No, not the 2024 Olympics. Although it’s arguably just as important. Earnings season is here!
Much like the Summer games, there’s a rich tradition around this time. It’s when I draft up and post a calendar with all the dates on which companies across gaming, media and technology provide an update on their businesses, and often look ahead to future prospects.
The list is a robust one, steadily approaching 120 companies strong. For added benefit, I’ve added the date and fiscal quarter associated with the latest report, along with investor websites for easy access. Note that all dates are listed in local time zones.
Quick note around the initial public offering of Shift Up, the South Korean developer of 2024’s hottest, and most controversial for certain crowds, titles Stellar Blade. I’ll have the company included next quarter since I didn’t see concrete info right now.
Check below for a full Google Sheets link, then descriptions of three key companies to watch in the upcoming weeks. Enjoy, and be well!
The mention of the American publisher is mainly an excuse to talk about EA Sports College Football 25, which technically launched in July after its Q1 of 2025 time frame ended. This return to the glory days of college football video games, the first franchise game in over a decade, is showing great early success, selling-thru 2.2 million copies of its deluxe edition alone! I’d love if Electronic Arts shared more details around its kick-off, including overall unit sales or player stats, plus if there’s any upside impact to its current guidance. I’m estimating 7 million units, if not more, by the time the fiscal year ends in March 2025. Talk about a score.
Nintendo Co., Ltd (NTDOY): Friday, August 2nd
It’s a rare Friday announcement for Nintendo when it shares first quarter performance early in August. Sure, I’ll be interested to learn more about early momentum for new old games like May’s Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, a late June launch, or any updates around annual hardware guidance (which I don’t expect just yet). The Japanese company’s inclusion on this list is mostly obligatory in light of this year being the Switch’s swan song, and the impending reveal of its successor being firmly on the horizon. Last quarter, President Shuntaro Furukawa shared the sweetest of morsels that the Super Switch would be revealed by March 2025. Might he bless us with another taste this time as well?
Nexon (3659): Thursday, August 8th
The Seoul-based publisher, which reports second quarter 2024 numbers in a couple weeks, isn’t as widely known as certain peers, focusing more on regional PC and mobile titles. It’s one of many making big investments related to international expansion, an effort that has seemingly produced a breakout global hit with The First Descendant. The action shlooter attracted an impressive 10 million players during its first week earlier this month, and I assume a larger proportion of them are outside the Asia Pacific region compared to its other products. The question is how this translates to the bottom line, considering the title is free-to-play. Now, it also features hundred dollar cosmetics, and the model can be highly lucrative if the player base is engaged, which appears to be the case here.
Keeping with my new tradition, I’m here with a quick-hitting recap of Nintendo’s latest annual results.
I’ll then look ahead to its current fiscal year, the 12 months ending March 2025, during which the company will officially reveal its next hardware.
Don’t worry. I’ll have my usual charts and reactions, just in an easier format!
Here’s the highlights for Nintendo’s 2024 financial report:
Both revenue and profit bounced back to growth in the single digits.
Annual Switch shipments were 15.7M, above its latest guidance.
During the latest quarter, Switch passed 140M sold lifetime.
Over half of software sales were digital for the first time ever.
While unit sales for consoles and software declined last year, Nintendo saw financial growth due to a depreciating yen, a shift to the premium Switch OLED model, shifting spending towards digital content and a sizeable impact from April’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
“For hardware, by continuing to convey the appeal of Nintendo Switch, we try to not only put one system in every home, but several in every home, or even one for every person,” management wrote. “Another objective is to continually release new offerings so more consumers keep playing Nintendo Switch even longer and we can maximize hardware sales.”
Scroll ahead for the full rundown and predictions for an exciting, and crucial, time in the company’s history.
Top level, these are the main stats for Nintendo’s annual results during the year ending March 2024.
Fair warning: Get ready for numbers!
Revenue up 4% to ¥1.67T ($11.57B).
Currency impact on revenue of ¥94.4B ($653M).
Operating profit rose 5% to ¥528B ($3.66B).
Currency impact on operating profit of ¥35B ($242M).
These were enough to log the third best year in the Switch era by both metrics. While impressive given its latest console’s age, having major releases in the Zelda and Mario franchises alongside a blockbuster animated flick were enough to make up for slowing unit sales.
