Well, the
AAA game world keeps on keeping on.
First up,
EA is returning to Steam. Starting with Jedi the Fallen Order, they
will slowly expand their catalog on Steam. There has been speculation
whether you will still need an EA Origins account to play their games
there, and the jury is still out, but the best guess is that it will
vary from game to game.
Leaks
suggest that Bethesda has made good money on Fallout 1st
and are now looking to expand their vile service even further. New
items on the Atom shop for subscribers only, new gear (though no info
on what is meant by that), and so on. I wouldn't be surprised if they
hide the Wastelander's expansion behind F1st, or at least some
important part of it.
A sad
state of affairs for a once beloved company. To go from designing
games that top the lists to putting up paywalls behind paywalls in a
desperate effort to monetize just a couple of bucks more is rank. I
once held great faith in their future games, but now it has gone from
“Must Have” to “Wait and See”. I do not trust this company or
anything they say anymore.
Blizzcon
2019 was this past weekend and there have been some interesting
developments. Games wise, they did announce Diablo IV with a truly
amazing cinematic. No joke, it was super cool. Too bad the game
itself doesn't even have a release date yet, it's that far away.
After last years scandalous “Don't you guys have phones” fiasco,
they did have to out up something and they did.
World of
Warcraft gets a new expansion, Shadowlands, all as expected. It had a
cool cinematic too, but nowhere near as good as Diablo.
There was
some other announcements, but I really didn't pay those any mind.
What was interesting was the opening speech by CEO J. Allen Brack.
He started
by looking sad and referring to the Blitzchung scandal, but without
actually mentioning either Blitzchung, NetEase or China. He then went
on about missed opportunities and failing to live up to standards and
apologizing for reacting too fast and then being to slow to respond
to people. This is pretty much a non-apology. Like being accused of
stealing your neighbor’s lawnmower and then saying “Your lawn
looks awful and for that, I'm sorry.” Way to dodge the point there
J.
Yesterday,
PC Gamers Steven Messner interviewed Brack by phone. It's an
interesting read, but for me the biggest takeaway is that he confirms
that the “defending the pride of China” comment came from
NetEase, with no involvement or approval from Blizzard. Seems they
can't do anything in China without going through a Chinese partner.
In other words, Blizzard is in business with a company that can say
and do whatever they want with no input from Blizzard in their name.
Must be lucrative to make that worth it.
Check it
out if you're interested:
Brack's
“apology”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcOblZYHxFg
PC Gamer
article:
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-president-clarifies-decision-to-ban-hearthstone-player-and-two-casters-over-hong-kong-controversy/
That's it
for me this time. See you again next Monday and until then, have a
great week!
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