Another week has blown by, sending us careening into the weekend for some well-earned rest. (If you’re working this weekend, you’re a champion!) Anyway, I’m going to assume that you’re a pretty busy person, and you don’t have time to keep track of everything happening in gaming news. This past week has birthed both good and bad news stories, and so I’ve done my best to summarize them in the latest edition of Fails and Feels.
First, we have the Fails!
Fails
Overwatch League Stats Accidentally Leaked
The official Overwatch League app recently received an update that allowed fans to see detailed stats on how each competitive player performed. It was a really cool feature that dove deep into stats like critical hits, damage, damage taken, defensive assists, final blows, objective kills, objective time, offensive assists, ultimates earned, shots fired, and shots hit. The catch here is that this wasn’t intentional! In what was a huge fail of a moment, data that was supposed to be private was made available to the world.
Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer gave an official statement, announcing that the feature would be disabled: “In a recent update to our mobile products, we unintentionally deployed access to an expanded stats API in the code. You guys are on the ball and quickly discovered it. While we appreciate the enthusiastic response, that content was not intended for public consumption at this time, and we’re going to turn it back off.” Oops!
Fortnite Reddit User Immortalized by Epic Games in Birthday Update
Following a particularly hilarious video in which a popular streamer attempted to rescue another player, only to end up accidentally killing the poor soul, Epic Games went ahead and included a new Easter egg with the latest Fortnite update. Located near to where the rescue attempt took place is a gravestone, marking the point where the victim’s life was taken. Though this Fail has now become a Feel, I’ve included it here to show that even accidents can be happy. (Cheers, Bob!)
Epic Games continues to show that it’s listening to its community and watching the content that creators have been making. It’s great to see!
Amazon Prime Discounts on Game Pre-orders Dropped in UK
Having an Amazon Prime membership is beneficial in many different ways. The fast shipping, the free movies, Kindle perks, and Twitch Prime features are all enjoyed by me personally. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of pre-ordering your games from Amazon in the UK, you’re going to be disappointed, as the etailer beast is no longer offering a £2 discount on physical orders.
Amazon hasn’t given a reason for the change, saying only that it will “no longer offer the Prime discount of £2 on physical video game pre-orders from 7 August, 2018.” This may result in UK gamers rethinking their purchasing habits, as Amazon used to be a no-brainer for Prime members.
Feels
Forza 7 Loot Boxes Will Be Removed Soon, No Paid Tokens for Horizon 4
Thanks to Star Wars Battlefront 2 forcing a spotlight on loot boxes and their similarities to gambling, developers and publishers have proven to be a lot more conscious of the microtransactions that are being added into games. The latest title to have its loot box tumor removed is Forza Motorsport 7, with Turn10 Studios’ Alan Hartman explaining that, due to “overwhelming feedback that this [loot box] system feels out of place, [the developer] has decided to completely remove prize crates from Forza Motorsport 7.”
Equally glorious is the news that the upcoming Forza Horizon 4 will not have paid tokens. Sounds wonderful to me!
Yakuza Franchise Succeeds in the West Thanks to Not Changing Original Content, Says Sega
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Sega has commented on the wild success of the Yakuza franchise in the west, saying that the games have succeeded due to not catering to western expectations. The game is unique and western gamers are clearly loving it that way! Sega Europe Executive Vice President John Clark said: “What’s happening here is that the Yakuza franchise is being brought to the west and it’s not being changed for the western market, in terms of the gameplay.”
Don’t ever change, Yakuza!
No Man’s Sky Steam Reviews Jump From “Negative” to “Mixed”
It’s been two years since No Man’s Sky released to a cough and wheeze of fanfare and critical reception. Some people liked it, but others were disappointed at the overwhelming number of unkept promises. Hello Games had been super ambitious in what they said the game would be and hype levels reached the absolute maximum. When it launched, players were generally not happy.
Now it’s 2018, and Hello Games has been hard at work on righting those wrongs, offering a free update to the game that adds a huge number of features, with the main attraction being cooperative multiplayer. Yep, you can now explore the infinite with your friends! Better late than never, I suppose.