As for product category breakouts:
Software represented 56% of total sales, up from 54%.
81% of software sales were first party, up from 79%.
The proportion of digital software sales was 50%, up from 48%.
Regional splits were as follows:
The Americas at 44%, same as last year.
Europe was 24%, down slightly from 25%.
Japan reached 22%, compared to 23%.
Underlying a larger-than-usual portion of Nintendo’s growth was its mobile, IP and licensing segment. On the strength of the billion-earning The Super Mario Bros. Movie, sales here rose 82% to ¥11.2B ($77M), plus had the knock-on effect of boosting the popularity of Mario-themed titles in subsequent quarters.
I’ll now reflect on the Hardware portion of the report.
Switch shipments from January to March were 1.96M, down from 3.06M.
That brought the year to 15.7M, or 13% lower than fiscal 2023.
This figure was above management’s revised guidance of 15.5M.
OLED model was the only one showing growth, up 1% to 9.32M.
While hardware ended up meeting the latest target that executives set, it came in slightly below my personal forecast of 16M. Management called this “stable” for a console of its age.
Lifetime Switch shipments are now 141.32M, thus retaining its spot as the third best-selling gaming console ever.
Prior to this, figures were based on shipments to retail. Nintendo did provide a slide on sell-thru to consumers, charting it out over the Switch’s full life cycle.
Overall, it was the second lowest year for sell-thru other than 2017’s launch. The premium OLED model experienced its highest sell-thru to date, while the base model continued its steady decline, both as expected.
Moving on to Software results for the full year:
Game unit shipments declined 7% to 199.67M.
Even so, that was above the latest target of 190M.
There were 31 million-sellers. Nintendo produced 20 of them.
Lifetime Switch software unit sales approached 1.24 billion.
In terms of debuts, February’s Mario vs Donkey Kong remake collected 1.12M units. Additionally, Princess Peach: Showtime! moved over a million in a week, reaching 1.22M by the end of March.
Then there’s the ever-growing list of older and evergreen titles in the portfolio.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom saw 20.61M in less than a year.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder jumped to 13.44M after two quarters.
July 2023’s Pikmin 4 finished the year at 3.48M.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe raced towards 62M lifetime.
Shifting over to software sales as measured by sell-thru to consumers:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at 19.5M.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder was 12.4M.
Pikmin 4 eclipsed 3.3M, meaning most of its copies have been purchased.
November’s Super Mario RPG remake hit 2.6M (out of 3.31M shipped).
“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Pikmin 4 all saw sell-through grow at a faster pace than any past titles released on Nintendo Switch in their respective series,” management wrote.
Executives also shared an update to Nintendo’s unique engagement statistic called Annual Playing Users. As of March, it reached an all-time record of 123M, up a million over the prior quarter and 7 million compared to the prior year.
The company might share an update for Switch Online memberships during a corporate briefing in the next few days. The service’s paid membership count was 38M as of September 2023.
It’s another mostly positive annual announcement for Nintendo, showcasing top-line momentum and profitability even as hardware and software units declined. It’s well-known that the market for Switch is saturated, which meant executives had to look for other avenues like film to keep growing, while also supporting the vast audience base with flagship franchises and external partnerships.
What’s to come for the company entering a pivotal time as it plans to bridge the gap between console generations?
Well, I’ll now run through the headlines for Nintendo’s fiscal 2025 targets:
Revenue could be down 19% to ¥1.35T ($9.34B).
Operating profit expected to decline 24% to ¥400B ($2.77B).
Switch anticipated to ship 13.5M units, down 14%.
Guidance of 17% lower Switch software units, or 165M.
“Switch has entered its eighth year since launch,” management mentioned. “While it will be challenging to sustain the same sales momentum as before, we will work to maintain high user engagement with the hardware and invigorate the platform so that more consumers continue to play Switch for longer.”
If that last bullet point is achieved:
Switch will compete for best-selling console ever at roughly 154.82M sold.
Nintendo DS is in second at 154.02M to date.
Sony’s PlayStation 2 is currently tops at 155M.
