decided to rest on their laurels with Skyrim. The legacy
audience has probably outgrown TES by now. Besides, a Morrowind remaster
is assuredly not in the works because it requires too much effort(TM). A
little ray tracing lipstick will not fix graphics that old.

But the kids are alright. Let them have their fun. Don't sweat it.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Time to openly mooch off of somebody else's hard work! There's an
article on GameSpot* that lists the top selling games of 2025 (so far)
and I thought it might make an interesting starting point to a
discussion.

To save you from actually having to click a link, I'll just link the
games here:

1) Monster Hunter Wilds
2) Oblivion Remastered
3) College Football 26
3) Assassin's Creed Shadows
4) Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
5) MLB The Show 25
6) Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
7) WWE 2K25
8) Elden Ring Nightreign
9) Split Fiction
10) NBA 2K25
11) Forza Horizon 5
12) EA Sports MVP Bundle
13) Minecraft
14) Civilization VII
15) Grand Theft Auto V
16) PGA Tour 2K25
17) Doom: The Dark Ages
18) EA Sports FC 25
19) Red Dead Redemption 2
20) Donkey Kong Bananza

So, looking at the list, here are some of my thoughts:

First of all, yes, I know there are two #3s, and no, I don't know why
either (a tie maybe? The article doesn't say).

Secondly, the fact that sports games are in the top 20 is no surprise;
those always sell well. EA has apparently rebounded well with its loss
of the FIFA license.

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact
that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy
RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come
games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete
against other similar games... if any were released).

That games like "Minecraft", "Grand Theft Auto 5" and "Red Dead
Redemption 2" are still selling so well just boggles me. Okay, maybe Minecraft makes sense; there was the new movie this year, and it came
out on Switch 2, and there are always new kids to buy it. And GTA5 has
a rampant gambling economy built around it, so bots gotta keep buying
new copies. But "Red Dead Redemption 2"? Sure it's a great game, but
it's seven years old now, and it doesn't have a HUGE multiplayer
aspect to it. It's weird.

Good to see a slightly offbeat title like "Split Fiction" make the
list.

Surprised to see "Civilization VII" rank so high. I suspect that's the
result of satisfaction with earlier Civ games driving sales; I'm not
so sure that Civilization 8 will do as well.

It's unusual (and probably, to Nintendo, quite disheartening) that
there's only one Switch 2-exclusive game on the list. This only
confirms what a lot of other reporters are saying; the Switch 2
hardware sales are doing very well, but the software? Not nearly as
good as expected.

That the "Oblivion Remaster" is number two on the list makes me quite
grumpy. I think it, again, speaks to an unfulfilled need in the
open-world fantasy RPG market (the same one that "Kingdom Come
Deliverance 2" is similarly feeding). But it also means that we'll
probably see an endless string of similar remasters coming from
Bethesda for the next few years too. <sigh>

Ah well. What occurs to you, looking at that list?

I didn't see Darkest Dungeon II on it. I bet that game is doing well
because the first game has blown up pretty much viral. It may not have
top sales as Civ 7 but I imagine they are quite respectable.
--
n
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

That the "Oblivion Remaster" is number two on the list makes me quite
grumpy. I think it, again, speaks to an unfulfilled need in the
open-world fantasy RPG market (the same one that "Kingdom Come
Deliverance 2" is similarly feeding). But it also means that we'll
probably see an endless string of similar remasters coming from
Bethesda for the next few years too. <sigh>

I think the Oblivion Remaster was going to sell no what other CRPGs
are out. It was a popular game, Bethesda is still a respected studio
as far as I know, and nostalgia is a potent drug.

Ah well. What occurs to you, looking at that list?

That the modern video game industry does not make games I want to play
but I knew that already.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 9/1/2025 11:20 AM, Zaghadka wrote:

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

2) Oblivion Remastered

No. Already played it.

Sigh. I guess I can believe it, I almost went for it, then I remembered
I hated Oblivion.

6) Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Dunno. Maybe? It wasn't on my radar until you posted.

Wow, this is wild! I watched Up-is-jump's Nightmare video of it. Can't
say I'm really interested. I never did finish the first one.

8) Elden Ring Nightreign

Riding on the coattails.

Wish I could refund it/it never was.

9) Split Fiction

Huh?

I'd not heard of this one either. Also it's EA. Looks marginally interesting. Too bad I've got no friends who'll play computer games
with me. Might be fun with my daughter, but I'd have to build her a
computer capable, and she was busy playing Roblox this weekend with her friends.

Also on the the other hand, it looks questionable.

13) Minecraft

And will be for eternity, Amen.

