“Nier: Automata” is right at the top of Steam’s chart. Image: Square Enix/YouTube via AFP Relaxnews
“NieR: Automata” lands on PC shortly after its PlayStation 4 counterpart. Highly anticipated sci-fi adventure “Mass Effect: Andromeda” launches. There’s a wave of buzz for “PC Building Simulator”. Finally, there’s sustained sales for the team-based “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands”. All these are now available on retailer download charts, since Monday, March 20.
The sequel to a 2010 Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game, “NieR: Automata” has continued its predecessor’s blend of kinetic action, polished presentation, and purposely convoluted storyline—a narrative that only begins to reveal its true nature on successive playthroughs.
It also marks the first time that well-respected developer Platinum Games has handled an open-world style project, “Nier: Automata” being its studio introduction to the franchise.
Highly anticipated “Mass Effect: Andromeda” extends a series that began in 2007 with Xbox 360 and Windows PC title “Mass Effect”, this being the fourth main entry to the franchise.
Though its launch has been rocky following a number of well-circulated graphical oddities over the weekend, it nevertheless lands in top spot on the chart of bricks and mortar retailer GameStop.
“PC Building Simulator” enjoyed a round of popularity after the first playable build was released last week. It lets players put together a gaming computer, assembling it part by part.
And “Ghost Recon Wildlands”, debuting March 7 after February’s week-long public test, maintains its popularity and may well do for some time to come, if 2016’s “Tom Clancy’s The Division” and 2015’s “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” are any indication.
Outside the top fives, “Oxygen Not Included”, a sci-fi survival simulation from Vancouver’s Klei Entertainment (of “Don’t Starve” fame) hovers at sixth on the Steam chart. Still in development, its profile is likely to rise over the following weeks and months.
Steam* (steampowered.com)
1. NieR: Automata
2. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
3. H1Z1: King of the Kill
4. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
5. Total War: Warhammer
*Steam chart based on revenue rather than units.
GameStop US (gamestop.com)
1. Mass Effect: Andromeda
2. Overwatch
3. Roblox $10 card
4. The Sims 4
5. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
GamersGate EU (gamersgate.com)
1. Conan Exiles
2. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
3. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Year 2 Pass
4. Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package
5. Sniper Elite 4
GOG (gog.com)
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year edition
2. Full Throttle Remastered
3. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (+ Turok 1)
4. Firewatch
5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Expansion Pass
Humble Store (humblebundle.com/store)
1. Alien Isolation: The Collection
2. NieR: Automata Day One Edition
3. Papers, Please
4. American Truck Simulator
5. Megadimension Neptunia VII Complete
Itchio (itch.io)
1. PC Building Simulator
2. FPV Freerider
3. My Little Blacksmith Shop
4. Night in the Woods
5. Raft
JB
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