I see the financial forecasts as fine and achievable. On the other hand, Nintendo’s hardware plan is ambitious. Especially given the lighter release slate, chock full of remakes and reissues, and people waiting anxiously for that new announcement. I’m more around 12.5M to 13M, at most.
Speaking of Super Switch, the reveal is officially imminent!
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa took to Twitter to announce that the announcement of Switch’s successor will happen this fiscal year. Though not at a June Direct, which will focus more on the slate of games for the back half of this calendar year.
Based on the guidance and an aggressive target for existing hardware, I expect a full-blown Super Switch reveal to happen around January 2025 with a subsequent launch sometime in or after April 2025.
That about does it for my latest reaction piece. What did you think? Predictions for Super Switch?
Hit me up here or on social media to chat and stay tuned for more coverage of earnings season soon. Thanks for reading!
Note: Comparisons are year-over-year unless otherwise noted.
Exchange rate is based on reported average conversion: US $1 to ¥144.52.
Sources: Company Investor Relations Websites, Nintendo Twitter.
United States Games Industry Sales (March 3rd to April 6th, 2024)
It’s time to cover another U.S. games industry spending report from Circana, this one for the month of March and the end of 2024’s first quarter.
Here’s the quick hits for March consumer spending on video games here in the States:
Overall spending increased 4% to $4.89 billion.
Content grew 9% to $4.25 billion.
Hardware declined 32% to $391 million.
Accessories moved up 9% to $242 million.
Content, which made up 87% of total spending in March, contributed solid sales momentum for the domestic market, boosted by double-digit mobile growth and a slew of new launches. At the same time, Hardware continued to drag without a huge catalyst or fancy new product offering in sight.
“Mobile’s strong performance was supplemented by a 3% increase in Console Content spend, along with a 2% gain in the PC, Cloud and Non-Console VR Content segment,” said Circana’s Mat Piscatella on Twitter. “Mobile accounted for 89% of the total year-on-year growth in video game content spending during the month.”
Highlighting the announcement was Dragon’s Dogma 2 as the month’s best-selling premium title, highest of the six new releases among the Top 10. Monopoly Go stacked up yet again as mobile’s top grossing game, while Fortnite and Helldivers 2 led platform engagement charts. PlayStation 5 came out on top for console sales by both dollars and units, as it has most months recently.
Scroll down for more on product categories, best sellers, most played games, first quarter results and my predictions for future reports.
In terms of Content, mobile retained its driving force status, growing 15% in March.
On the premium side, Dragon’s Dogma 2 from Capcom debuted at numero uno on the overall chart. It’s already the year’s 3rd best-selling title, and took less than a month to eclipse lifetime sales of 2012’s Dragon’s Dogma and its Dark Arisen expansion combined.
February’s winner Helldivers 2 came in second, solidifying its spot as the top seller for Q1. The latest from Arrowhead Game Studios already ranks 7th ever for Sony-published titles, an extraordinary feat mostly due to its PC success, and it’s been among the most-played games on both PlayStation and PC since its launch.
Perennial sales beast MLB The Show 24 scored a third place start, right around where it usually begins during its launch month, inserting itself as the 5th best-selling title of 2024 to date.
Rise of the Ronin from Koei Tecmo started at #5 in March, and #14 for the Q1 chart. Globally, the publisher claims it’s tracking above Nioh. This tracks here, since that game charted at #9 in the U.S. during its February 2017 launch.
Nintendo’s latest Princess Peach: Showtime! slotted in 6th, excluding digital, while Sega’s Unicorn Overlord had a fantastic start in 8th. Rounding out the new titles among the top ranks was Take-Two’s WWE 2K 24 in 9th, again without its digital portion included.
As measured by monthly active users, Fortnite was the most played on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, followed by Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto V. On the PC side, it was Helldivers 2, Counter-Strike 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3. Also, huge shout out to poker roguelite Balatro in 4th on PC!
Check below for March’s best-seller ranks for premium and mobile.
