Pokemon GO Has Already Hit $1 Billion in Revenue This Year

Pokemon Go Fest 2020

While Pokemon GO may not be experiencing its time in the limelight as it did back in the summer of 2016, Niantics AR hit is still going very strong. This year has seen the company double down on events and new features, which have certainly helped to drive the game forwards. We've had the introduction of Mega Evolutions, an all-new take on GO Fest and the introduction of fan favourites Jessie and James to name but a few things.

Now, showing the fruits of their hard work this year, Sensor Tower has estimated that the game has made over $1 billion in 2020 alone. This is the first time since the game launched that the title has broken the billion-dollar mark in a single year and there's still over two months of 2020 remaining.

The sharp increase in revenue has likely, at least in part, come from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Like Niantic, players have been forced to adapt their ways of playing and have likely been spending more to compensate for being stuck inside.

Niantic themselves have more than helped fans to increase spending. The introduction of raid invites and remote raid passes, which allow players to attend raids from their own home, has ensured players can still access such a large portion of the game and at $1.50 for three, they don't come cheap.

Pokemon GO Fest is also likely to have played a huge part in the increased spend. While usually, players come together to a single, real-world location, this year they've been unable to do so. Cleverly, Niantic dropped the single location idea and made it a worldwide event, meaning everybody could take part. For a fee.

Sensor Tower estimates that in the four years since the game launched, it has generated around $4.2 billion in total revenue, with the United States being the biggest spenders. Android is the most popular operating system for the game, generating $2.2 billion in revenue vs $1.9 billion on the App Store.

While Pokemon GO's revenue has been massive this year, it still only ranks as the third-highest grossing mobile title. PUBG Mobile takes the top spot with Honor of Kings sitting second.

The post Pokemon GO Has Already Hit $1 Billion in Revenue This Year by Sam Woods appeared first on DualShockers.

Joe Biden's Campaign Now Has Its Own Custom Map in Fortnite

Today is Election Day in the US, marking the end of the road for the 2020 Presidential Election and the campaigns for both President Trump and Vice President Biden. As both candidates have been campaigning and traveling across the country, they have also found some unique ways to get their messages out to mobilize voters to head to the polls. Notably, the Biden-Harris campaign has especially utilized gaming over the past several months to motivate voters, with the campaign turning to Fortnite–the biggest game in the world–in time for the election.

In a report from Mashable, the Biden-Harris campaign launched an official custom map in Fortnite called "Build Back Better with Biden," which is located in Reboot City. According to Mashable, the map is "a solo adventure roughly 20-30 minutes long, designed to promote awareness of the candidates' economic recovery plan."

You can take a look at a trailer for the campaign's Fortnite map below:

As you can see from the trailer, the map features plenty of decorations based on the Biden-Harris campaign's advertising alongside in-game resources for players to learn where and how to vote. The map also features several challenges that players can complete, such as building "Scranton Towers" and finding Kamala Harris' sneakers, and some easter eggs tied to the Democratic candidates like the "No Malarkey Station." You can access the map in Fortnite with the code "0215-4511-1823."

Earlier in the year, the Biden-Harris campaign also utilized Animal Crossing: New Horizons to set-up an official campaign island for players to explore, grab special items from the campaign, and access voting resources. Naturally, the Fortnite map is another extension of the campaign finding ways to access voters from varying demographics and using non-traditional means to motivate voters.

Of course, it's important to note that if you live in the US and are eligible to vote, please make sure to go out today for Election Day to either vote in-person or to drop off an absentee or mail-in ballot for your preferred candidate before the polls close. For resources and information on where and how to vote in your area, you can head here to learn more.

Fortnite is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, with the game also coming at launch next week to PS5 and Xbox Series X/Series S.

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DualShockers 2020 Patch Notes & Next Gen — The Future is Here

PATCH NOTES DUALSHOCKERS

Hey everyone! This is Lou Contaldi, friendly neighborhood Editor in Chief at DualShockers. We kickstarted 2020 with some patch notes to welcome the new year and… things have went off pretty differently than we originally intended!

For example, one of the things we were hoping to do was reshape the way we covered in-person media briefings for one of the most highly-anticipated E3's of the decade. Lo and behold, there wouldn't even be an E3… or Gamescom… or NYCC… or, well, anything really. But that hasn't stopped the gaming community or the steady rolling pace of PS5 and Xbox Series X | S that are both peeking their head around the corner.

Before I get to the patch notes, I want to repeat our constant theme. This isn't a one-way discussion. DualShockers belongs to the community just as much as it belongs to the people on staff. If there is something that you want to see, let me know in the comments. If there is something we can and should be doing better, let me know in the comments. If you are giving up the site completely, let me know in the comments. In short, come chat with me in the comments.

Finally, another quick thank you from me, the Editorial Team, and everyone with us at DualShockers. Many of us write here because — like all of you — gaming is our passion. We want to spark conversations and share our love of gaming with anyone who will read our work. Everyone who is reading this now has helped this small startup become an established brand over the last decade.

With all that out of the way, let's get to some of the upcoming (and current) changes as we run up to 2021!

DualShockers ☑

After enough occult rituals to the social media gods, we are formally a Twitter Verified outlet. On the one hand, a blue checkmark is never the make or break for a reputable outlet — and we are almost going to miss trolling the process that locked us out for so long. On the other hand, we love the opportunity that this brings to validate our expert editorial opinions like these:

…okay, not that one. Let's forget about that one.

Meanwhile, we are taking the Verification in stride, hoping to keep our media presence true to our brand: tongue in cheek, informative, and full of well-deserved snark. While some of the larger gaming brands have dedicated PR firms aiming for the Gen Z surreal humor, you rest assured that we are just a bunch of dorks with the occasional shitpost.

If you haven't already jumped on, now's the time to follow — or else you might miss some of our award-winning next gen coverage like this:

"Next Gen" is About to Be "Current Gen"

We are literally two weeks out from everyone getting their hands on next gen consoles. We have the Xbox Series X in house, and we are prepping our full breakdown and review of the hardware.

As expected, PlayStation hasn't returned our calls — so you can expect a full review of the hardware post-launch — free from the launch day spectacle, rushed embargo deadlines, and from a fully unbiased consumer perspective.

However, with "Next Gen" making the jump to "Current Gen" we aren't intending on leaving PS4 and Xbox One owners in the lurch. While PS5 and Xbox Series X | S are absolutely going to be swallowing much of the oxygen in the room, we are making it a point to continue working with developers and publishers to test games across the generational gap. So don't be too surprised if we start giving scores for how a game plays on PS4 and PS5, or Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S.

There are many people out there waiting to make the jump to next gen — whether you couldn't land the pre-order or you just don't have the disposable income. Many of us on staff are in that same boat, and we are making sure everyone is covered — no matter where they play.

DualSHOCK Defintives & GOTY 2020

DualShockers Definitives PS4

Speaking of big things coming in the next couple weeks, let's talk about DualShockers Definitives and Game of the Year 2020.

For those out of the loop, DualShockers Definitives is our annual ranking of the Top 20 games on every current gen platform — and this year these will be published right ahead of the PS5 and Xbox Series X | S's releases. While you can check out the lists from 2019, there has been some major movements in every list — thanks to some games aging like fine wine and a new mix of staff.

You can expect the new lists to be updated in this order:

  • PS4 Definitive: Wednesday, November 4th
  • Switch Definitives: Friday, November 6th
  • Xbox One Definitive: Monday, November 9th

Meanwhile, Game of the Year 2020 has been an all-year event — despite the constant delay of games due to the ongoing pandemic. And while we had a pretty concrete timeline, it looks like the recent delay of Cyberpunk 2077 has moved everything back. And while other major award networks like The Game Awards will not be including it (and other similar games) in the review season, we've decided to move back our qualification window to include it (alongside other December 10 games like Bloober Team's The Medium) in this year's round of games.

In short, expect a late December award season from DualShockers this year — and we will make sure to hit you with some more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, make sure to catch up with our latest opinions on the Q3 2020 releases:

DualSHOCK the Vote

With 2020 being so absolutely wild, we've been a bit more socially active than many long-time followers are used to us being. This includes a recent site-wide engagement in how our staff approaches civic responsibilities, like voting in that big thing that is happening today.

In other words, we've given all staff the day off for Election Day (and future major elections moving forward, US-based or otherwise) — no matter how they choose to vote (or not vote) — because it's the right thing to do. In fact, it's something that we challenge other media leaders in the gaming space to do as well.

