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‘Anthem’ Tops NPD Group Charts For February
Despite the rough launch, EA’s Anthem (which we reviewed here) managed to top the list of units sold in the United States for February.
According to the group, which tracks trends in a variety of areas, Anthem debuted as the top-seller of the month, and has now become the second highest-selling game of 2019 (behind Kingdom Hearts III).
As for other genre fare, Ubisoft’s Far Cry New Dawn came in fourth for sales, Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake took the sixth spot, and Metro Exodus landed in eighth position for February. And in spite of its pre-launch controversies, launch months sales for Metro Exodus exceeded that of its predecessor, Metro Last Light, by almost fifty percent.
Anthem‘s first major update, “Echoes of Reality”, is expected later this month.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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