Steam
With June nearing its end, Valve is using the time to take another look at May of this year. A list of the top innovations from Steam of the past month is now available. It lists the games that came onto the market in May 2021 and generated the most sales. You can find the resulting top 20 in our overview. However, the sorting does not take place in a specific order or ranking.This list includes the new city building simulation Frozenheim from the Paranoid Interactive development studio. It made its Steam debut on May 20th and has since received "mostly positive" user reviews. Also in the top 20 is the remastered version of the action game Saints Row: The Third, which found its way on Steam on May 22nd. Unsurprisingly, the PC version of the horror survival game Resident Evil Village made it onto the list, which seems to be a big sales success in general - not only on Steam. The Legendary Edition of Mass Effect and the open world game Biomutant can also be found in the top 20. Here is the list in no particular order:
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground Frozenheim Earth Defense Force: World Brothers Tainted Grail: Conquest SnowRunner MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Saints Row: The Third Remastered Maneater Hood: Outlaws & Legends Resident Evil Village Biomutant Mass Effect Legendary Edition Soulworker Subnautica: Below Zero Days Gone Before We Leave Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne HD Remaster Knockout City Solasta: Crown of the Magister Source: Steam
Competitive shooter Splitgate heads to console after years of Steam success
Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021.
The free-to-play shooter space is getting crowded, and it includes some of the biggest companies in video games. But Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, and Valorant are not scaring an upstart like Splitgate: Arena Warfare out of the market.
Developer 1047 Games is preparing to expand its successful competitive arena shooter from PC to consoles next. I spoke to 1047 cofounder and chief executive Ian Proulx for the How Games Make Money podcast, which you can listen to below:
If you want to add the podcast to your listening app of choice, just search “How Games Make Money” or follow this link.
Splitgate is launching on console on July 27. And for Proulx and the team at 1047, this is an opportunity to keep the learning process from PC going with a new audience.
“The entire process and the entire thinking here was that we know we’re not going to get it right on day one [on PC],” said Proulx. “We know there’s going to be a lot of learning. Let’s get it out there and in the hands of real users as soon as we have our minimum viable product. And that’s how we’re going to learn, and over the past two years that’s what we’ve been doing.”
This methodology has led a Very Positive rating for Splitgate on PC, but that was not because the team didn’t make mistakes. And one of those included trying to emulate Halo 2’s old 50-level ranking system.
“I was a huge advocate for [bringing] back the Halo 2 system,” said Proulx. “If you grew up playing Halo you know what I’m talking about. I mean people loved this, and we would tell people that we’re bringing back the Halo 2 1-to-50 ranking system and people’s eyes would light up. They would tell us, ‘oh, my gosh. Thank you. I can’t believe Halo got rid of it — they’re so stupid.'”
But implementing that ranking model made Splitgate worse.
“The truth is the system sucks,” said Proulx. “It’s horrible at getting you well-balanced games. What we saw is like 59% of our matches were absolute blowouts that were just totally lopsided. And so we had to get with the times — we made a mistake.”
Now, 1047 has figured out what Splitgate is and how to make it fun and compelling for PC players. The challenge now is getting attention on console when the game debuts.
GamesBeatGamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is 'where passion meets business.' What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. How will you do that? Membership includes access to: