In The News
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Microtransaction kerfuffle:
Take-Two Interactive president Karl Slatoff gave his two cents about microtransactions, GamesIndustry.biz’s Brendain Sinclair reports. “‘The whole gambling regulator thing, we don’t view that thing as gambling,’ Slatoff said. ‘Our view is the same as the ESA statement, for the most part. So that’s going to play its course.’”
Ever spend $10,000 on in-game goodies? Redditor Kensgold has. He “posted an open letter to publisher EA and other developers in the video game industry. ‘I am 19 and addicted to gambling,’ he wrote. Kensgold wasn’t talking about roulette tables or online poker. He was talking about spending over $10,000 on in-game purchases over the last several years,” Kotaku’s Ethan Gach writes.
Bungie took to its blog to explain at length what’s going on with XP and improvements it intends to make for Destiny 2 players. PC Gamer’s Andy Chalk has all the details. Here’s a snippet: “‘Going forward, Destiny 2’s post-launch game systems, features, and updates are being designed specifically to focus on and support players who want Destiny to be their hobby – the game they return to, and a game where friendships are made…’”
If you really like Ghosts. Like, really like them, you can buy a Ghost replica that syncs with Alexa “for players that want to bark voice orders at a real-life version of the virtual assistant,” Engadget’s Saqib Shah reports. It’ll cost you $90 and ship Dec. 19.
EA said Visceral Games was shuttered purely for business reasons, and said the Star Wars game it was working on was too “linear.”
“‘We were trying to build a game that really pushed gameplay to the next level, and as we kept reviewing the game, it continued to look like a style of gaming, a much more linear game, that people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or 10 years ago,’” Gamasutra’s Chris Kerr reports CFO Blake Jorgensen as saying.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was feeling upbeat during the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “While Microsoft has not officially shared Thanksgiving weekend numbers, Nadella has categorized it positively. He boasted that the Xbox One X, which he called the ‘most technically advanced and most powerful console ever built’ is seeing ‘incredible response from fans this Holiday season,’” Game Informer’s Imran Khan writes.
Sega adjusted its “forecasted financials for the year ending March 31, 2018,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports. Net sales were adjusted down, but “Sega’s game division appears to be performing reasonably well despite this stark decline. Net sales for games were only adjusted by $44.5 million, down to $1.9 billion.”
Twenty-six AR/VR startups are getting HTC’s support through its Vive X accelerator, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports. “The new batch of startups brings the total number of investments to 80 since July 2016.”
Women in gaming spoke with AListDaily’s Steven Wong about what’s good and what needs improving with the rapidly growing industry. Here’s a snippet: “While Rogers is glad that there are now twice the number of women in the industry than when she entered it in 2003, Fan observed that people tend to hire people that they’re comfortable with, which oftentimes means people like them.”
Star Wars: Battlefront II has a hidden character customization screen, Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett writes. Uninspired_zebra discovered it, and “Only Clone Troopers were available to browse through.”
Magic: The Gathering’s community is in turmoil over harassment and counter-harassment claims by two prominent members. Cosplayer Christine Sprankle accused YouTuber Jeremy Hambly of harassment and said she’s “‘deactivating and making my profiles private in an effort to let it die down so I can recover,’” according to Polygon’s Julia Alexander.
Hambly posted a video about Sprankle previously, but denies further meanness directed at her. He alleged that Sprankle’s accusations toward him have resulted in him being “‘doxxed, received countless threats of violence, hundreds of hateful messages, I’ve been review bombed, called sexist, and much worse.’”
Wizards of the Coast released a statement in response to Sprankle, saying, “We’re saddened by what happened in the Magic community this weekend. Cyber bullying and harassment are unacceptable, and we support those who come forward with their experiences. No one should be made to feel unsafe or unwelcome. We’re working to be a part of the solution.” Other prominent members of the community are weighing-in and posting their own video responses to accusations.
Call of Duty World League updated its rules. “The most notable change in the official CWL ruleset V1 is that Gridiron has been removed from the competitive rotation, as Capture the Flag becomes the third game mode for CWL action,” Dot Esports’ Justin Binkowski reports.
Ricki Ortiz is stepping in for Du “NuckleDu” Dang at Capcom Cup 2017.