iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Anyways, video games and the people who make them are incredible, and I wish the money people got that the way they should. Ah well.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The 9 games that shaped me. All of these had big impacts on my life and my interests.

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Dan Osborn @osbornforne.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is the most honest Pete Ricketts ad we’ve seen.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Saying this out loud should auto ban AI forever. Jesus fuck this is deranged.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Halo needs to be #1 again and I support any method reaching that.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Nuking Halo Studios is one part weird but also one part over due. I don't think there's any trust in that team to ever make a good Halo 7 so moving development to another team makes sense. Activision taking over might be the blessing we need. They are a well oiled machine.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Yeah, the Pro hasn't been sold out. Perhaps some retailers had some spotty inventory, but it's been selling fairly consistently all summer. No idea what the articles you're referring to are about.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Happy 25th to the Nintendo GameCube! Here are top 20 best-selling GameCube games in the US, ranked by unit sales. Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! lead the list. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Looking at US hardware average selling prices for my Monday morning quick look and, uh, erm,

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Ocarina of Time is at +100K preorders at Amazon already

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Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

XBOX and KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS Expand Partnership to Publish PHYSINT news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0...

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Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

PlayStation is stepping away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Pretty much. Sure, I expect a modest bump to hardware from GTA, similar perhaps to the impact GTA V had on PS3/360 at launch. It was noticeable but not earth shattering.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Chris cites UK Nielsen IQ in his headline. In the US, combined PS5/XBS hardware unit sales for the week ending Aug 29 increased 14% versus the prior week. PS5 grew 17%, XBS 9%. The combined increase across both platforms amounted to less than 8k units. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

@matpiscatella.bsky.social UK saw consoles increase +30% the week of GTA's gameplay reveal, do you have how consoles performed that week in the US?

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Valve are very lucky Half Life 3, Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3, and Team Fortress 3 all didn't leak tonight.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I spent a ton of hours in my office at Activision playing the OnLive version of Homefront in like 2011, likely caught Covid in early 2020 while playing Gylt on Stadia in a Santa Clara hotel bar, own a Luna controller, and have tried out every streaming service before and since and yes. Highly agree.

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woke stifler @yelix.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

i was in the beta for OnLive and i covered the launch of Stadia. i’ve followed game streaming for longer than most people have been aware it exists, and i’ve never been more certain that it is never going to be a viable way to enjoy video games in the long term

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

When the normal people I know hear about GTA 6 and start looking for a console to buy

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Giant Bomb @giantbomb.com · 20/08/2026

We've got Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) on GMM today to chat about the July 2026 Circana report, new Sony patents, Duskbloods impressions, and more! giantbomb.com/live/chat twitch.tv/giantbomb youtube.com/live/oC07fR3...

giantbomb.com

🔴 LIVE: Game Mess Mornings

The main one

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Microsoft is no longer a digital panel participating publisher.

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Kotaku @kotaku.com · 20/08/2026

Only a little over 4 percent of all new physical games sold in the U.S. this year have been on Xbox kotaku.com/nobodys-buying-new-physi…

kotaku.com

Nobody's Buying New Physical Games On Xbox In The U.S. - Kotaku

Nintendo runs away with it

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

US Video Game Market Results from Circana (with mobile insights provided by Sensor Tower) public release dates: 2026 Tracking Month - Release Date July - Aug 20 August - Oct 8 September - Oct 22 October - Nov 19 November - Dec 17 December - Jan 21, 2027

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

From Circana's Q2 Future of Video Games Consumer Survey: 26% of US console players indicate they buy mostly physical games (when available) with 39% buying a balanced mix between physical and digital. Were digital games priced $10 below their physical counterparts, 59% would buy more digital.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Alright. Well, Forza Horizon 6 peaked at 23% of Xbox actives playing during week ending May 30th. It ranked first overall that week, ahead of Fortnite.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Yes, retail presence is helpful. But this idea that if video games aren't on a shelf no one will think about playing them is... a reach. From July 2025 through June 2026 a total of 17,667 physical PC video games were sold in the US (including code in box and disc based). But PC gaming is thriving.

