Time to sit down for another YvoCaro Plays. As always, these blurbs are mostly about the video games I’m currently playing. Unedited thoughts that spring up in my mind, mostly game related. And sometimes a random train of thoughts starting with the game and ending somewhere completely different. If you like these bits of gaming thoughts you can find the previous ones here
Is Niantic prepared this time?
Today, the very much anticipated Wizards Unite started its march towards mobile devices. If it’s a new title to you: Wizards Unite is the successor to Pokémon Go, but this time it’s all about the world of Harry Potter. Again, made by Niantic, this time together with Warner Brothers Games. ( you can read about Wizards Unite here)
I’ve downloaded it this morning but I haven’t been able to do much with it today. Loading is slow, and when my little wizard is seen on the streetmap, there’s nothing else out there. No fun magical creatures, no hidden artifacts. In my case this isn’t surprising though. I live in the Netherlands and at the time of writing the game isn’t in Dutch mobile stores yet. Niantic has chosen to do a step by step rollout, wise if they want to be able to keep their servers from buckling under the pressure.
In the case of Pokémon Go they had to space out the release in various countries to iron out the problems they experienced. Frequent crashes and authentication errors plagued the game’s release and persisted for several days. But what can you expect when a game is downloaded more than 10 million times within a week of release. And to think the game was only available in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States in that week!
Will the game be as popular as Pokémon Go?
You’d think that fans of Pokémon Go are willing to give this new Augmented Reality game a try. Added to that group, Harry Potter fans will be eager to give it a go. What do you think, will it be as big a success as PK Go? Sensor Tower kept tabs on the first 24 hours of the game being in the American and UK mobile stores.
Preliminary estimates based on Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data place its installs at 400,000 and counting, with gross player spending of at least $300,000 across the App Store and Google Play.
In comparison: Pokemon Go was downloaded some 7,5 million times on the first day when it launched in the US alone and generated $2 million in revenue! Maybe it’s because it launched a day early. Or maybe the fan base of Harry Potter isn’t as much into playing games. After all, Pokémon is a game franchise, while Harry Potter is about the books and movies. But, time will tell.
Two strong stories in a row
This week I published my review for Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons. An adventure puzzler that not only kept me entertained with nice problems to solve to advance. The beautiful surroundings and above all else, the storyline kept me spellbound throughout. I even finished the game…which is something that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. A good sign!
The game I am currently making a review for is totally different. Submerged is about two children who find themselves in dire straits in a post apocalyptic world. The game is all about exploration. Very different surroundings from the Brothers game. But again, beautiful in its own horrific way. Here too, the storyline kept me very interested and able to finish the game. I’m going to put up my review this week, but rest assured it’s going to be a good one.
