In The News
Weekend in review:
“Rick and Morty” creator Justin Roiland did an interview with Glixel’s Jess Joho about his (seemingly unbridled) passion for creating and what it has been like to channel the Internet so perfectly into a TV show. Here’s a portion:
“‘I chose to start making cartoons because I didn’t have to leave my house to make a cartoon,’ Roiland says, voicing the inner monologue of every indoor kid raised on the internet. ‘Everything could be done in my apartment: I could draw the characters and backgrounds, record dialogue in this little nook, have people come by to record, then they’d leave, and I’d edit. It was amazing. And video games are the same thing. You can kind of toil away in your little cave and make something insane that the world will get to see. But you still get to stay in your bubble … I’m definitely in that bubble right now.’”
Skull and Bones will indeed have a narrative side, Ubisoft told GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch, but didn’t elaborate on what that means. “Ubisoft clarified that there will be some form of ‘narrative campaign,’” Makuch writes. “We caught up with creative director Justin Farren recently, and we asked for more specifics about the campaign. He told us that the campaign elements will be woven into the multiplayer, so there may not be a distinct campaign as some would have wanted.”
Ryan “VideoGameAttorney” Morrison held an AMA on Reddit over the weekend. TheDW would recommend checking it out to learn a little more about “the legal side of the gaming and esports (or really whatever you want).”
Digital games bolstered Square Enix’s first quarter profits, GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports. “Square Enix reported a 45% increase in operating profit for its games business in the first quarter … The last expansion for Final Fantasy XIV led to an increase in both monthly subscribers and MMO revenue, which rose from ¥5.6 billion to ¥9.3 billion ($84 million) year-on-year.”
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will have microtransactions. They will be available in conjunction with the Nemesis system. Purchasable loot chests, experience boosts and War Chests help players “build up their army of orcs and followers,” Game Informer’s Suriel Vazquez reports. “Monolith is quick to point out that gold is only meant to save players time they’d otherwise spend fighting battles for loot, and will not offer players an advantage over other players.”
Can’t say we’re surprised. A PUBG pink skirt is selling for over $400 on Steam. “The Steam marketplace allows players to buy and sell in-game items with real money,” Kotaku’s Nathan Grayson explains. “The highest priced single item at the moment is a purple mini-skirt … The highest one has sold for is $486.93, and most have gone for more than $300.”
Nintendo Switch is undergoing server maintenance Wednesday from 8:50 p.m. EST to 10:30 p.m. EST. “Nintendo Switch online services may go down for a few hours next week as Nintendo performs network maintenance,” GameSpot’s Kallie Plagge writes. Splatoon 2’s Splatfest won’t be interrupted.
ESPN has a collection of the top esports plays from July. Check ’em out here.
Street Fighter V at Evo raked in almost 5 million viewers, Capcom says. The finals garnered another 1.65 million to bring the total to 4.75 million. Dot Esports’ Adam Newell reports that “Last year’s Evo finals had a total unique viewer count of 1.95 million, according to Capcom’s report. This means that unique viewership has doubled over the course of one year.”
Team Liquid is jumping into PUBG. “Our 4-man squad includes 4 of the best survivors in the game: Scoom, Molnman, Hayz, and Ollywood,” their announcement states. “We are thrilled to announce that Team Liquid will now be a part of PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS’ budding competitive scene.”
Did you know professional soccer players are now using video games to train? Sports Illustrated did a profile on the new training style, that involves “brain-training video games” to help players react more quickly on the field.
China climbed to the top at 2017’s World Cosplay Summit. Mexico took 2nd and Japan came in 3rd. “Team China won its first World Cosplay Summit championship with an impressive Blood: The Last Vampire performance,” Kotaku’s Brian Ashcroft reports.
Life is Strange prequel Life is Strange: Before the Storm “will branch based on the choices you make. And one of those choices is whether to nudge Chloe and Rachel into a romantic relationship,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi reports.