That’s another week down. Congratulations, you have survived! Before you enjoy a weekend (hopefully) full of relaxation, as you decompress from a hard week’s work, allow me to round up the latest gaming news. This is Fails and Feels, my weekly summary of the good and bad in video gaming news. Here’s what you need to know!
First, the fails!
Fails
Ubisoft Bans Over 1000 Cheaters From Rainbow Six Siege
Cheating in online multiplayer games is one of the lamest things you can do. Using exploits to make up for your own lack of skill is incredibly sad. What’s especially terrible about cheaters, is that they ruin the fun for everyone else. In an intensely competitive shooter like Rainbow Six Siege, where ranked matches are taking seriously, cheaters are the worst type of players to go up against.
Thankfully, in its battle against the exploiting menace, Ubisoft announced that it recently banned over 1,000 Rainbow Six Siege cheaters. Even better than that, is the news that the latest updates have rendered “a large number of cheats defunct [and that Ubisoft has] also deployed a fix to prevent cheaters from planting the Defuser anywhere on the map.” Keep on fighting the good fight, Ubisoft!
Fortnite Coaches Are Being Hired by Parents to Help Their Kids
Does your kid suck at Fortnite? Are they causing you headaches from screaming in anger? Well, you’ll be happy to hear that Fortnite coaches are now a thing! Yep, you can have a “professional” tutor your child (or yourself!) to be a better Fortnite player. Available from $10 per hour, you can get a player to train your kid one-on-one.
With eSports now booming, and the winners making a hell of a lot of money, I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised to see kids being encouraged to “git gud” at games from an early age. It’s like sending your child to a football camp, right? With that said, it does seem a little over-the-top to be hiring a pro player for a game that is supposed to be pretty casual.
Reddit Hacked, Some User Data Compromised
Oh dear, Reddit got hacked! Arguably the most popular forum on the entire internet has been mined for user data, and now a bunch of us have been compromised. According to Reddit’s statement, a “hacker broke into a few of Reddit’s systems and managed to access some user data, including some current email addresses and a 2007 database backup containing old salted and hashed passwords.” Admittedly, it doesn’t sound too bad, and thankfully the hacker was tracked and we can now all take the necessary precautions. Regardless of whether or not you’ve actually seen any shady activity on your account, you should probably change your password. Hell, regularly changing your password is key to maintaining good security in general, so do it!
To help protect users from future attacks, Reddit is “conducting a painstaking investigation to figure out just what was accessed, and to improve [its] systems and processes to prevent this from happening again.”
Feels
No Man’s Sky NEXT Update Causes Massive Spike in Player Base
It’s been over two years since No Man’s Sky first launched on PS4 and PC. Since then, developer Hello Games has been slaving away at creating new content for the game. What was originally a bare-bones exploration title with not much to see and do once you got over the procedurally-generated assets, has now been expanded with the “NEXT” update. This patch has introduced a huge number of new features, including a third-person mode, multiplayer, missions, and more. The game is also now available for Xbox One players to enjoy.
The NEXT update has clearly succeeded in bringing players back to the game, with No Man’s Sky rising to be one of the most played games in the world across all platforms. The Steam rating for the game has also been boosted from a general “Negative” to a “Mixed.”
Nintendo Switch Has Stopped a 10 Year Decline in the Japanese Game Market
The Nintendo Switch is a hell of a console, as any owner of the portable/at-home hybrid will probably tell you. Nintendo struck gold (again) with this system, choosing to go down a different path to what its competitors were doing. It might not pump out 4K visuals, but it satisfies both in the house and on the go. Well, it seems that the Switch’s success has done the seemingly impossible, putting an end to the Japanese video game market’s 10-year decline!
The 2017 video game market, which includes both digital and physical game sales, as well as hardware, rose by 22.7% compared to the previous year. That’s equivalent to $3.5 billion! Nicely done, Nintendo!
Nintendo Switch Getting Smash Bros. GameCube Controllers
To me, the Nintendo GameCube controllers stand out as one of the most comfortable pads that I’ve used. Though it has a weird button layout, when compared to the likes of PlayStation and Xbox controllers, it still felt great in the hands. If you were also a fan of the GameCube pads, then I’ve got good news: they are being brought back for the Switch!
Created by PDP, there will be three different designs available. One will be themed around Link, another for Pikachu fans, and also a classic Mario look. The pads will also be wired, meaning faster connection speeds have been prioritized over the convenience of wireless. Hopefully we’ll see good pricing and worldwide availability.
