Summer is nearly upon us, which means we're in for video game sales as far as the eye can see. There have already been a handful of PC sales, and there will undoubtedly be more as we make our way through June and July, but today, it's the PlayStation 4's turn. Sony has kicked off its Days of Play sale on the PlayStation Store, marking down a number of games for the next two weeks.
The folks at Square Enix just put a whole bunch of games in a big bundle to sell to gamers staying at home - all to fight COVID-19. This might be the start of a big push on the part of game-makers across the spectrum. If the Square Enix Stay Home & Play campaign "rewards gamers for practicing social distancing and also help charities that need support," and it works, the future's going to look a whole lot more bright than it looks today.
Just in time for our realization that this COVID-19 quarantine is really, truly real, the Nintendo Switch eShop has a brand new sale for multiple games. Some games are half their original price, some are discounted even deeper. There are a few Nintendo 3DS games in the mix as well - like the always strange card game Culdcept Revolt!
The top-selling phones for the third quarter of the year, 2019, includes a short list of top brands. A couple of these brands you'll expect - Apple and Samsung have been the biggest smartphone brands for unit sales for quite a few years. But after Apple's iPhone XR, and a couple of Samsung Galaxy A models, the brand up next is one about which you might not've heard a whole lot: OPPO!
There's an event today on Steam that celebrates the passing out-of-Beta of the Steam Remote Play Together system. This system was in public Beta testing for "roughly one month" and is already ready to roll for users - and now works for iOS and Android devices, too. The Steam Sale today focuses on games that work with the Remote Play Together system.
Huawei keeps shipping more phones every year, growing said shipments by percentages that leave all other companies in the dust. For example their year-over-year growth for Q3 of the year 2019 for unit shipments was a positive 29%. The next largest - and only other major positive percentage - was Samsung's comparatively meager 8%. Because of Huawei's monstrous growth, global smartphone vendor shipments this quarter (compared to this same quarter last year) are up 2%.
GameStop has announced plans to launch a Spring Sale starting tomorrow, April 7. The sale will be live for two weeks during which customers will have the chance to get consoles, games, gaming accessories, toys, and other items at various discounts. The sale will take place in GameStop retail stores, as well as on its website and in its mobile app.
In Apple's Q3 2018 earnings report, the company revealed that unit sales of both the iPad and the iPhone were almost identical to last year at this time. Sequentially, iPhone sales revenue and unit sales took a real dip - which is pretty standard for this time of year. Let's compare this quarter's hardware sales data to last year's at this time and see what we make of it.
For the first time in the last SIX YEARS, PC shipment numbers grew worldwide. This is according to analysts at Gartner, who suggest that this year-over-year growth in global PC shipments is a temporary situation. This is all apparently due to the business world replacing all their old PCs with new Windows 10 PCs in a global trend. This trend will apparently fall off within the next couple of year.
If you happen to live near a shopping mall (or have visited one at any point in the last decade), there's a good chance you've encountered a Best Buy Mobile store. These small, standalone stores focus entirely on mobile sales, and there are a hundreds of the around the US. That's all set to change, as Best Buy has announced that it will close many of these stores later this year.
Today we're running down analysis and subsequent analysis for time until a price drop for the the Nintendo Switch. Spoiler alert: you're going to be waiting a while. According to the most recent report on Nintendo's plans, the company is planning to ramp up production of the console starting their next fiscal year - that's April of 2018. Based on the numbers we've got here today, Nintendo's first price drop - if there is a price drop any time soon - won't be until Black Friday 2019.
There are a few words of advice regarding windows of opportunity, but seems that Essential, by Android godfather Andy Rubin, may have thrown all those out the window. And now they might be reaping what it sowed. Hyped, late, and imperfect, the Essential PH-1 smartphone may have sold only around 5,000 units, putting it well below most major OEMs and earning it a spot in the niche, and therefore very small, smartphone market.