What You Missed This Week in Video Games

“Game On” is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.

NEW RELEASES: This week’s most notable new release is Sony-published (SONY) action game “Stellar Blade” from Korean studio Shift Up Second EVE. The game releases exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on April 26. Also out this week is Take-Two’s (TTWO) tennis sim “TopSpin 2K25,” which release April 26 for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One (MSFT), and Xbox Series X/S. Meanwhile, the Xbox Series and PS5 update for Bethesda’s 2015 game “Fallout 4” releases April 25, roughly two weeks after the Amazon Prime (AMZN) “Fallout” series premiered.

‘FALLOUT’ SALES: According to Gamesindustry.biz‘s Christopher Dring last week, sales of games in the “Fallout” franchise have surged across Europe in the wake of the Amazon show’s release, with “Fallout 4” reclaiming the top spot in Europe’s weekly game sales. Sales of “Fallout 4” jumped 7,500% week-on-week across Europe last week, due to some heavy discounting on games in the “Fallout” franchise across all platforms designed to tie-in with the television series, according to GSD data. 2018’s “Fallout 76,” 2010’s “Fallout: New Vegas,” and 2008’s “Fallout 3” rounded out Europe’s weekly top ten as well, Dring added. The Fly notes that Microsoft acquired Bethesda in 2021.

Meanwhile, Polygon’s Carli Velocci reported that every “Fallout” game on PC gaming marketplace Steam, including the 1997 original, has seen a major influx in players since the TV show premiered. The first “Fallout” peaked at 2,352 players on Steam over the weekend, which is not a particularly large number on its own, but marks a 553.3% increase in concurrent players over the last month, Velocci noted. 2008’s “Fallout 3” is also seeing a similar spike, with about 6,700 concurrent players playing the game over the weekend, a 415.4% increase over the past 30 days. Additionally, Velocci pointed out that 2018’s “Fallout 76” reached its all-time peak on Steam over the weekend, with over 39,000 concurrent players. While it’s not clear what those numbers look like on non-Steam platforms, such as PlayStation or Xbox, series publisher Bethesda said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the game has seen plenty of new players.

Amid all the excitement around the “Fallout” franchise, Variety’s Joe Otterson reported late last week that Amazon had renewed the “Fallout” TV show for a second season. The news comes after Variety previously reported that a second season was slated to receive $25M in tax credits by shooting in the state of California.

MICROSOFT GAMES ON PLAYSTATION: According to TweakTown‘s Derek Strickland, as of April 18, 2024, Microsoft-published games made up seven of the top 25 best-selling games on Sony’s online PlayStation Store. Among the top-selling games under Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios brand on the PS Store are “Fallout 4,” “Fallout 76,” “Call of Duty,” “Overwatch 2,” “Minecraft,” “Sea of Thieves,” and “Grounded,” the author said. Nearly the Xbox games selling so well on the PS Store are developed and/or published by studios that Microsoft has acquired over the past decade or so, namely Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Mojang. Strickland noted that Sony-published titles make up five of the top 25.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Rare studio said its 2018 game “Sea of Thieves” has achieved 40M players across Xbox, Windows 10 and Steam so far. The Fly notes that the game is set to release on PlayStation 5 on April 30.

NETEASE TARGET CUT: On Wednesday, HSBC lowered the firm’s price target on NetEase (NTES) to $126 from $130 and maintained a Buy rating on the shares. The firm says it was too optimistic on this year’s growth given weak performance from the newly launched Condor Hero, revenue decline of Fantasy Westward Journey PC and the delayed launch for Where Winds Meet mobile. However, the May 20 product launch event could potentially improve earnings visibility in the second half of 2024 and 2025, driving a re-rating of the shares.