Sony and Nintendo each had rival games releasing on July 17 with Paper Mario: The Origami King and Ghosts of Tsushima making their long awaited debut. The Nintendo Switch and PS4 games both scored spots on the UK gaming best-sellers charts, but one easily beat the other.
Ghosts of Tsushima is the long awaited new IP from Sucker Punch productions, makers of Infamous and the Sly Cooper games. The game opened to positive reviews and is already well known for its stunning imagery, bringing out the best of the PS4 system before it retires. Paper Mario: Origami King is the sixth game in the Paper Mario series, releasing four years after the last instalment and marks the first of the series to be released on Nintendo Switch.
Purchases for both games were busy over the weekend, but Ghosts of Tsushima far outsold Paper Mario: The Origami King to take the no.1 spot in the UK charts. The PS4 game apparently sold four times the amount that Paper Mario did, however the Nintendo game did still manage to land the no.2 slot. Paper Mario: Origami King’s first-week sales also beat out Super Paper Mario’s record, making it the fastest selling in the series yet.
Neither game could compete with The Last of Us 2’s sales which broke records when it released in the UK and went on to become the best selling PS4 game in June. Ghosts of Tsushima is the latest Sony exclusive to release on the PS4. With not even a month passing between it and The Last of Us sequel, there was bound to be competition for sales, although developers from both studios have been quick to congratulate each other following the games’ releases.
The Naughty Dog sequel now sits in the fifth spot on the UK charts behind F1 2020 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The next big gaming releases are Skater XL and the new Destroy All Humans! coming later in July. Whether they can pull big enough numbers to compete with Ghosts of Tsushima and Paper Mario on the charts will be revealed later this week.
This comes off the back of the news that video game spending is at an all time high due to the pandemic encouraging people to look for indoor sources of entertainment. Sales in the video games industry are likely only going to get bigger with the 2020 holiday season set to bring the next generation of consoles to stores.
Ghosts of Tsushima is available now on PS4 and Paper Mario: The Origami King is available on Nintendo Switch.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