Top-Selling Premium Games of March 2024, U.S. (Physical & Digital Dollar Sales):
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Helldivers 2
MLB The Show 24^
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Rise of the Ronin
Princess Peach: Showtime!*
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
Unicorn Overlord
WWE 2K24*
Hogwarts Legacy
Madden NFL 24
EA Sports FC 24
Minecraft
Horizon Forbidden West
Tekken 8
Rainbow Six Siege
Elden Ring
Mario Kart 8*
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Mortal Kombat 1
Top-Selling Mobile Games of March 2024, U.S.:
MONOPOLY GO!
Royal Match
Roblox
Candy Crush Saga
Coin Master
Whiteout Survival
Last War Survival
Pokémon Go
Township
Clash of Clans
Here’s the scoop on Hardware’s tough time last month:
All three major console families saw spending decline over 30%.
PlayStation 5 was the leader by both units and dollars.
The digital edition of PlayStation 5 contributed 39% of unit sales.
Nintendo Switch was #2 measured by units.
Xbox Series X|S secured runner-up by dollars.
Flipping over to Accessories as a segment:
Spending moved up almost double-digits.
The headset and headphone sub-segment rose 8%.
PlayStation 5’s Dual Sense Edge was March’s best seller.
Sony’s high-end controller was also Q1’s winner.
Expanding to results for the January to March 2024 time frame:
Overall spending grew 6% to $14.67 billion.
Content increased 9% to $12.84 billion.
Hardware dropped 24% to $1.12 billion
Accessories jumped up 25% to $707 million.
Within premium gaming, Helldivers 2 was the quarter’s top earner. That was followed by Call of Duty and newcomer Dragon’s Dogma 2. Other standouts include Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth in 4th, Persona 3 Reload in 9th, last year’s winner Hogwarts Legacy at #10.
Similar to March, PlayStation 5 was the leading console in Q1 by units and revenue while Nintendo Switch came in the second spot by units, and Xbox Series X|S slotted at #2 by dollars.
“Total U.S. Video Game spending being up 6% in Q1 2024 despite a 24% drop in hardware spending.. shows how diversification has made the market more resilient,” said Piscatella.
Here’s the list of best-selling premium titles for 2024 to date.
Top-Selling Premium Games of Q1 2024, U.S. (Physical & Digital Dollar Sales):
Helldivers 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
MLB The Show 24^
Tekken 8
Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League
Madden NFL 24
Persona 3 Reload
Hogwarts Legacy
EA Sports FC 24
Skull & Bones
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Rise of the Ronin
Super Mario Bros. Wonder*
Elden Ring
Minecraft
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
The Last of Us Part 2
Mortal Kombat 1
In summary, March and 2024’s first quarter had comparable dynamics when it comes to category results, where both Content and Accessories went up, notably bolstered by mobile and surprise launches in previously-unheralded franchises like Helldivers and Dragon’s Dogma, while Hardware faces a number of headwinds and can’t find a catalyst to growth right now.
Looking ahead, I’ll now run through my thoughts on April and a quick mention of my annual forecast.
I’m thinking we’ll see total April sales rise in the single-digits.
Content will go up, more impacted by older titles rather than new launches.
I expect Hardware to decline in the low to mid double-digits.
I certainly expect there to be fewer new titles in April ranking high on the premium list, compared to more than half of the Top 10 this past March, because there weren’t many triple-A flagships.
The controversial Stellar Blade has a solid chance at competing for a Top 5 debut, even being a PlayStation 5 exclusive. Otherwise, we’ll likely see movement for Microsoft-owned brands. This includes Sea of Thieves hitting a new audience and Bethesda games creeping back into the Top 20 or higher due to the uber-popularity of Amazon’s Fallout series, which already attracted 65 million viewers according to Variety.
In terms of an annual forecast for all of 2024, Piscatella is maintaining his guess for a 2% drop in spending. Personally, I’ll maintain my latest forecast of “virtually flat to slightly down” based on signs pointing to the more enthusiast PlayStation 5 Pro hitting market instead of a Super Nintendo Switch, the latter of which would drive Hardware to much better performance and have a system-selling title alongside it.
The start of a new earnings season, complete with my usual calendar, means it’s time to start up recaps as well.
I’m going to try something new and tighten up these recap articles!
More concise, same great quality. I hope.
Today, that means covering Microsoft’s recent 2024 Q3 results. I’ll focus mostly on Xbox during this January to March time frame, where there was major sales growth solely due to the impact from Activision Blizzard, as other areas within gaming declined including things like content, subscription and hardware offerings.
