Plus Cult of the Lamb is one Australia's most successful games ever according to new stats released by Devolver.
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Cat Jahne is Social Producer, Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
KYLE: Hi I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: and I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
FIONA: This week an Australian game tops Devolver’s top earners, Oblivion remake is real and here, and Control spinoff FBC: Firebreak gets a release date.
Here is the news for Sunday 27th of April. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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FIONA: At a recent investor presentation, the publishing team Devolver Digital have shown their biggest franchises by revenue and one Aussie game tops the list.
Cult of the Lamb developed by Melbourne based Massive Monster was at the top with a total lifetime revenue of more than US$90 million which is approximately AU$140 million.
That’s massive, pardon the pun, and we normally don’t get the chance to see these sort of numbers at all. It would be easy to say that it’s one of the most successful Australian made games ever.
Devolver Digital’s first party title Astroneer was second with more than $80 million. Followed by Stronghold and Serious Sam.
KYLE: The list is interesting because it shows how many titles have been released for each franchise as well as how many are in the pipeline.
The total revenue for the top 10 games is more than $430 million.
In the meeting the publisher said they were going to focus on releasing more paid DLC, especially after the success of Cult of the Lamb’s DLC, they’re also going to focus on smaller development budgets with high success potential, working with Nintendo on Switch 2 games and more.
It’s an interesting read so we’ll leave a link in the shownotes.
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KYLE: Last week we said that there were some pics of the Oblivion Remaster and that it made the remaster feel a bit more legit, but guess what, it’s actually here.
On Tuesday Bethesda in a livestream announced the remaster of the 2006 game, developed by Virtuous, and then released pretty much straight away.
The remaster uses Unreal Engine 5 and it looks great, while it’s not entirely Unreal, there are elements of the original engine buried underneath that makes the game feel close to the original.
FIONA: Some of the UI and levelling system has been updated to bring it closer to modern RPG and some of the enemy combat animations, sound and visual effects are more realistic too.
And of course they added a sprint button, I can’t believe the game didn’t have sprint..how far we’ve come. But look, Zelda only really got a jump button in Breath of the Wild so I can’t really comment.
It’s available for about $85 AUD and you can get it on PS5, PC, Steam and Xbox Series X.
I think the biggest question on everyone’s mind is, can we mod it?
Yes you can. Those crafty modders over at Nexus Mods have already made a couple hundred mods and that’s without any official support or frameworks.
Gianni has been having a great time playing the game since its release so keep an eye out on our website for his review.
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FIONA: Remedy announced this week that their upcoming shooter, FBC: Firebreak will be set in the Remedy Extended Universe and will launch on June 17.
The release date was revealed through a livestream which showed off gameplay of the ‘Paper Chase’ and ‘Hot Fix’ missions.
The game will be set six years after 2019’s Control and you’ll play as first-responders trapped in the impossible dimensions of the Oldest House, fighting off possessed former employees of the Federal Bureau of Control.
KYLE: The game will be a co-op shooter designed for pick-up-and-play, so Remedy says it’ll allow players both familiar and unfamiliar with the games to be able to hop in and out easily.
It is a 3-person co-op game so you can either play with friends or a pair of AI-controlled companions.
There will be a bunch of in-game rewards such as new gear, cosmetics, weapons and more which will be unlockable using in-game currency that you earn through missions.
It’s out on PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox Series X and S on June 17.
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KYLE: For those in the US who were hoping to buy Anbernic’s Game Boy clone, well, you’ll have to wait a while longer as the company suspends all shipments to the US.
Their massive range of handheld emulation consoles are great, but thanks to the new tariff policies, Anbernic announced they were suspending all order shipping from China to the US.
They’re currently recommending people to prioritise products shipped from their US warehouse, which are currently not affected by import duties.
FIONA: These aren’t new warehouses though. As the products come out the company starts to stockpile additional units so the shipping is faster. When you buy from their storefront there’s actually an option where people can pick which warehouse they prefer the product to come from.
However it’s only a matter of time before those stockpiles run out but you can still buy them via third-party sellers like Amazon.
Another company RetroTINK has also suspended shipments not just because of the tariffs but due to ‘a lack of guidance about how the tariffs will be collected’.
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FIONA: That’s it for the headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
KYLE: Out on the 28th is Badlands Crew, a vehicle combat strategy game set in a Mad Max style post apocalyptic world. Build your own war rig and see how long you can survive in the wasteland when Badlands Crew comes to PC this Monday.
FIONA: Another big Xbox franchise makes the leap to PlayStation with Forza Horizon 5, racing onto Sony’s console. One of the best arcade racers of the last couple of years it’s cool to see these walls coming down. That’s out on Tuesday 29th.
KYLE: Next up we have Moto GP 25, the latest installment in the motorbike racing sim that honestly looks phenomenal, and I’m not a motoGP guy at all. I swear it’s just getting harder and harder to differentiate between these current gen racing sims and real life. That’s coming to all platforms on the 30th.
FIONA: Out on the 1st is a brand new IP, Conquest Dark. It’s a top down action RPG, but also a roguelike and also a survivors-like. It’s got it all! Level up and battle hordes of savage enemies this Thursday exclusive to PC.
KYLE: And also out Thursday is the long awaited Skin Deep, the latest Annapurna release by developer Blendo Games. This super stylish sci-fi stealth shooter is coming to PC on the 1st of May.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus.
KYLE: And my name is Kyle Pauletto, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: If you love Walkthrough, why not share one of your favourite episodes on your socials? It’s a free thing you can do to support the show. We’re trying to get the word out and your help would make a big difference! Don’t forget to tag @sifterhq so we can give you a shoutout.
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith, Chris Button and Cat Jahne. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Gianni Di Giovanni who is SIFTER’s Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s script editor.
FIONA: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
KYLE: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.
