Episode 62 – Overwatch on Switch, Blizzard on Blitzchug, Cancels Overwatch Launch Party

recorded on 2019-10-18

Headliners

Overwatch released on Nintendo Switch this past Tuesday to almost no fan fair or buzz

Little Bits

UPDATE:  Blizzard’s official statement on Blitzchung was released 5:30pm PST last Friday

• Reduces Blitzchung and commentator ban to 6 months from 1 year
• Blitzchung will be awarded his prize money because he played fairly
• Blizzard assures that its relationships with China did not influence their initial punishment
  • No one believes this and is the most hated part of the statement they released
  • Blizzard said they would have reacted the same no matter what Blitzchung said
• Blizzard has also banned the 3 college players from American U that held up a sign reading “Free Hong Kong. Boycott Blizz.” for 6 months (The Verge, Kotaku)

Blizzard cancelled its Overwatch launch party in NYC out of fear of public demonstration (IGN)

• There has been no official statement from Blizzard about this but Nintendo put one out
• The quote from Nintendo NY throws Blizzard under the bus and reads as follows:

• “Please be aware that the previously announced Overwatch launch event scheduled for Wednesday, 10/13 at NintendoNYC has been cancelled by Blizzard.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Riot Games announced a slew of upcoming projects in new announcement (Riot Games)

• League of Legends coming to mobile and console later in 2020 as LOL: Wild Rift
• League of Legends card game dubbed “League of Runeterra”
• Arcane, an animated series by RIOT set in the LOL universe, set to release 2020
• Project A:  A “hero shooter” with focus on tight and polished gunplay. Reminiscent of Overwatch/Paladins and CS:GO
• Project F: Very early stages, multiplayer game exploring Runterra (reminiscent of Diablo “point and click” dungeon crawler.)
• Project L: Very early stages, only info we have is “a fighting game set in LOL universe”

Xbox is implementing new safety filters for messaging within the Xbox community (The Verge)

• The goal for Xbox is to have this system work like live TV bleeping out words in real time
• There will be 4 different types of filters: Friendly, Medium, Mature, Unfiltered
• Friendly filters out all potential offensive language and is the most child friendly
• Child accounts are set to the friendly filters by default and only parents can change it
• Unfiltered has no filters at all and everything can be seen in the message

Rapid Fire

UPDATE: Modern Warfare install size is 61GB, 175GB will be total size post launch (resetera)

• Pre-loading for COD: Modern Warfare is available now on Xbox only for now

Activision and Infinity Ward detail more Modern Warfare info ahead of launch (Activision)

• Cross-play across consoles and PC as well as removal of a season pass
• Free post-launch multiplayer maps and modes for all players simultaneously
• There will be a battle pass system that resembles Fortnite instead of loot boxes
• There will be a free stream and premium stream of content in the battle pass
• All content that has gameplay impact can be earned by playing the game

Fortnite Chapter 2 is live and new changes include new map, gameplay, and progression (Epic)

Some new Marvel’s Avengers info dropped and sounds interesting (Crystal Dynamics)

• Ms. Marvel was planned to be the protagonist from the start
• More heroes unlock as story progresses
• PS5 will take advantage of new features to enhance gameplay
• Tandem/Double team moves between more than one hero practically confirmed
• Villains not playable

The physical release of Overwatch on Switch has no cartridge only a digital code (Polygon)

Analogue Pocket has been revealed and plays classic portable cartridge games (GIZMODO)

• Plays all GameBoy, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Atari Lynx games
  • For the larger cartridges you will need an adapter
• It also has a dock that you can use for TV play the system will cost you $200 shmeckles

Google Stadia’s controller will only be wireless with the Chromecast Ultra at launch (The Verge)

• Apparently Bluetooth is not an option for the controller at launch

Anthem’s Halloween event “Season of Skulls” is live now. Big updates, fixes, and new additions for the event. Includes Mass Effect themed armor (PC Gamer)

The Last of Us has surpassed 20 million copies sold lifetime across PS3 and PS4 (PSLS)

Drop into FlavorTown with the new Fortnite X Guy Fieri crossover event (Guy’s Twitter)

Upcoming Releases and Deals

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition launches on consoles, PC, and Stadia

Google Stadia Founders Edition will officially launch later this year on November 19 (IGN)

Return of the Obra Dinn releases on consoles today!

Reminder both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and The Outer Worlds release next Friday!

Rumor Mill

PS5 may have 3 separate reveals next year; one around The Last of Us Part II release time that will be media only and could be streamed, another more public event towards the middle of the year, and the last one more of a reminder possibly in a state of play video (Foxy Games UK)

Do not get rid of your PS1, PS2, PS3, or PS4 games that you want to play because full native backwards compatibility across all PlayStation systems may be a reality with the PlayStation 5

PlayStation’s 25th year anniversary is this year so look out for big news; maybe this is it

(Mystic, PSErebus)

PS5 controller could connect directly to the internet and not the console per recent patent

This is kind of what Google is doing with Stadia but without local hardware (GamesRadar)

Ryu Hayabusa could be next Smash Bros DLC character according to leak (Comicbook.com)

Bluepoint games working on a Demon’s Souls Remaster for the PS5 and PS4 (TheGamer)

According to Steven Ogg (VA for Trevor GTAV) GTA VI will be coming within 2 years (Gamesradar)

• According to someone at Brazil Game Show
• Quote (allegedly): “[Rockstar] Games take 7-8 years to make, do the math”

According to a leak from TweakTown, the PS5 will launch in December of 2020 (Comicbook.com)