Daily Briefing: Monday 5th April

Sony Give Xbox Their First-Party Exclusive: MLB The Show

MLB The Show 21, developed by Sony's own San Diego Studio, will be available on Xbox Game Pass day 1 for Xbox One and Series S/X. Playstation owners will have to pay the full $70 for the game. This marks the first MLB game released on a non-Playstation console.

• Sony basically handed Xbox a huge win here - they gave away an exclusive to make more immediate profit, and made their own platform look worse as a result. The Sony-developed game is expensive on the Sony platform, but comes bundled with a high-value sub on the Xbox side. It probably makes business sense based on numbers, but to us, it seems silly.

Monster Hunter Breaks 70M Series Sales

Thanks to MH Rise's continued strong performance of over 5 millon sales, Monster Hunter has now sold over 70 milion copies worldwide. That's across 6 mainline games, and a further 12 spinoffs and expansions. Rise's launch actually sent Capcom to an all-time stock price high on Friday.

• Monster Hunter's years of iteration and improvement ensured that a previously strong Japan-centric franchise entered the West with all guns blazing and to phenomenal success. This shows no sign of slowing down, as Rise has sold 1/3rd of World's units on launch on Switch alone. Once it hits PC next year, it could see another spike.

Square Enix Secure A Western Win With Outriders

Outriders, despite being available on Xbox Game Pass, has comfortably taken a spot in the Top 10 on Steam. With a peak of 125k, it's already defeated Marvel's Avengers' Steam record. Between community recommendations, a free demo and a slow release cycle, Outriders has found a lot of players - it's even beat Borderlands 2's peak, a comparable loot shooter.

• Despite 'Mixed' reviews, many attributable to server issues, Outriders has made a serious splash, due to the limited looter-shooter genre, the publicised free demo and a lack of 'live service' ambitions and monetisation. Perhaps Square Enix will learn something from this.

Missing PlatinumGames' Mobile Action Game Shows Up

After years of uncertainty,World of Demons has finally made a reappearance - it's on Apple Arcade right now, alongside Hironobu Sakaguchi's "final game" Fantasian.

• PlatinumGames are full of surprises - it seems that self-publishing has resulted in them seeking out unconventional markets. Perhaps Apple's move into quality Japanese mobile games could pay off for them with Arcade subscriptions.