Still, Xbox segment sales outpaced guidance, mainly due to out-performance of Call of Duty.
Microsoft’s gaming division also hit a major milestone this quarter. Feeling the boost from the acquisition being included for two quarters now, annualized Xbox sales reached $20 billion for the first time ever.
I mean, this is why Microsoft spent all that dough. Plus, executives expect this to continue in the immediate future, according to guidance I’ll highlight later in this article, as that annual sales number is likely to move above $21 billion to close the fiscal year.
Now I’ll move right into a rundown of the numbers and a look ahead into the future of a somewhat shaky time for Xbox’s output.
Here’s a quick summary of Microsoft’s quarterly gaming sales, as shown in the slides above.
Q3 revenue rose 51% to upwards of $5.45 billion.
This was above management’s, and my, expectations.
It’s an all-time Q3 record, and Xbox’s second best quarter ever.
Out of that percentage gain, 55% was due to ActiBlizz impact.
Implies all other areas like Xbox, Bethesda etc saw a decline of 4%.
These quarterly sales move gaming back to fourth place in terms of Microsoft’s major product categories, trailing Windows at $5.93 billion.
Expanding now to current annualized Xbox revenue to get a broader sense of the business:
Overall annual gaming revenue is $19.97 billion.
Compare that to $18.13 billion as of last quarter.
The chart in the above gallery shows these in context.
I’ve long written about how this was the strategy around Microsoft’s merger and acquisition activity, to push past the $20 billion per year mark and approach its largest peers, like Sony and even Tencent, especially by leveraging ongoing services and breaking more into mobile.
Which is why I don’t think Microsoft is done buying, even after spending so much on the world’s largest formerly third party publisher.
Similar to my earlier coverage of Xbox, I’ll mention that Microsoft gives limited visibility into the profitability, or lack thereof, of its gaming business. Two points on that:
The More Personal Computing (MPC) segment saw operating profit rise 16% to $4.92 billion.
The ActiBlizz deal boosted expenses, as its net impact in Q3 was an operating loss of $350 million.
This implies that Xbox, despite seeing a big top-line boost, was likely less profitable this quarter.
Here’s where I’ll highlight the underlying dynamics, by way of discussing product categories.
First up is the larger of the two, Xbox Content & Services (Xbox C&S):
Q3 Xbox C&S revenue increased 62% to $5.03 billion.
Same as games revenue, this is also a Q3 record and second best ever.
ActiBlizz growth contribution was 61%, thus a 1% gain for everything else.
Then, on an annual basis:
Current annual Xbox C&S revenue is $16.86 billion, or 84% of the total.
That’s up from $14.86 billion last quarter, when it was 82% of the total.
On the flip side, Xbox Hardware had another tough time, without much to drive its fundamentals right now, as lower unit sales weren’t enough to offset gains from higher pricing:
Q3 Xbox Hardware revenue declined 31% to $350 million.
The lowest 3rd quarter dollar sales of the Xbox Series X|S generation.
Looking at the last 12 months:
At present, Xbox Hardware annual sales are $3.11 billion.
That’s down from $3.27 billion sequentially, and $3.37 billion last year.
Since Microsoft doesn’t tell us anything about lifetime Xbox Series X|S unit sales, I’ll keep up with my guesstimates.
I had the family at 29 million to 29.5 million last quarter.
It’s now likely hovering right around the 30 million milestone.
I forecast it moved 700K to 800K in the three months ending March.
Which lands it around 29.7 million to 30.3 million to date.
When it comes to supplemental stats like engagement, player counts etc, Xbox management didn’t have much to say.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella did note the following on the firm’s conference call:
Q3 records for “game streaming hours, console usage and monthly active devices.”
The first ActiBlizz title on Game Pass Diablo IV was one of the service’s biggest launches.
Players clocked over 10 million hours during its first 10 days.
This month, Xbox had 7 games among the Top 25 on the PlayStation store.
Which is a distinct lack of specifics, especially as it relates to Game Pass subscribers or total monthly active users, which unfortunately is a common theme here from management.
Before closing out, I’ll mention Microsoft’s overall results.
