Robin Wilde
PokÉmon Go
explodes
worldwide
T
he
launch
of
Pokémon Go has
had a major effect on
the gaming landscape.
Nintendo’s stock almost doubled over the
last month, despite a
significant fall back
when they clarified it
was not them who actually made the game.
Peripheral
effects
of Pokémon Go have
been evident everywhere, from sad stories
of muggings and finding bodies, to happier
news of a dog shelter
being cleared out of
adoptable dogs.
While Niantic, the
game’s
developer,
was taking requests
for new landmarks to
be turned into gyms
and Pokéstops, this has
now stopped, possibly
due to an overwhelming number of requests.
There have also been
reports of inappropriate locations being
used for Pokémon purposes and causing a
scene. The Holocaust
Museum in Washington DC, as well as the
Arlington
National
Cemetary, have requested that users refrain from playing the
game on their grounds,
while a reporter was
rebuked as a White
House press briefing
for using the occasion
to catch ‘em all.
Pokémon Go has
reached just over 75
million downloads at
time of writing, and
is the fastest game to
reach 50 million downloads - it took 19 days,
over four times faster
than the second placed
Color Switch.
5
PLAYSTATION
4 SOLIDIFIES
SALES LEAD
ROBIN WILDE
N
ew sales figures
from Sony have
shown over 43.5m
PlayStation 4 consoles shipped to retailers over the system's
lifespan.
The data puts Sony's machine well out
in front of its rival systems. The Xbox One
has almost exactly half
the number of shipped
units on 22m, while
Nintendo's Wii U lan-
guishes in third place
on 13.2 million.
The sales data puts
Sony in a strong position ahead of the
planned launch in the
next year of PlayStation Neo, the company's latest system which
promises 4K compatibility and enhanced
graphical output.
The positive sales
news for PlayStation is
a bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre financial situation for Sony.
In the last year, overall profits fell 42 per
cent, in large part due
to flagging smartphone
sales.
PlayStation currently
has a relatively clear
field, with all rival
hardware either struggling for sales or yet to
be released.
The most major up-
coming challenges for
the manufacturer are
from Microsoft's Project
Scorpio and Nintendo's NX, both due next
year.