Sigh. Last time I tried to boot up Minecraft Java for my daughter I got
nasty notices and was forced to 'upgrade it' to the 'normal edition' and
then couldn't run it. She wanted to play it with her friend, but there
were so many editions on the MS store we couldn't even figure out which
one her friend had to buy the one compatible with it.

I'm pretty much soured on it from what MS had fucked it into.

15) Grand Theft Auto V

Still?

Ugh. All the people who are replaying or have friends they're getting
into it in prep for VI is my guess. The mechanics/offline play are so annoying I couldn't even finish that, and the online play is a
shit-tsunami I've never seen so bad.

17) Doom: The Dark Ages

People can't get enough DOOM. They even can't get enough of the original!

LOL I'll be playing it on my artificial heart in the distant future.

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact
that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy
RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come
games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete
against other similar games... if any were released).

Do people really want open world games that much, and there really
wasn't anything better? And it was still outsold by the Remaster of
Oblivion? *Shakes head* What's this world coming to?!?!
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 18:59:30 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Justisaur wrote:

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact
that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy
RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come
games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete
against other similar games... if any were released).

Do people really want open world games that much, and there really
wasn't anything better? And it was still outsold by the Remaster of >Oblivion? *Shakes head* What's this world coming to?!?!

People who haven't played Oblivion yet and are tired of Skyrim Special
Edition, apparently.

I liked Oblivion, so long as you never bothered with the abortion in a
blender that was the main quest. Closing random spawned portals was
annoying. As annoying as the settlements crying for help in FO4. The
radial "dialogue" system was also dumb as bricks.

Dark Brotherhood, baby.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:24:28 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 18:59:30 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Justisaur wrote:

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom >>>> Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact
that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy
RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come
games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete
against other similar games... if any were released).

Do people really want open world games that much, and there really
wasn't anything better? And it was still outsold by the Remaster of >>Oblivion? *Shakes head* What's this world coming to?!?!

People who haven't played Oblivion yet and are tired of Skyrim Special >Edition, apparently.

I liked Oblivion, so long as you never bothered with the abortion in a >blender that was the main quest. Closing random spawned portals was
annoying.

Now, now; there are only sixty portals; close all of them and you
never have to bother with the portals again ;-)

(There are 100 portal locations in Oblivion. 20 of them are
linked to quests and will always open at one point or another.
Of the remaining 80, there is a random chance of them opening,
but only until 60 gates total (so 20 fixed + 40 random) have
appeared. After you close all the gates, no more will spawn.)

Of course, once you complete the main quest, all the gates close
automatically anyway. The absolute minimum number of gates to close
necessary to finish the main quest is three (although the game presses
you to close more in the side-quests, they aren't necessary to finish
the main quest, although it may make things harder for you). But if
you want to get rid of the Oblivion gates with the least amount of
effort, you'll only have to enter Oblivion three times to do that.

That totally makes you want to replay the game knowing all that,
right? ;-)



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 9/2/2025 6:24 AM, Zaghadka wrote:

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 18:59:30 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Justisaur wrote:

Do people really want open world games that much, and there really
wasn't anything better? And it was still outsold by the Remaster of
Oblivion? *Shakes head* What's this world coming to?!?!

People who haven't played Oblivion yet and are tired of Skyrim Special Edition, apparently.

I liked Oblivion, so long as you never bothered with the abortion in a blender that was the main quest. Closing random spawned portals was
annoying. As annoying as the settlements crying for help in FO4. The
radial "dialogue" system was also dumb as bricks.

Dark Brotherhood, baby.

The Dark Brotherhood quests were my favorite part of Skyrim (with the
Wabajack quest/item being #2.) I don't remember them at all in
Oblivion. I remember hating the collecting/crafting, the scaling
enemies, the endless number of boring samey points of interest, and the horrific uncanny valley of all the characters (which at least the
remaster fixes.) I also had to play most of the game with no sound as
turning on sound made the game crash within seconds even after hours of troubleshooting.

The only bit I remember liking was the quest "A Rat Problem."
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Tue, 02 Sep 2025 12:01:03 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:24:28 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 18:59:30 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, >>Justisaur wrote:

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Otherwise, there aren't too many surprises, except maybe that "Kingdom >>>>> Come Deliverance 2" made the list; given it's not published by a
triple-A and is a bit niche in mechanics makes its success all the
more impressive. But I think a lot of success lies more with the fact >>>>> that there's been a dearth of quality open-world first-person fantasy >>>>> RPGs recently, and KCD2 is filling that need, more than any real
appeal to the franchise. (Don't mistake me, I think the Kingdom Come >>>>> games are great, but I'm not sure they'd normally be able to compete >>>>> against other similar games... if any were released).

Do people really want open world games that much, and there really >>>wasn't anything better? And it was still outsold by the Remaster of >>>Oblivion? *Shakes head* What's this world coming to?!?!

People who haven't played Oblivion yet and are tired of Skyrim Special >>Edition, apparently.

I liked Oblivion, so long as you never bothered with the abortion in a >>blender that was the main quest. Closing random spawned portals was >>annoying.

Now, now; there are only sixty portals; close all of them and you
never have to bother with the portals again ;-)

(There are 100 portal locations in Oblivion. 20 of them are
linked to quests and will always open at one point or another.
Of the remaining 80, there is a random chance of them opening,
but only until 60 gates total (so 20 fixed + 40 random) have
appeared. After you close all the gates, no more will spawn.)

Of course, once you complete the main quest, all the gates close >automatically anyway. The absolute minimum number of gates to close
necessary to finish the main quest is three (although the game presses
you to close more in the side-quests, they aren't necessary to finish
the main quest, although it may make things harder for you). But if
you want to get rid of the Oblivion gates with the least amount of
effort, you'll only have to enter Oblivion three times to do that.

That totally makes you want to replay the game knowing all that,
right? ;-)

I think the "although it may make things harder" disclaimer contains the
answer to that question. The only winning strategy is "not to play."
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 09:50:19 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Justisaur wrote:

The only bit I remember liking was the quest "A Rat Problem."

Faint but damning praise sir.

You should totally buy the remaster. I bet it fixes *everything* ;^)
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Time to openly mooch off of somebody else's hard work! There's an
article on GameSpot* that lists the top selling games of 2025 (so far)
and I thought it might make an interesting starting point to a
discussion.

To save you from actually having to click a link, I'll just link the
games here:

1) Monster Hunter Wilds

AS an aside: for all that "Monster Hunter Wilds" (MHW henceforth) is
apparently the best-selling game of 2025 (at least according to this
list), Capcom seems to think it should be doing even better.
Describing sales of the game as soft (at least in the first quarter of
the year, where it "only" sold 477,000 copies), Capcom is blaming the
high price of consoles for its poor performance (the game has, so far,
sold 10.6 million copies total).*

NOW, to be fair, the argument that overly expensive hardware and
too-high prices of games (MHW sells for $70 USD) definitely are
locking out a lot of younger gamers. But then again, Capcom _is_ the
one setting the price for their games, and calling a game that's sold
10 million copies as having "soft sales" is an interesting take.

ALL the more so since MHW doesn't really do anything new with the
franchise; it is, like so many Capcom games, just another iteration of
an existing formula. Maybe rather than blame the pricing and their
partners, Capcom needs to take a closer look at what 'the kids' are
actually interested in playing and design their games more around
those needs.

IT all just comes across very much as that old Simpsons meme, where
Principal Skinner is asking, "Am I out of touch? No, it's the children
who are wrong."





* read more here https://www.gamesindustry.biz/capcoms-president-says-high-price-of-ps5-has-contributed-to-low-sales-of-monster-hunter-wilds

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On 9/3/2025 2:37 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:57:06 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Time to openly mooch off of somebody else's hard work! There's an
article on GameSpot* that lists the top selling games of 2025 (so far)
and I thought it might make an interesting starting point to a
discussion.

To save you from actually having to click a link, I'll just link the
games here:

1) Monster Hunter Wilds

AS an aside: for all that "Monster Hunter Wilds" (MHW henceforth) is apparently the best-selling game of 2025 (at least according to this
list), Capcom seems to think it should be doing even better.
Describing sales of the game as soft (at least in the first quarter of
the year, where it "only" sold 477,000 copies), Capcom is blaming the
high price of consoles for its poor performance (the game has, so far,
sold 10.6 million copies total).*

NOW, to be fair, the argument that overly expensive hardware and
too-high prices of games (MHW sells for $70 USD) definitely are
locking out a lot of younger gamers. But then again, Capcom _is_ the
one setting the price for their games, and calling a game that's sold
10 million copies as having "soft sales" is an interesting take.

ALL the more so since MHW doesn't really do anything new with the
franchise; it is, like so many Capcom games, just another iteration of
an existing formula. Maybe rather than blame the pricing and their
partners, Capcom needs to take a closer look at what 'the kids' are
actually interested in playing and design their games more around
those needs.

IT all just comes across very much as that old Simpsons meme, where
Principal Skinner is asking, "Am I out of touch? No, it's the children
who are wrong."

These games should be ones I'm into based on what I like, but I just
couldn't do it with MH:Worlds not even getting past the very long cringe
cut scene filled tutorial, and I'm certainly not buying another one with
from what I've read them all being basically the same, and not seeing
anything in the people I follow that I watched a few minutes of them
playing that looked in the least bit interesting.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
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