“Would you kindly head to Ryan’s office and kill the son of a bitch?”
IN THE NEWS
You see that right there? That cost someone $41,977. Kotaku’s Chris Kohler confirmed with the seller that “A sealed copy of the rare Nintendo Entertainment System game” was purchased in a private deal after attempts to sell the game on eBay failed. “Of all of the games that Nintendo officially licensed for its 8-bit NES, Stadium Events is by far the rarest, because it was only on shelves for a brief window of time before it was pulled and replaced with World Class Track Meet.”
*Insert impressed whistling noise here* Razer is making some serious moves. The company “is targeting an initial public offering (“IPO”) that could see the company valued as high as $5 billion,” Esports Insider’s Oliver Ring reports. “The share sale is proposed for around October time and will provide finance for continued development of new hardware. The valuation the company is looking for is said to be between $3-5 billion.”
Barclays Center has big plans for hosting more esports events in the 18,103-person capacity stadium. It’s already home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and NHL’s New York Islanders. In an exclusive interview with Dot Esports’ Nicole Carpenter, senior vice president Keith Sheldon said they’re “hungry for more” after hosting ESL One New York 2016. Here’s a snippet of the interview:
“We’re sort of taking industry best practices in the sports and music space and applying them to esports, and using our own resources to elevate that product … Many sponsors don’t know how to make in-roads into the esports space and some of the esports leagues and teams haven’t necessarily made connections outside of their traditional lanes yet. We’re trying to help those two meet in the middle.”
TheDW extends a warm welcome to VfB Stuttgart, the latest sports club to jump into esports. Competitive FIFA players Erhan “Dr. Erhano” Kayman and Marcel “Marlut” Lutz have been signed to play in Xbox and PlayStation competitions, Dot Esports’ Thiemo Brautigam reports.
OoOOOOooO looky looky what we have here. Pokemon GO’s latest update focused on streamlining gyms with things like remotely feeding defending Pokemon berries — and introducing Legendary Pokemon. Don’t believe me?
“We’ve got various new indicators inside the app that will be used to govern how Legendary Pokémon operate,” Forbes’ Dave Thier reports. “First, there’s a basic identifier, saying whether or not a Pokémon is Legendary or Mythic. There’s also a warning message about transferring a Legendary, an error message that prevents you from deploying a Legendary to a Gym (interesting on its own, that one), an identifier to say whether or not a raid is Legendary and a few new assets related to those Legendary Raids.”
Forza Motorsport 7 has its first cars. Turn10 Studios revealed 167 of the game’s over 700 cars. Engadget’s Autoblog has the full list. “The most numerous automaker on the list is Ferrari, with 46 cars … It’s followed by Porsche, with 29 models.”
Destiny 2 has a confirmed mod system for armor and weapons. The beta revealed as much, PC Gamer’s James Davenport writes. “We now have confirmation that weapon and armor items will be getting mods for both stats and shaders.”
Hoping to get the most bang for your buck with the beta? GamesRadar’s Iain Wilson has got you covered with 11 tips to make every minute count.
And what about Warlock Voidwalker fans? GameSpot’s Matt Espineli has the breakdown of all the new changes.
Xbox Live Creators Collection is in need of testers! “The Collection is a section in the store that features titles made using the Creators Program, which was announced at GDC 2017 and Microsoft says lets developers ‘rapidly’ publish their digital games,” Eddie Makuch at GameSpot reports.
We’ve finally got more clarity about what happened to custom gaming table maker Geek Chic. Polygon’s Charlie Hall explains the company was drowning in debt and didn’t even have $300 to its name when it went under. Chapter 7 documents show “Total liabilities come to more than $7.5 million. Total assets, including unfinished furniture, tools, equipment and a stockpile of unsold board games from a recent merger with Crash Games, were listed at $1.4 million … It’s unclear how customers with outstanding issues can contact them for a potential resolution.”
River City Ransom: Underground mysteriously disappeared off the Steam store, and we now know it’s because of a copyright dispute. Composer Alex Mauer claims her music is used without her permission. Developer Conatus Creative denies her claim.
“She also claims she was ‘cut out of the deal’ and is therefore due payment, and has even filed DMCA complaints against YouTube and Twitch users that showcase footage featuring her music,” Games Industry’s James Batchelor reports. “Conatus founder Daniel Crenna dismisses Mauer’s allegations as false. The studio has even resorted to commisioning a new soundtrack to avoid ‘any negative associations with Alex Mauer’s wrongful claim.'”
Have a question about Ark: Survival Evolved? GameSpot is interviewing art director Jesse Rapczak and wants fans to send in questions they may end up asking him. You have until July 21 to send a question in.
