And that’s the wayyyyyy the news goes
Well folks, it was a bit of a slow weekend. We’re going to do something a bit different and just give the news to you straight up, no sections today.
IT’S HAPPENING: Part 2. Sony has announced the next PS5 Digital Showcase. It will take place on Wednesday (9/16), and will start at 4 PM ET and will run for about 40 minutes. The event will “feature updates on the latest titles from Worldwide Studios and our world-class development partners.” Sony has not technically said that this will be the reveal of their next generation console, but there is widespread speculation across the industry that we will also see more details surrounding the PS5. The announcement can be found here.
Cloud Gaming with Xbox Ultimate Game Pass will officially launch tomorrow, and it will do so with more than 150 titles available to play across platforms, including mobile devices. For a full update on launch and a full list of the games available on Xbox Ultimate Game Pass, you can look here.
Speaking of Microsoft’s cloud gaming launch, Apple and Microsoft are fighting again. Apple released new rules for the App Store that, on a surface level, seemed to be an olive branch to game streaming services like xCloud and Stadia. The catch is that instead of registering the app, Microsoft (or Google) would need to register each individual game on the service in the App Store. Microsoft is clearly trying to create the “Netflix of games” with xCloud, and Apple is making that really hard. In a statement to Tom Warren at The Verge, Microsoft said “This remains a bad experience for customers. Gamers want to jump directly into a game from their curated catalog within one app just like they do with movies or songs, and not be forced to download over 100 apps to play individual games from the cloud. We’re committed to putting gamers at the center of everything we do, and providing a great experience is core to that mission.”
The NPD August 2020 report is out. Mat Piscatella provides an excellent breakdown of the numbers on a Twitter thread and YouTube video. Some of the highlights of the report are: consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories totaled $3.3B in Aug 2020, a 37% increase when compared to a year ago. Digital content on console, mobile and subscription were among the largest growth segments.
The Call of Duty League (CDL) is making a big change heading into 2021. The CDL will officially be moving play away from console and onto PC with a controller. This means that all pro matches will be played on PC and all pro players must use a League-approved controller of their choice. Today (9/14) is also the official start of the 2021 CDL season for the purposes of contracts and free agency for players. For more updates, you can read the full announcement here.
Colleges across the country are now a couple weeks into their fall semesters. Normally, this would be accompanied by the beginning of many fall sports. Football is the biggest name, but many students who play other things like volleyball, soccer, run track and field or swim have also been robbed of their passions. So what’s left? In many places, esports is filling the void of competition on campuses. Gabe Zaldivar at Sports Illustrated talks how esports (although they don’t seem to know how to spell it right, IT IS NOT THAT HARD GUYS, LOWERCASE “s”) is helping to fill the void left by sports.
EDward Gaming (EDG), a huge Chinese esports organization, will be making lots of staff changes after an internal sexual harassment case went public. The victim was reportedly told to “seduce” her abuser in hopes of making it easier to gather evidence against him to fire him. He was never fired. She was then offered money to keep quiet about the situation. Parkes Ousley at Inven Global has the full story.
Natus Vincere’s CS:GO team and Chinese streaming site HUYA are partnering. Navi’s players will broadcast their streams on the platform for the duration of the two year agreement. Thomas Lace at Esports Insider has more.