Daily Briefing: Monday 28th March

PlayStation has a “VERY Interesting Week” Coming, According To Greg Miller

Following last week’s Bloomberg report that Project Spartacus could be revealed this week, Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller delayed his PlayStation-focused podcast until Thursday because he’s heard three rumours - he said if even one of them is true, it’ll be a “VERY interesting week for PlayStation”. As for what the other news could be, a recent filing for a new Knack trademark has many thinking a third Knack might be announced.

• Honestly, we’re at a loss for what the other rumours could be. Spartacus, sure, but unless there’s a guerrilla State of Play showing off upcoming games or announcing new titles, it’s hard to think of what else is on the cards. If nothing else, it’s at least exciting!

Analyst Claims Microsoft Paid $5-10m for Guardians of the Galaxy on Game Pass

An analyst who’s worked with Square Enix for 15 years has claimed his estimate for the deal was between $5 million and $10 million - which he claims rounds out to about $2 per game, versus the $30 or so profit they can expect from retail.

• That goes to show how scale works with digital products, and the value of having access to customers. It does put a number on the potential devaluation of games thanks to these library services, though - if Square Enix is happy to take $2 per game for their AAA title to get sales at scale, how can an indie compete on price?

Kirby and The Forgotten Land Is The Biggest Physical Kirby Launch In The UK

First Metroid, now Kirby - Nintendo are proving that their franchises have room for incredible growth on the Switch. The first-party attach rate for Switch games seems to be massive, as their games have almost all broken serious franchise records. It outsold the last Kirby game on Switch, Star Allies, by 2.5x according to UK stats. That leaves it comfortably above Tiny Tina’s Wonderland from Gearbox, and the first time a Kirby game has hit number 1 on the UK charts.

• It’s the fifth biggest Kirby game in the UK, but at this rate, time will almost certainly make it the best seller. Digital data might change this up substantially, but this is a big win for Nintendo. In other news, Elden Ring’s been selling like crazy - it’s still at number 3.