Telltale Games announced Batman is getting a second season, The Walking Dead is preparing for its final season and The Wolf Among Us is also getting a second season. The latter two games’ seasons will come in 2018, Pocket Gamer’s Emily Sowden reports.
Nintendo Switch voice chat is not getting rave reviews, and Switch owners are fairly irked. “The explanation alone of how its voice chat functionality works has already ticked off Switch owners,” Polygon’s Allegra Frank writes. “The app is the only way to voice chat with friends while playing Switch games … Voice chat is only active as long as the app is open. The smartphone in use also has to be unlocked and its screen on in order for voice chat to work. If you accidentally shut your phone’s screen off? Your conversation is over. Want to glance at a walkthrough really quickly? If you do, that means no more voice chat.”
LEAGUE LAND
Champion update team lead producer Ryan “Reav3” Mireles is out with Riot’s latest Champion Roadmap for July. He expanded a little more on Vanguards, and said to “expect to see a unique new passive that helps them build more than just character.” Mireles broke down changes for Evelynn’s visual and gameplay update, said that Swain will be next in line behind her, and talked through changes for Aatrox, Xin Zhao and Azir.
Reddit AMAS: Team EnVyUS CEO Mike “Hastr0” Rufail and Paris Saint-Germain jungler Thomas “Kirei” Yuen.
Interviews: Unicorns of Love jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir, Team SoloMid top Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell and AD Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Cloud9 mid Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen.
The 2017 EU and NA LCS Summer Splits are ongoing.
Return of the Legends starts Aug. 4.
Champion and skin sale July 18-21: Bird of Prey Anivia, Mafia Graves, Dark Crystal Ryze and Arctic Ops Varus. Vi, Rengar, Urgot and Rumble.
Weekly free champions: Braum, Caitlyn, Karma, Lux, Nocturne, Ryze, Swain, Tryndamere, Udyr and Vayne.
OVER/UNDER WATCH
Masquerade! Paper faces on parade, mas-BLAM! Overwatch has a new comic out focusing on Doomfist’s escape from prison and his reunion with Reaper, Widowmaker and Sombra. There’s enough gambling, death, and fancy costumes to be a proper Bond movie. Check it out here.
Breathe a sigh of relief, Jeff Kaplan confirmed Ana’s sleep dart spam in Total Mayhem is getting fixed.
Interviews: South Korea’s Overwatch World Cup team.
Overwatch Chicago Season 3 League will be Aug. 10-Aug. 31. The entry fee is $25.
The TESPA Summer Series is ongoing through Aug. 20.
The Collegiate Star League is ongoing through Aug. 26.
Overwatch World Cup tickets are on sale for Australia (7/21-7/23) and Poland (8/4-8/6), but not America (8/11-8/13).
The Sydney Group Stage starts tomorrow.
OGN Overwatch APEX Challengers Season 3’s Grand Final will be held in Busan Haeundae Beach, South Korea, July 29, between Lunatic-Hai and Kongdoo Panthera.
DOTA-THON
Yesterday’s main client update includes an update download fix and a treasures update.
The Battle Pass is at $21.7 million for The International 2017.
TNC and Execration have their visas approved for TI7.
DreamHack Atlanta 2017 is tomorrow through July 23.
Dota 2 is hosting a short film competition. Submissions are open through July 25.
There is 1 match today.
Yesterday’s match results can be found here.
WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU CS:GO
Everyone knows CS:GO’s competitive scene has some tournament scheduling kinks to work out. Former pro Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen wrote on ESPN that Valve is the only one that can fix those scheduling problems. “Event organizers are competing for teams’ attendance as it is, and the CS:GO scene is on thin ice in its current form,” lurppis wriets. “There are too many events, and poor scheduling leading to lower viewership will only make organizers demand that the open circuit gets converted into an American sports-style exclusive league even more.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock. It has been 287 days since the 2016 World Championships, and teams are still waiting on their prize money.
PGL finally saw some good PR from Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, who tweeted out his appreciation for PGL doing some PC upgrades.
Interviews: Fnatic’s Jesper “JW” Wecksell and Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and Cloud9’s Jake “Stewie2K” Yip.
DreamHack Atlanta is tomorrow.
PGL Major Krakow 2017 goes through July 23. The Group Stage had started. Reddit has an overview thread here.
Wednesday winners in Round 4:
- Cloud9 beat mousesports 16-11.
- FlipSid3 beat PENTA Sports 16-13.
- Fnatic beat Natus Vincere 16-12.
- Astralis beat G2 Esports 16-6.
- North beat Virtus.pro 16-14.
