{"id":41945,"date":"2018-01-02T12:14:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T20:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=41945"},"modified":"2018-01-02T15:57:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T23:57:39","slug":"five-anticipated-digital-games-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/five-anticipated-digital-games-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"The five most anticipated digital games of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s been an interesting year for digital games.<\/p>\n

PlayerUnknown\u2019s Battlegrounds<\/a>\u00a0became the most played PC game on the digital distribution platform Steam, with its battle-royale, scavenge and survive 100 player gameplay shaking up the first-person shooter genre.<\/p>\n

Nintendo\u2019s new console,\u00a0the Switch<\/a>, blew us away with the latest games in the\u00a0Zelda<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mario<\/a>\u00a0franchises.<\/p>\n

And the cathartic nazi-Killing of\u00a0Wolfenstein II<\/em>\u00a0was\u00a0particularly timely<\/a>, given the recent resurgence of white supremacy in the political sphere.<\/p>\n

Gaming also proved\u00a0hugely popular<\/a>\u00a0with Amazon Australia customers in the first week after its launch on December 5, accounting for six of the the top 10 purchases.<\/p>\n

So what are the biggest releases of 2018 shaping up to be?<\/p>\n

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Off the back of the\u00a0phenomenal success of Pokemon Go<\/a>,\u00a0Harry Potter: Wizards Unite<\/a>\u00a0seeks to combine location-based play, augmented reality and our pining nostalgia for the\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>\u00a0universe into another global game.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely to recreate the same viral, flavour-of-the-week success as\u00a0Pokemon Go<\/em>, with players eager to see what changes in gameplay augmented reality platform Niantic has introduced in its bid to convert fleeting players into lifelong fans.<\/p>\n

Despite the calamitous reactions to its\u00a0plummeting player numbers<\/a>,\u00a0Pokemon Go<\/em>\u00a0is estimated to still be making between\u00a0AUD$1.9 – $3.2 million dollars per day<\/a>\u00a0from micro-transactions.<\/p>\n

Red Dead Redemption 2<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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The prequel to 2010\u2019s\u00a0Red Dead Redemption<\/em>\u00a0will almost certainly be one of the largest games of 2018, with a marketing budget likely to rival a Marvel Movie.<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0RDR<\/em>\u00a0combined the cinematic experience of the Western movie genre with a rich, immersive and dynamic environment, and was celebrated as having one of the\u00a0best single player campaign stories of all time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Red Dead Redemption 2\u2019s stunning trailer<\/a>\u00a0hints at how the game has stayed close to the rich world of the 2010 title, so players should expect something reassuringly familiar.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t pre-order it yet though, as maker Rockstar Games has been widely criticised for the focus on micro-transactions in its Grand Theft Auto series, and a\u00a0transition to a \u201cgames as a service\u201d business model<\/a>. It\u2019s possible that the focus of RDR2 will be the same kind of aggressively profitable online multiplayer model, and not the immersive story and world building that RDR is celebrated for.<\/p>\n

Far Cry 5<\/strong><\/h4>\n