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Daniel Ahmad @zhugeex.com · 07/08/2026

Which is ultimately why I've been saying the main the issue that needs to be addressed is digital game ownership rights. That's been the larger issue for the past 10 years.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

@matpiscatella.bsky.social If GTA V is the #1 title in the US for the past 10 years and Red Dead Redemption 2 is #3 for the past 8 years, what game is #2?

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Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, on today's earnings call, when asked about Sony's decision to end physical disc sales: "Our business is well over 90% digitally distributed. It's already a digital business."

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Take Two / IDG report there are ~129M Gen 9 Consoles (PS5 + XBS) worldwide as of March 2026. They reported ~127M end of 2025, so it's confirmed IDG does not count Switch 2 in these numbers, it alone sold ~3M that quarter. ir.take2games.com/static-files...

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Quick pixel count of this picture gives me Switch 2 selling selling through ~3.4M last quarter. Sell through LTD should be ~21.6M. Total shipments are 23.68M

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

emoji deep state BSOD friend with benefits auto-tune Fursona is also in there lmao

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

PlayStation results in USD segmented as if they were using Xbox reporting (uses less columns) USD rate last year was 144.6 USD rate this year is 159.3 PS5 shipped 1.6M, LTD now 95.2M 66.1M software shipped, Digital = 82% Physical shipments +600K, Digital sales -400K YOY

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

XBOX revenue has been in decline for 4 straight quarters. Only Content & Services saw growth for a single quarter in FY26 and it was 1% The last time Xbox had 4 declines in a row was April 2019 - March 2020

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

XBOX FY26 Q4 results (~ is my estimate) Total Revenue: $4,983,000,000 Content & Services: ~$4,749,000,000 (-10%) Hardware: ~$234,000,000 (-13%) Shipments: ~450K (-23%)

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

You'd think I'd learn to just not post about this stuff but I'm a glutton, apparently. Yes. But I would suggest a quiet quitting. Since Helix is a PC they could say it supports physical via an add-on drive. But PS physical SW outsells XBX in the US by a multiple now far higher than the IB gap.

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

XBOX is really how Microsoft will report gaming revenue now

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John Welfare @johnbp.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I bet if Xbox does release a player count for Halo Campaign Evolved launch week it'll be +4M.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The average console player engaged with Halo: Campaign Evolved for over 2 hours on tthe 28th, with the average Steam player spending a little over 1 hour in the game.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

According to Circana's Player Engagement Tracker, on July 28th Halo: Campaign Evolved ranked 4th in US DAU on Xbox platforms (8% of total Xbox players on that date launched the game), while placing 14th on Steam (2% of actives) and 29th on PlayStation (1% of actives).

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

3 - It also hides more than it shows. It's a one post anecdote on a short form social media platform. Anyways, I can't disclose title specific unit totals, but none of the 7 that did exceed 100k physical units in the US during the 1H reached 275k. But sure, both demand and supply play roles here.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

2 - The timing of the measurement matters too. Sure. I can't disclose just PlayStation here, so I hope the total market look for the 12-month period ending June also going back to 2003 will suffice.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

1 - It has no comparison point. Here are the number of physical PlayStation games that sold at least 100k units in the US during the year's calendar first half going back to 2003.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Seriously. Going back to NPD, this company has been tracking and reporting physical for over 30 years. Lots of people I know that did physical planning, ops and sales at pubs are already gone and those that remain think their gigs have an expiration date. It's terrible. But yeah, all my fault idk.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Seeing this old stat being thrown around. Wanted to update. As of June 2026, digital editions comprise 27% of total LTD US unit sales of PS5 hardware. For Xbox Series, 52% of total LTD US unit sales are digital only editions. It's 0% for Switch 2. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

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Tom Warren @tomwarren.co.uk · 22/07/2026

🚨BIG Xbox news. Microsoft is launching Xbox backward compatibility for PC today. The initial preview will include 4 original Xbox games on PC, with plans to bring more Xbox console games to PC over time. Full details 👇 www.theverge.com/news/969117/...

theverge.com

Microsoft is bringing original Xbox games to PC

Xbox backward compatibility for PC allows original Xbox console games to officially run on Windows.

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Mat Piscatella @matpiscatella.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

June NS2 units -78% vs YA, PS5 -43%, XBS +86%, NSW -62%.

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Christopher Dring @dringo.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

1,000 sales would have got you No.9 in the UK physical charts last week.

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