But if you notice a dip in output today (and were looking for a distraction to some of the political noise), you can rest assured that it is for a good reason. Meanwhile, wouldn't be a bad idea for you to head to the polls if you haven't already:

Odds and Ends

Then we have a few things we will (hopefully) be talking about in a future update. These include:

  • Disqus: You've been asking for it, we've been putting off the inevitable. But we are formally back on Disqus — looks like our previous comment servicer just wasn't making the cut. With that said, we just want to confirm that we aren't shopping around for new comment sections and we are here to stay.
  • Gift Guides: Don't know what to buy to get your fiance into the gaming scene for the first time? Looking for our recommendations on our favorite gaming chair? We are aiming to ramp up coverage in the leadup to the holidays so you can stock up your own wish list
  • Brand Partners: We've been working with some business-minded folk on how we can keep supporting our indie coverage of games, and we are working on fleshing our what that may be. However, we are gonna make sure that we run everything by you readers first — similar to our announcement (and disclosure) on Affiliate Links.

This is just a taste of some of the developments on DualShockers' horizons, with a lot more unannounced developments lined up after. In the meantime, I hope to see a few of you in the comments — if there is something on the list you think is missing, let me know below.

The post DualShockers 2020 Patch Notes & Next Gen — The Future is Here by Lou Contaldi appeared first on DualShockers.

Among Us Developer Introduces New Patch and Future Plans

Among Us 2 canceled

Among Us, the indie title that launched back in 2018 and went viral this year, has had some information surrounding what players can expect to see in future updates. In addition, a fresh patch has resolved some issues with cheaters and spam.

Touching on the patch first, New York state representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran a live-stream last month alongside other big-name streamers as they played Among Us, while also touching on politics at a few moments. The stream peaked at 439,000 viewers, but a few days after that, Among Us public games were being hit by a hack that saw players spamming the text chat with links to a Discord and YouTube channel for "Eris Loris", but there was also spam that was promoting Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

"Forte pushed out server changes really fast." Innersloth Games announced in a Steam update, "some cheats still work and now there are bugs too." it adds, but says there are to be more server updates to fix the bugs that were caused by rushing an anti-hack fix. Innersloth also says, "any threats made in the game are false and your devices and data are safe".

An update to Among Us has also introduced an anonymous voting option, meaning those voters show up as grey rather than the color of the player. There's also 3 new modes for the Task Bar. 'Always' will work as normal, while 'Meeting Mode' will only update the bar during meetings, and 'Invisible' mode removes the bar completely. Comms can now be sabotaged to remove the security logs, cosmetics are also now in the meeting room, and symbols have been added to the color-matching wire tasks for colorblind support.

But Innersloth also wants to address future plans. "We play things pretty loose so we can tackle what we think the game needs most. We also don't want to promise anything and then not provide it so it's a scary thing to share."

Planned for December, Innersloth is looking into introducing accounts to make it easier for reporting cheaters and hackers, and states that a Friends List is planned for a later date. there's also a new free map in the works which is to be bigger than the Polus map and comes with new tasks. There's also more translations to come to the game, and colorblind support will continue to be monitored.

There's more in the works, but Innersloth doesn't seem ready to share that information as of yet. Among Us is available on PC and mobile devices.

The post Among Us Developer Introduces New Patch and Future Plans by Ben Bayliss appeared first on DualShockers.

Demon's Souls Has Over 180 Game Help Videos for PS5 PS+ Subscribers

Demon's Souls

Earlier this year Bluepoint Games finally revealed that Demon's Souls would be launching on PS5, and last week we saw some new gameplay footage of the game running on the next-generation PlayStation. It's been revealed that the game will feature help videos that will be available to view through one of the console's new features.

When the PS5 UI experience was showcased last month, we got to see a range of new features. One of those was Game Help. Game Help is a feature available only to those subscribed to PS+ and will allow players to watch a bunch of developer-made videos that aim to act as guides on how to complete a specific section. Demon's Souls will apparently feature over 180 of those videos.

That's according to an interview from The Washington Post which features Gavin Moore, creative director of Demon's Souls. It's said that the game will have "increasing levels of visibility into what's needed to complete portions of the game, available via the interface."

Gaming Bolt reported last month that the game does not have any difficulty options, with Moore saying, "There are no difficulty options in Demon's Souls, and there shouldn't be,". However, the game will feature accessibility features as mentioned by Axel Nicolás Bosso, Editor at Into The Spine who also spoke to Moore, and tweeted, "It looks like all the "next-gen" features of the DualSense can be turned off or changed to suit your taste." He adds, "Also, you will be able to change from which side you hear the audio, customize some UI options, adjust motion blur and camera shake, among other accessibility options."

Demon's Souls is said to be a PS5 exclusive with no plans to launch on PC or other platforms. It should be launching alongside the console on November 12, 2020.

The post Demon's Souls Has Over 180 Game Help Videos for PS5 PS+ Subscribers by Ben Bayliss appeared first on DualShockers.

