In The News
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Starting today, there’s a 24-hour stream benefitting the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Twitch and ESPN personalities will stream and “share how cancer has affected them.”
Loot box/microtransaction kerfuffle (now including Bungie):
The Change.org petition calling for Lucasfilm to revoke EA’s license to Star Wars has reached 40,665 signatures as of the time of this writing. That’s up an additional 20,000 from 24 hours ago.
VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb reports the National Committee for Games Policy (NCGP) has been formed “to influence government regulation of the industry. This is a direct response to what the NCGP calls the loot box gambling crisis.”
Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips writes that Bungie is now under fire for discoveries, changes (and unannounced) changes it made to Destiny 2. “Destiny 2 players discovered the game frequently constrained progress towards your next free loot box-style Bright Engram … Bungie issued a statement to say it was unhappy with the hidden system it had coded, and it would, for now, switch if off.”
Players later found that while Bungie had turned off the offending system that stunted XP gains, it doubled the amount of XP players now needed “to level up.”
Bungie tweeted this in response: “The Destiny 2 API has yet to be adjusted to reflect the recent in game change to earned XP. We are working on an API update to address the discrepancy. The correct value to earn an additional level is 160,000 XP.” Director Luke Smith also said he and project lead Mark Noseworthy will answer community questions.
This is Call of Doo Dee, the dog waste removal service Activision Blizzard is mildly perturbed at. It’s trying trademark its name, but “Activision Blizzard has filed for an extension to oppose it, and it’s been granted,” Dot Esports’ Nicole Carpenter reports.
Sony did very well on Black Friday in terms of hardware sales, CNBC reports in a video interview with PlayStation Network senior vice president Eric Lempel.
PlayStation Worldwide Studios SVP Michael Denny admitted to GamesIndustry.biz’s James Brightman that “sometimes we announced games too early” and spoke more about Ghost of Tsushima.
The New York Yankees are “the latest traditional sports organization to enter into esports by investing in Vision Esports,” AListDaily’s John Gaudiosi reports. “Stratton Sclavos, general partner at Vision Venture Partners, told AListDaily that the Yankees bring great credibility to the esports world in general and Vision Esports in particular, thanks to the team’s global brand recognition.”
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news:
KSV PUBG player Kim “EscA” In-jae did an interview with ESPN’s Young Jae Jeon.
Kotaku’s Nathan Grayson reports that “Players selling PUBG cheats and hacks have popped up in the game itself in recent months, demonstrating their products … Cheat sellers aren’t just giving roadside demonstrations of their godlike powers, either.”
Engadget’s Richard Lai writes that PUBG will get a mobile “port” in China. Tencent said “it’s also porting the PC game to mobile platforms … Tencent said together with PUBG Corp, they will ensure that this authentic mobile port of PUBG will remain faithful to its PC counterpart in terms of gameplay method, core elements and compliance with local content regulations.”
Marvel Heroes Omega is officially dead.
Square Enix is “already internally discussing and exploring what we want do with the next instalment of” Deux Ex, CEO Yosuke Matsuda told GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor. Matsuda also touched upon Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy.
Jagex has hired John Burns and Cassia Curran and appointed Neil McClarty “ahead of RuneScape’s launch onto mobile,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp hit 15 million downloads in 6 days.
Demon’s Souls announced it will shut off “its array of online services at the start of 2018, just over 9 years after the game first released for the PlayStation 3,” Gamasutra’s Alissa McAloon writes.
Three new cards were revealed for Hearthstone’s upcoming Kobolds and Catacombs expansion.
Congratulations to EUnited on defeating Team Kaliber to win the NA Call of Duty World League 2,000 series tournament.