- SK Gaming beat Immortals 16-9.
Wednesday winners in Round 5:
- Fnatic beat G2 Esports 16-10.
- Virtus.pro beat Cloud9 16-10.
- Immortals beat FlipSid3 16-6.
The main event starts tomorrow with the quarter finals and ends Sunday.
DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017 is Aug. 30-Sept. 3.
ESL One New York 2017 is Sept. 15-16.
Intel Extreme Masters World Champions is Nov. 18-19 in Oakland, Calif.
BLAST Pro Series is Nov. 24 in Copenhagen. The prize pool is $250,000.
Mapcore and FACEIT have $10,000 for the top 4 bomb defusal and hostage-rescue maps CS:GO players can create. The contest entry deadline is Oct. 31, 2017, and winners will be chosen in December.
There are 0 matches today.
Yesterday’s match results can be found here.
WINS AND FAILS
It’s important to laugh. That’s why TheDW has compiled some of the best wins and fails of the last 24 hours, delivered to you in a convenient gif package.
Did you see something better? Shoot TheDW an email at katie@thedailywalkthrough.com with the subject line GIF. If we like it, we’ll throw it in tomorrow’s walkthrough!
SECRET UNLOCKED
Nintendo Switchs are back in stock at GameStop! Certain stores will get “limited quantities” until tomorrow.
UPCOMING RELEASES AND EVENTS
RELEASES
Bethesda told us to watch for something today, and it delivered. The Evil Within 2’s “survive” gameplay trailer is live on YouTube. Here’s the description: “‘It’s all your fault…’ That’s the mantra running through Sebastian Castellanos’ mind. Plagued by memories of the daughter he couldn’t save and a mystery he could never solve, he begins to lose himself in his past mistakes. Sebastian lives out his nightmares every day, unable to pull himself from his downward spiral. Until an old friend-turned-traitor reenters his life with an offer: Return to the nightmare and save your daughter.” The game is out Oct. 13 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Doom just got one heck of an update. Update 6.66 makes ALL DLC free and weekend play free, game director Marty Stratton announced. “First, we’ve retired the DOOM season pass and are making all of the multiplayer DLC content available to all players,” Stratton says. “If you’re someone who just hasn’t tried DOOM yet, we’re giving you the ultimate opportunity to try out one of the most talked about games of 2016. Starting at 12:00 pm ET on Thursday, July 20, on Xbox One, 1pm ET on Thursday, July 20 on PC, and 12:00 pm ET on Thursday, July 27 on PlayStation 4, you can try DOOM for free.”
That only took half a decade. Albion Online has officially launched, AFKer’s Ronald Mina writes. “Developer Sandbox Interactive has announced the official launch of their sandbox MMORPG Albion Online. The launch has been staggered over a period of several days in order to better control the load on the server. According to the developers, Albion Online is the first PC game to enable the exact same experience on tablets.”
Pro Evolution Soccer 2018’s online beta starts today for PlayStation 4 and goes through the 31st.
Gigantic will be available on Steam. It’s out today.
Superhot will be out in America tomorrow for PlayStation 4.
Destiny 2’s open beta is July 21-23 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Fable Fortune has been delayed until July 25 for Xbox One and PC.
Namco Museum is out July 28 for $29.99 on the Nintendo Switch.
Secret World Legends is out July 31 on Steam.
StarCraft Remastered releases Aug. 14 for $15.
EVENTS
Today: San Diego Comic-Con International through July 23.
Swinging by San Diego Comic-Con? The Entertainment Software Association is throwing a free party Saturday, July 22, that’s looking to be a pretty good time. Nika Nour, ESA director of federal government affairs, told TheDW, “Come grab a cold one on us and meet Congressman Darrell Issa and Scott Peters this Saturday. Door open at 3pm!” It’ll be held on WeWork San Diego’s office rooftop at 600 B Street San Diego, CA 92101. You can RSVP here.
July 27: CWL Last Chance Qualifiers-NA Florida and Florida Supercon (July 27-30).
July 28: Dokidokon (July 28-30), MechaCon (July 28-30), Tampa Bay Comic Con (July 28-30) and Fandom Fest (July 28-30).
July 29: Manchester MCM Expo (July 29-30).
Rocket League Championship Series Season 4 starts in August.
Niantic is hosting Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago July 22.
Happy birthday to Phoenix1 AD No “Arrow” Dong-hyeon!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How would you meet Shigeru Miyamoto? Who knows, but this Buzzfeed-esque quiz from Kotaku has some interesting scenarios.
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Whether you hate it, love it, miss it or want it, send TheDW an email at katie@thedailywalkthrough.com.
Thanks for reading!