Episode 53 – No Big News

recorded 8/16/2019

Square Enix has cancelled a game tournament in the wake of recent death threats (IGN)

• Game: Starwing Paradox (Japan exclusive arcade title)
• After what happened with Kyoto Animation, they aren’t taking any chances
• This is why we can’t have nice things people

Fortnite is getting a ton of backlash for releasing a reskin item in the latest battle pass (Kotaku)

• “We should not have released the Gunner Pet and apologize for doing so.  Within the next couple of days, all purchases of Gunner will be refunded for the full amount of 1000 V-bucks as well as an additional 200 V-bucks and the Pet will be removed from the Locker.  Anyone who purchased Gunner and refunds it prior to this make-good will instead receive 200 V-bucks and an additional refund token that can be put towards any eligible items that were purchased within the past 30 days.” – Epic Spokesperson
• This is a big deal because Epic all battle pass items for that season will be unique

Twitch was promoting different channels on Ninja’s old channel and one was porn lol (CNet)

The “New” Switch model will start shipping to stores by the end of this month (resetera)

Inside Xbox shows off bunch of content on August 19 11am EST leading to GamesCom (Xbox)

• Ghost Recon Breakpoint multiplayer reveal
• Empire of Sun gameplay debut
• Destiny 2 Shadowkeep content
• Gears 5 Horde mode reveal along with other games

EA and Respawn are seeing backlash about the newest Apex Legends update for predatory mircotransactions with their new “Iron Crown” event (Gamesradar)

• New items are locked behind $7 loot boxes (normal boxes are $1)
• To get the heirloom item (rarest item) you have to first get all items from the loot boxes (24 in total)
• Being as thrifty as possible, you will be spending around $170

Rapid Fire News

Newest Overwatch update adds new hero “Sigma”, role queuing, and some character balancing (Polygon) 

Capcom allegedly has a Devil May Cry announcement (thats all they said) (Comicbook.com)

• Reuben Langdon (Dante VA) said he had a special announcement during anime festival in Orlando
• We dont know what cuz he asked everyone to stop filming for it

Konami files a new trademark for Silent Hill…exciting! (Comicbook.com)

The free-to-play release of Destiny 2 will completely revamp the “Power” system to make it more accessible to new players

• Raises all players power level to 750

Live stream gameplay reveal of Dying Light 2 takes place on August 26 (Techland)

Phil Spencer has said that Project Scarlett will prioritize performance and load times (Engadget)

Microsoft has cancelled the Super Duper 4k Texture Pack for MineCraft (Brad Sams)

Sonic has been redesigned to not look like a horror movie anymore (Heroic Hollywood)

Splinter Cell may come back in the way of a VR game or mobile game (boo mobile) (VG24/7)

FCC filing has revealed Nintendo working on wireless SNES controllers for Switch (GameSpot)

Ben Irving, lead producer on Anthem, leaves BioWare after 8 years (Ben Irving)

A new Saints Row game is in the works along with Timesplitters via THQ Nordic (Polygon)

Fortnite dev team has also responded to player backlash of the B.R.U.T.E. (Season 10 mech)

• Veteran players are not a fan of it, they see it as OP and upsets balance
• Dev team (paraphrased): “We are not removing the BRUTE. We are trying to keep Fortnite fun and fresh for everyone. We  believe all players of all skill levels should have a chance to win.”

Upcoming Releases and Deals

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden and Hyper Light Drifter are free on Epic Store (resetera)

Playstation shows off 4 new Dualshock 4 colors available this fall (Playstation)

• Titanium Blue
• Electric Purple
• Red Camouflage
  
  
• Rose Gold (matching headset available)

New Need for Speed, Need for Speed Heat will release on November 8th (DualShockers)

Rumor Mill

Next Playstation State of Play may take place in November and will reveal new info

• This State of Play may show the last Death Stranding trailer
• The Last of Us Part 2 release date

The future of Playstation event may be held early-mid February next year and reveal PS5

Ghost of Tsushima is rumored to be a PS5 exclusive….not sure if I believe that (GamesRadar)

Smash DLC character Banjo-Kazooie rumored to release in September (ComicBook.com)

• September 25 is the rumored date for Banjo to arrive
• The rumor also says that the 4th character is referenced as “soldier”
  • This could be the Doom Slayer or Master Chief or maybe someone unexpected

PS5 GPU is rumored to be almost as powerful as the RTX 2080 clocked at 2GHz (wccftech)