Company revenue jumped 17% to $61.9 billion.
Operating profit moved up 23% to $27.6 billion.
Microsoft Cloud sales increased 23% to $35.1 billion.
Slipping into the future, management provided guidance for the final quarter of fiscal year 2024.
Here are the expectations shared by Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Amy Hood for Q4 gaming performance.
Total gaming revenue growth in the low to mid-40s.
50 points of that via ActiBlizz impact.
Xbox C&S expected to grow in the high 50s.
60 points there from ActiBlizz, thus implying everything else will be down 10%.
Xbox Hardware will “decline again.” Based on my math, it will be down 24%.
Using these to make certain assumptions, that translates to the following in dollar terms:
Total gaming revenue around $5 billion.
Xbox C&S revenue upwards of $4.55 billion.
Xbox Hardware hitting $450 million.
These feel right to me, with upside for content based on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II launching in May, certain games like Sea of Thieves accessing additional audiences and a good effect from Amazon’s Fallout show (which is awesome).
Really, it’s going to go as ActiBlizz games go, notably as they are added to Game Pass.
If Xbox hits these targets, it would shatter a record for fiscal year sales, approaching $21.5 billion. For comparison, this number was at $15.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2023!
I hope you enjoyed the new format experiment, where I’m balancing analysis with word count to make it easier to follow and fun to read.
I’ll be back soon with more articles, and feel free to reach out on social media in the interim. Thanks for reading. Until next time, be well!
Note: Comparisons are year-over-year unless otherwise noted.
Sources: Company Investor Relations Websites, Xbox Wire.
I’m back, with a brand new season. Nope, I’m not referring to Spring, as it’s now here in the States. Though I’ll take the nicer weather, at least looking out my window while playing games.
It’s earnings season!
Which means I’m sharing what I like to call one of the most comprehensive lists of gaming, media and technology earnings dates on the internet. Now approaching 120 companies strong, it will give a sense of when companies are reporting, and where they are in their fiscal cycles. And when an exact date isn’t known yet, I try to estimate based on previous announcements.
As you’ll notice in the above image and the below Google Sheets link, the week of Monday, May 6th is going to have a lot action, including almost a dozen companies reporting on May 9th. Get ready, everyone.
In order to prepare for the next busy season, feel free to bookmark, save, share and post of course.
I also recommend keeping an eye out for my recaps both here and on social media. Plus, here’s three companies to watch over the next few weeks. Enjoy!
After one of the biggest IPOs of the year, Reddit is poised to publish its first quarterly report as a public company when it shares fiscal year 2024 Q1 results. The “front page of the internet” saw its stock price jump in March, yet has cooled to settle below its listing price in April. Within its prospectus, the company boasted 73 million average daily active unique users and generated over $800 million in annual sales, however it’s also currently operating at a loss. I’m mostly curious to see if its business model will expand as the firm matures, and if executives expect to become profitable any time soon.
Capcom Co. Ltd: Monday, May 13th
I’ve been upbeat on Capcom for what seems like a decade now, and the Japanese publisher will report its latest annual results in a few weeks. Just today, the firm revised both sales and profit forecasts upwards, a rarity right before reporting. This signals management is even more optimistic as it’s on track for yet another year of growth, assuredly on the strength of March’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 shipping 2.5 million units right out of the gate. Between that and continued momentum for its Resident Evil and Street Fighter franchise sales, I’m guessing Capcom will beat even its updated guidance, then move into a year where we could see another flagship launch in Monster Hunter Wilds soon enough.
Ubisoft Entertainment SA: Wednesday, May 15th
It feels like Ubisoft, which also reports annual results in May, has been quiet lately even though it’s had a few releases and continues as the caretaker of a big intellectual property portfolio. It produced a couple commercial snoozers like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in December then February’s Skull & Bones. And while Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is amazing, it’s not a blockbuster. So I’m cautious on its latest results. However, I’m quite upbeat on its near-term future as its slate for the upcoming year starts to take shape with Star Wars Outlaws, a game I believe will sell well, officially announced for August while the impending Assassin’s Creed Codename Red could also be out in the next six months or so, a nice one-two punch as far as triple-A tent-poles go.
