ISSUE 5 — 16 December 2018
by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst
Top Story — HEROES OF THE STORM IS LEAVING THE NEXUS?
Blizzard has announced that they are taking some of the developers behind their “love letter to Blizzard’s worlds and characters” Heroes of the Storm, and moving them to other teams who are making both live games and unannounced projects. They have said that the game will continue to be worked on and new content will come. Nevertheless, it is clear that Heroes of the Storm will no longer be high priority from this moment onwards.
In addition to this, Blizzard has cancelled the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm events in 2019. This stifles any hope of Heroes of the Storm ever being a viable e-sport. This announcement comes as a shock to anyone who made a living off of the game. Heroes of the Storm streamers are already moving on to other MOBAs, such as League of Legends or Dota 2. Many in the pro scene feel blindsighted and left in the dark, including players, coaches and captains.
Examples include Liam O’Malley, an aspiring HotS e-sport player who was about to join the Endemic team, dropped out of college for Heroes of the Storm. He spent three years to pursue his dream of playing in the Heroes Global Championship.
Then there’s Justing, who is captain of Simplicity’s HotS team, who said: “good thing i [sic] *was* a team owner and asked repeatedly for information, even signed on for an apartment and I was given *zero* information regarding my job in 2019 LOL what a joke”.
Finally, Darrie, general manager of the professional gaming organisation known as Method, made a statement. It included the disbanding of Method HotS and termination agreements being sent to team members.
Shahan’s Opinion: I tend to lose interest in Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, but I remember spending a fair amount of time with Heroes of the Storm. Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, was my go-to character.
Negative Vibes — SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE ONLINE TURNS E-SPORT PLAYERS OFF…
It has been regarded as one of the top crossover games in history so far, and a fast-selling (forgive the pun) smash-hit with Nintendo Switch players. It broke records in Japan and the UK.
However, like with so many great games, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s online multiplayer mode has left a fair bit to be desired. A lot of users have called their subscriptions to the Nintendo Switch Online service a waste of money for a number of reasons. Lag, for one thing. In the early days of online multiplayer gameplay, lag was to be expected. But years have passed since then, so you would expect developers to have ironed out such issues – especially for such a popular fighting franchise as Smash Bros.!
Another thing aggravating gamers is the online mode’s seeming inability to honour the rules preferences for multiplayer matches. That is to say, you could want a 1 vs. 1 match with no items, and end up with four fighters and Pokéballs flying all over the shop.
All these issues have now reportedly put off e-sport players. That’s a huge blow for Nintendo, who have been quick to implement as many tweaks and fixes to their online modes to win back this large chunk of their customer base.
Dale’s Opinion: I am not big on the online gameplay, personally, so this doesn’t bother me too much. Having just bought the game with the console, I am just glad to hear the game has received rave reviews for its offline modes. I’ll just stick to those I guess.
New Character Spotlight — 2B (Soul Calibur VI)
The main heroine of the popular NieR: Automata is coming to Soul Calibur VI on Tuesday. We’re posting this ahead of time before we take a break for Christmas.
2B is a man-made battle android tasked with fighting a machine army sent by invaders from another world. Her game is set in the year 11945 AD on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Androids lack emotions and true names but they have particular attitudes to set them apart; 2B’s attitudes being calm and composed.
NieR: Automata has passed 3 million sales worldwide and is getting a ‘Game of the YoRHa Edition’ next year on February 21st. It will include the base game and all DLC.
Shahan’s Opinion: I might just have to ditch Taki and check her out! Hmm… Do you think she compares well to Ivy? I’m sure Dale doesn’t think so!
Dale’s Opinion: Yeahhhh, I’m a bit too loyal to Ivy to trade her in for a newer model. I’ll still give 2B a go, mind you…
KINGDOM HEARTS III TRAILER ARRIVES!
Square Enix has shown a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts III this week. The trailer is a sneak peek as to how Sora’s adventure will begin. It features the trio of trios (Hmm… The three trinities? Triple Triads! Ha! Sorry; Final Fantasy joke…) of friends and the villains they’ve faced in past games as well as Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It also includes a young Xehanort with the glorious-looking chess set from previous trailers that symbolises his plans being in action. Square better make a real-life chess set like that!
The trailer is accompanied by the song ‘Face My Fears’, another song by Utada Hikaru but this time featuring Skrillex! Who knew he was a big fan of the KH series? He approached Square Enix to do a remix of ‘Don’t Think Twice’, the main theme of the latest game. Instead, this ‘banger’ or ‘bop’ came to fruition.
Shahan’s Opinion: This collab between Hikaru Utada and Skrillex has divided fans but the song is right up my alley! Loving it. If I had to group the songs, Don’t Think Twice leans more towards the melodic Sanctuary while Face My Fears is more on Simple and Clean’s energetic side. But as always, Utada manages to give each song a unique feel to it.
KINGDOM HEARTS III FULL GAME LEAKED!?!
Staying with the same topic, it turns out the full Kingdom Hearts III game has been leaked over a month early! Fans are warning each other to beware and steer clear of any spoilers.
Mods on the r/Kingdom Hearts sub-Reddit are ready to ban anyone who posts any leaks. There are rumours going around on Twitter as to the origins of this leak. It all points to copies being stolen during the shipping of the game. The director of Kingdom Hearts III has responded to the situation, as below:
Shahan’s Opinion: To be fair, even if you DO see any spoilers, good luck trying to understand how it all fits in with the rest of the crazy plot!
OFFICIAL UNION FOR UK GAME DEVELOPERS
Unionising efforts in the United Kingdom have led to the formation of an official legal trade union called the Game Workers Unite UK. It is the first union of the video game industry in the country. Its goals include fighting racism and sexism, ending unpaid overtime and securing a liveable wage for all.
This is welcome news after hearing about the woeful conditions that come with the industry’s infamous crunch times. If you haven’t heard, various famous game companies have a culture where overtime is standard and just part of the job. Not long ago, stories broke out over Rockstar being guilty of this after one of the co-founders proudly claimed he did 100-hour weeks working on Red Dead Redemption 2.
Shahan’s Opinion: After hearing the many horror stories of gaming industry’s crunch times, it is good news that workers are getting the support they need for their rights.
GLOSSING OVER…
The Game Awards’ Viewership Doubles
It was announced this week that 2018’s TGAs reached a record viewership of 26 million people. That’s over twice the figure from last year’s ceremony.
Real Money for Virtual Gold Bars
Microtransactions are now available on Red Dead Online, allowing you to purchase gold bars for real money as opposed to earning them in-game.
Stardew Valley Multiplayer Update Now Available
The update for the Multiplayer mode of the Nintendo Switch’s Stardew Valley was released on Wednesday 12th. You can click here for the full details of the update.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
Once again, we hope you have enjoyed the content. As mentioned earlier, we will be taking a couple of weeks off now for Christmas and New Year. In which case, we can wish you season’s greetings and all the best for 2019! See you then!
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