In The News
Congratulations to Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo on winning the Hearthstone Summer Championship after defeating Jon “Orange” Westberg.
Out with the old, in with the new. The Entertainment Software Association updated the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) logo, Polygon’s Michael McWhertor reports.
CD Projekt Red is on the defensive after negative employment reviews surfaced on Glassdoor.
Here’s an example of one such review called “I don’t know how we pulled off Witcher 3“: “Advice to Management: Get off your high horse, currently you’re making Witcher 3 look like a game done despite you, not thanks to you. Respect other opinions, rise salaries, do some actual thinking when planning work.”
CD responded with a tweet yesterday morning, saying in part, “You might have recently stumbled on information regarding morale here at the studio. We’d normally avoid commenting on company reviews on spaces like Glassdoor, but this time around — especially in light of the fact that we haven’t communicated anything about Cyberpunk 2077 for a long time and saw some gamers getting worried about the project — we’d like to elaborate on a few things.”
Nintendo Switch games made by developer Unties are supported by parent company Sony. GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor writes that “Unties is the new games publishing business operated by Sony Music Entertainment, and will focus on find unique and innovative titles … The first title signed is 3D turn-based strategy title Tiny Metal, which will launch for PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC on November 21st.”
Monetizing virtual reality proves to be a tricky endeavor, and Oculus vice president of content Jason Rubin discussed how his company intends to make it work with AListDaily’s Steven Wong. Here’s a snippet: “‘There isn’t much free-to-play going on in the store—it’s either full-priced or someone is giving it away for free because they don’t know how to price it,’ said Rubin. ‘When it comes to free-to-play, you have a top-of-funnel question—how many people could possibly come into this title?’”
Ah, lawsuits. Blizzard China “and its regional partner Netease have filed a lawsuit against Heroes of Warfare developer 4399” for its similarities to Overwatch, Gamasutra’s Alissa McAloon writes. “Blizzard China says that the game is in violation of both intellectual property law and China’s unfair competition law.”
Us common folk now have access to the redesigned Xbox dashboard. Engadget’s Nick Summers reports that “The first ‘Fluid Design’ interface comes with a redesigned Home page, which is all about simplicity and customisation … In addition, Microsoft has overhauled the Community tab with a modern, grid-based layout.”
Cloud9 signed Mehmood “Moody” Askar, Robert “Frolicer” Halbert and Joseph “Frexs” Sanchez to its PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds team.
Finally! Pocket Gamer’s Emily Sowden reports that the Nintendo Switch finally has a “Sales” section in the store.