It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The Biggest Games of January 2023
The new year gets off with a bang! The biggest games of the month include: Fire Emblem Engage, Forspoken, Dead Space, One Piece Odyssey, A Space for the Unbound, Persona 4 Golden + Persona 3 Portable, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, Colossal Cave (welcome back Ken and Roberta Williams!), and fresh new Xbox ports of Monster Hunter Rise and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
NPD: December 2022
NPD remains the gaming industry’s best snapshot of what’s moving and shaking up both physical and digital retail shelves across the country. All estimates are for entertainment purposes only. Total sales of new gaming hardware and software topped $7.7 billion, a 2 percent uptick over last year. Furthermore, total year-end sales were $56 billion for 2022, a 5 percent decrease from 2021’s $59 billion.
The Top Twenty software charts is mostly returning champs, though newcomers include EA’s stylistic Need for Speed: Unbound in eighth, Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Reunion remake in tenth, and Kragton Games’ The Callisto Protocol in seventeenth. The guys also look at NPD’s yearly round-up for the best-selling games of 2022 – did your favorites make the list?
Everything Else
But there’s more! The Powerwash Simulator revolution continues as Lara Croft’s mansion gets the clean treatment later in the month! HBO’s live-action The Last of Us series is a massive hit, scoring the network’s second-best premiere in a decade! Google’s Stadia may be dead, but its controller lives on (in Bluetooth form)! The 2023 Academy Awards may have a major contender with a Monster Hunter twist with Tár, starring Cate Blanchett! Nintendo plans on producing even more Switch consoles this year, defying all expectations! The power of Zelda is strong with this one.
A little self-promotion! Don’t forget Popzara’s State of Gaming year-end spectacular on the best, worst, and everything else we loved (and loathed) in the world of gaming for 2022, with returning champ Antal Bokar (from 3rd Coast Review and Culture Combine). What a year!