Fortnite Adds Ghost Rider As Latest Marvel Character

Fortnite Ghost Rider

Fortnite's Nexus War rages on. The crossover between two of the world's biggest franchises has been ongoing since August 27 and has seen a huge range of Marvel's biggest characters appear in Fortnite. The Chapter 2, Season 4 event has seen the likes of Wolverine, Iron Man and Dr. Doom drop from the Battle Bus.

As part of the event, Epic has been running a series of cups that allow players to compete and unlock specific Marvel cosmetics early. The knockout events began last month, with players having the opportunity to earn themselves a Daredevil outfit and now, Epic has revealed the next entry into the Marvel Knockout Super Series – the Ghost Rider Cup.

The event begins tomorrow, November 4 and will give players the opportunity to compete and earn both the Ghost Rider Outfit and Back Bling.

In order to enter the tournament, players will need to squad up with two other competitors and aim to be the last team standing. Epic explains the event in further detail, saying:

"Marvel Knockout is a spin on Operation: Knockout that sees your team utilize super-powers to be the best team in the tournament bracket. Battle alongside your partner against foes in a 4-round knockout fight! Each round your team will be given a different set of powers to battle opponents with mirrored abilities!"

There are a couple of small criteria that players must meet in order to compete in the knockout event. Every player in the squad must be a minimum of level 30 and must also have 2-factor authentication switched on.

Epic confirms that the remaining two events in the series will follow on on a weekly basis, with the next tournaments taking place on November 11 and November 18.

That's not the only recent Fortnite news either. Yesterday, Epic confirmed that the game will be ready on day one for the launch of both the PS5 and Xbox Series S and Series X. They confirmed that on both the PS5 and Series X the game will be capable of 4K resolution with a "smooth" frame rate of 60 FPS and that the Series S will hit 1080p/60FPS.

The post Fortnite Adds Ghost Rider As Latest Marvel Character by Sam Woods appeared first on DualShockers.

The Hundreds Teases A Collaboration With Xbox

Independent streetwear brand, The Hundreds is teasing a new Xbox collaboration ahead of the launch of the next generation of Xbox consoles. The LA-based brand, known for its collaborations with brands like the NBA, Disney, Garfield and Batman is no stranger to making cool 90's-inspired apparel for big brands. Similarly, it's nothing new for Microsoft to collaborate with brands like Meta Threads to deliver gaming merch beyond the simplistic Xbox logo graphic tee.

The collaboration was originally teased on Twitter by the official The Hundreds Twitter account with an edited Xbox logo that's been made to look like the bomb emoji on a familiar Xbox-green background.

Not long after the original teaser Tweet, Aaron Greenberg, General Manager of Games and Marketing at Xbox quote Tweeted the tease to signal boost it to more of the core gaming audience, promising that the 'The Hundreds x Xbox' collaboration would be coming soon.

Xbox has a really solid track record for licensing their brand out to interesting, creative brands that find something to do with their iconic green branding outside of a graphic tee with a standard Xbox logo, and now that they have a solid stable of new first-party studios, IP and two new consoles, it's no surprise that Microsoft's probably chomping at the bit to get some new merch out for some of their new studios and IP. That said, it's no question that we'll be getting some awesome new apparel themed around classic Xbox IP like Halo and Gears, especially since Halo Infinite is slated for a release sometime next year and two Gears games are launching with new content and optimizations for the two upcoming Xbox consoles.

The post The Hundreds Teases A Collaboration With Xbox by Charlie Wacholz appeared first on DualShockers.

Sony Forces PS5 Third-Party Faceplate Maker to Cancel Pre-Orders Following Legal Action

From its initial reveal this past summer, the PS5 gained a lot of attention for the system's unusual (and very large) design that marks a big departure from past PlayStation consoles. Sporting a futuristic black-and-white design, the PS5 stands out quite a bit, particularly for its white "plates" that are alongside the left and right sides of the system. While one company tried to capitalize on the prospects of making customized PS5 faceplates, Sony has intervened with legal action and forced the storefront to cancel its pending orders.

In a report from Video Games Chronicle, a peripheral company that was initially known as "The Plate Station" and "PlateStation 5" has faced legal action from Sony, preventing the company from producing and selling custom PS5 faceplates. Originally, the company had a lineup of replaceable faceplates for the PS5 in different colors and patterns, such as a black option and other color schemes, that customers could purchase and swap with the standard white plates that come with the launch systems.

However, Sony had threatened legal action against the company shortly after their products began going on sale, forcing the site to rebrand to "Customize My Plates" and to completely cancel all pre-orders of its line of replaceable PS5 faceplates. According to a statement from the website to VGC, initially the site's team had done "due diligence and were of the opinion, that because Sony only had pending patents on the faceplates there would be no problem." However, shortly after the site's launch, Sony's legal team cited trademark infringements in the production of the faceplates and that the company would face legal action if they manufactured and shipped the custom plates to any country.

Since then, Customize My Plates has cancelled and refunded all pre-orders for the removeable faceplates, stating that "we are extremely disappointed about this but we have no other option." At the moment, the company's website is still currently selling a variety of skins for both the PS5 and the DualSense controller, giving some flexibility to customers that might want other color options than the system's standard black-and-white color scheme. However, it's important to note that these are third-party cosmetics, and it wouldn't be too surprising if Sony might have plans to produce official first-party plate replacements (or alternate console colors) for the PS5 down the line.

The PS5 will officially launch on November 12, 2020 in select regions, followed by a larger worldwide release on November 19, 2020.

The post Sony Forces PS5 Third-Party Faceplate Maker to Cancel Pre-Orders Following Legal Action by Ryan Meitzler appeared first on DualShockers.

The Witcher Netflix Series is Getting Action Figures from McFarlane Toys

The Witcher, Netflix, Henry Cavill

Following the release of its first season late last year, The Witcher became one of Netflix's biggest original series yet and brought a whole new audience into the world of everyone's favorite monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. Adapted from the original Polish book series, the Netflix series had a strong debut and is well into production on its second season. However, for fans that can't get enough of the series, you might want to toss a coin to McFarlane Toys sometime in the future.

McFarlane Toys announced (via their official Facebook) that the toy and collectible maker is producing a new line of figurines based on Netflix's The Witcher series in 2021. While the company has previously adapted CD Projekt Red's The Witcher series into toy form (such as a striking Geralt figure revealed this summer), this collaboration will specifically focus on Netflix's take on the beloved fantasy franchise.

At the moment, McFarlane Toys has not officially announced which characters (or monsters) that the figurines might draw from, but it's fairly safe to assume that we'll likely see the series' core trio–Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer–get the collectible treatment among others. McFarlane Toys also released a teaser image to announce the collaboration, which you can find below:

Right before the debut of its first season in December 2019, Netflix had preemptively renewed The Witcher for a second season, which began production at the beginning of 2020. However, filming on the second season had been interrupted this past spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with production for the series resuming this past August. Initially it was reported that the second season was aiming to debut sometime in 2021, but with the complications that arose from the pandemic and production delays, it's likely that Season 2 could come at a later date.

Netflix's The Witcher is currently filming its second season, and the first season is available to stream now.

The post The Witcher Netflix Series is Getting Action Figures from McFarlane Toys by Ryan Meitzler appeared first on DualShockers.

Gran Turismo 7 Rumored to Launch on PS5 in the First Half of 2021

Initially revealed during Sony's PS5 reveal showcase this past June, Gran Turismo 7 will bring the long-running racing series to the next-generation sometime in the future on PS5. Powered by the next-gen hardware of Sony's upcoming system, it hasn't been clear when the next installment of the iconic racing series will be arriving, but a recent ad suggests that the game could be releasing for the system as soon as next year.

As noted by GTPlanet, a recent YouTube ad from Sony for the PS5's launch highlighted the upcoming Gran Turismo 7, and seemingly may have uncovered the game's release window. In the corner of the ad's thumbnail, a line of text appears to state in French, "Sortie prévue pour la première moitié de 2021," which translates that the game is scheduled for release in the first half of 2021.

Naturally, this should be taken with a grain of salt as neither Sony or developer Polyphony Digital have announced an official release window or date yet for Gran Turismo 7. While this is coming from an official Sony source–in this case a YouTube ad–we recently saw some mistakes that cropped up on Sony's marketing earlier this year, such as an ad for Demon's Souls that incorrectly stated that the game would also be coming to PC.

However, it isn't too hard to imagine that Gran Turismo 7 could be lined up for sometime next year to fill up the PS5's post-launch calendar. Sony already has a number of titles lined up to release for the system next year including the next God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, and (presumably) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Until then, we'll have to wait and see whether the next installment in the racing series will join the roster for a packed 2021 for Sony first-party games.

Gran Turismo 7 is currently in development for PS5, though no specific release date or window for the game has been officially announced yet.

The post Gran Turismo 7 Rumored to Launch on PS5 in the First Half of 2021 by Ryan Meitzler appeared first on DualShockers.