Gaming Dispatch 29th of January - 4th of February 2017
Welcome back to another week of Gaming Dispatch, the weekly series where I bring you the most important news of the week. In this issue we have among other things an update to the Oculus vs. Zenimax lawsuit, more Nintendo Switch updates, Game devs reacting to the Trump muslim ban, and the release of Fire Emblem Heroes.
Oculus vs. Zenimax
On February the 1st the the jury stated that Zenimax is to receive $500 million. Oculus itself is to pay $300 million in total, of which $200 million for breaking the non-disclosure agreement and $50 million for copyright infringement. Oculus and founder Palmer Luckey is each to $50 million each because of false designation, and last, the former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe has to pay $150 million for the same reason. The lawsuit didn’t go entirely in Zenimax’s favor howver as the jury also stated that Oculus did not steal any trade secrets from Zenimax. After the verdict an Oculus representative commented that they will not give up since their product is built purely with Oculus Technology.
This means that the dispute between the two companies is probably far from over, but as for what will happen in the future we can only wait and see. If you want to read about the lawsuit in more detail, check out the links below.
Nintendo Switch
In the realm of Nintendo there has been some small but maybe interesting news, firstly about VR.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said in an interview with Nikkei that someday the Switch will “in some form or another” support virtual reality, if they can figure out a way to make the technology comfortable when playing long hours. Patents issued by Nintendo indicates that they might be looking at a solution similar to smartphone-based VR headsets such as the Gear VR where you slide the unit into the headset, thereby functioning as the screen.
In other news it seems like the addition of a paid subscription for online play might not be as bad as first feared. In the same interview as mentioned above, the president said that the cost will be in between 2,000-3,000 Yen per year, translating to about $17-27$. Comparatively, the subscription cost for Xbox Live Gold and Playstation Plus are both $59.99, thereby possibly putting the Switch at under half the price.
Nintendo also announced that they will continue to make game for the Nintendo 3DS, meaning that the Switch will not replace their other handheld systems.
And last, president Tatsumi Kimishima told investors that there are over 100 games currently in development for the console, which definitely sounds promising (let’s just hope that they are good too).
Fire Emblem Heroes
Earlier this week Fire Emblem Heroes was released internationally for Android and iOS. Personally I have not played a Fire Emblem game before and are therefore new to the franchise, got to say however I have had a great time with it the last couple of days. Fire Emblem Heroes is a free-to-play mobile game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. What I found was a great tactical RPG with an enjoyable combat system, very smooth gameplay, and a bunch of different characters, or heroes as they are called. When first starting out I also found the free-to-play model to be rather generous. I do however see the possibility of quickly running into a payment wall later in the game as you have a stamina bar that decreases when doing a battle. The stamina cost ramps up the further you get in the game, resulting in me only being able to do five battles before the stamina bar has run out. Despite this I do think that it’s a really enjoyable game that you definitely should check out. And if you want to start off with some good heroes, check out the link below.
PlayStation 4
For anyone in the PlayStation beta program they can now get the new update for the PS4. Features in the 4.50 update includes the support of external hard drives with capacities up to 8TB over USB 3.0. The beta update will also include a “boost mode” for the PS4 pro that supposedly should help games run better on said console. It is currently uncertain if the latter feature will be included in the final update going out to the non-beta testers.
Also, if you have not picked up The Last Guardian now might be a good time since it just got a $20 price cut.
Game devs and the muslim ban
As you have probably heard the US president Donald Trump issued a rather controversial order known as the “muslim ban”. As a result there has been sever protests around the world, including the internet of course. Several game developers took action, both donating and encouraging others to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union. Companies such as Cardboard Computer offered their game Kentucky Route Zero for 50% off with all sales going to the ACLU.
Vlambeer, an indie studio behind the game Nuclear Throne also supported the ACLU, donating all their revenue from games and merchandise for a 24-hour period thereby raising more than $10,000.
Other studios who have joined in is Polytron, the people behind Fez, and Ink Stories, the studio behind 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. Additionally, the publisher Devolver Digital is offering to show off games by developers who are unable to attend the GDC (Game Developer Conference) because of the muslim ban
For the full story:
Games releasing in February
Flash Stories
- The spiritual succesor to Mutant Football League has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help with the final development of the game.
- A new Need For Speed game is coming soon, and will apparently be the “Best-looking Need for Speed game we’ve ever produced”. I highly doubt that will be the case if the last years of the franchise is anything to go by, but we’ll see.
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