Welcome to another set of GamingLyfe’s Weekly News Round-up. It can be a challenge to keep up with all the video game news that occurs in the industry! So, with this Weekly News Round-up, you can find several major highlights that happened throughout the week. This round of top news ranges from video games getting blamed in mass media (once again), Ooblets and the Epic Games Store, Rocket League’s Loot Boxes, and 2K against Borderlands 3 leaker.
Note: The news provided in the Weekly News Round-up is a brief snapshot of the story and presents the focal point of the material provided.
# Video Games Are Not To Blame
Truly devastating events happened over the weekend in two different cities — El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Unfortunately, they were mass shootings that resulted in the death of 31 people and wounded many more. The U.S. President and several news outlets were blaming the situation on video games.
“We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” President Trump said on Monday in a White House address. He continued by saying, “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.”
After the president’s address, #VideoGamesAreNotToBlame began trending on Twitter with many people voicing and providing facts that video games are in fact not to blame. Unfortunately, this sparked another hashtag to trend #VideoGamesAreToBlame as news outlets still reported on the tragic events.
Ooblets Devs and the Epic Games Store
Ooblets developer, Glumberland, released a statement that they will be selling their game exclusively on the Epic Games Store. Because of this, many people voiced their anger and complaints (and even threats). It appeared that the developer’s statement suggested that gamers should aim their frustrations at more important things, such as climate change and the last season of Game of Thrones. The tone of the statement seems to be lighthearted with jokes, however, numerous people are not happy with the Epic Games Store deal.
Rocket League is getting rid of Loot Boxes
Psyonix, the developers of Rocket League, have announced that later this year, they will remove all paid, randomized crates from the game. They will be replacing them with a system that shows the exact items that players can buy in advance. The Rocket Pass Premium, DLC Cars, and Esports Shop items will continue to be offered for direct purchase with their new system when implemented.
Borderlands 3 YouTuber vs 2K Games
Borderlands publisher, 2K Games, has sent private investigators to YouTuber SupMatto’s home. It was part of a ten-month investigation about leaked confidential information that infringed their copyright. SupMatto normally covers videos about Borderlands … from the characters, to stories, and much more. However, he posted a video saying private investigators showed up to his house and questioned him.
The situation began in April, where a Twitch extension called “ECHOCast” (which can be used in Borderlands 3) continued to a private Twitch account. The channel’s content wasn’t viewable, but thumbnails were posted on forum sites like Reddit. Since then, the thumbnails were on Twitch as SupMatto thought it was public domain. Thus he used said thumbnails to make videos about Borderlands 3.
