Category: News

World of Warcraft Squishing Levels Down To 60


Blizzard is crushing your head.

Blizzcon came and went this weekend and World of Warcraft players received confirmation on a feature that many probably knew was coming months ago. Blizzard officially announced that World of Warcraft will see an arguably much deserved level crunch as the max cap goes from 120 to 60. Current level 120 players will be crunched down to 50 and be able to make their way to the new level cap of 60.

Another positive of this announcement is that alt leveling is supposed to be more user friendly. Alts will be able to level in any zone or through world quests, and while you’ll need to hit level 60 to unlock the ability to align with end-game factions, your alts will be able to take advantage of the faction alignment from the start and begin farming end-game materials earlier.

Enjoy level 120 while it lasts.

Source: Blizzard press release

Blizzcon 2019: Blizzard Eats Humble Pie, Gives Audience What They Want


As I have said over the past couple of weeks, the best thing that Blizzard could do with Blizzcon 2019 is to give the audience what they want.

Blizzcon 2019 is officially upon us and it started with President J. Allen Brack coming out and apologizing for the company’s actions and response to criticism following last month’s Hearthstone Grandmaster controversy. Brack took full responsibility for the company and stated;

“We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then, to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk with all of you,” said Brack. “We didn’t live up to the high standards that we really set for ourselves.”

Outside of the apology, Blizzard gave their fans exactly what they wanted. Wasting no time, Blizzard took its opening ceremony to announce Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, and went even further. There was also a marked absence of any news regarding Diablo Immortal. Confirming the week’s leaks, Overwatch 2 will have a more PVE-focused approach. In addition, players who own Overwatch will be able to play with those on Overwatch 2, ensuring that the two communities will not be fractured.

Mystic Character Class Available In Black Desert (Xbox)


Black Desert today released a new update introducing the Mystic class to the Xbox One. The Mystic utilizes the gauntlets and vambrace and prefers close combat.

More information can be found at the official website.

RuneScape In Your Pants: Mobile Early Access Is Live


RuneScape mobile has entered early access on Android phones, allowing gamers their dream of finally carrying the MMO around in their pants. Users who take advantage of the early access will be gifted a mobile founder’s pack which contains a steel panther combat pet, a unique rest animation, and radiant dawn armor. Product director Jason Millena stated;

“Given RuneScape’s 18-year long heritage, in addition to being recognised by Guinness World Records for ‘The Most Prolifically Updated MMORPG Videogame’, to have the whole of RuneScape running on mobile is a massive achievement. We couldn’t be more excited to launch in Early Access and welcome those who know RuneScape the best – our members.”

You can get mobile early access here.

Valve Changes CS: Go Keys To Combat International Fraud


Counter Strike: Global Offensive is making some changes to its keys this week and you can thank international fraudsters for that. Starting today, Counter Strike container keys will no longer be traded or sold on the market. Players are able to earn cases that contain weapon skins while playing Counter Strike but must buy keys in order to open them and see what loot is inside.

According to a statement put out by Valve, the keys recently became the preferred method of cleaning money by international fraud networks to the point where almost all key purchases are believed to be fraud-sourced.

“Why make this change? In the past, most key trades we observed were between legitimate customers. However, worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced. As a result we have decided that newly purchased keys will not be tradeable or marketable.”

This update does not affect keys that were already on the market.

(Source: Counter Strike)

Bad Press: Kotaku’s Owner Demands Removal of Article Criticizing Obnoxious Ads


How do you guarantee that something will gain traction on the internet? Try to silence it.

Kotaku today penned an editorial from the staff explaining to readers that ads are not at the discretion of the editorial team. More specifically, the editorial team has no input over the obnoxious automatically playing video ads with sound that are popping up on the website. The article dutifully pointed users to where they could complain to Kotaku’s parent company, G/O Media.

Had the story ended there, there wouldn’t be anything worth covering. G/O Media has since apparently ordered the article taken down, as the article is now gone and Jason Schreier posted on Twitter; “This article is no longer up. The staff of Kotaku did not remove it.”

In G/O Media’s attempt to silence the article, they have only ensured that a lot more people will be talking about it.

IPE Update: Epic Games v. ABC Moving Forward


Epic Games is moving forward with its lawsuit against Acceleration Bay (ABC) following an order denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss.

Taking the initiative upon itself, Epic Games filed suit several months ago against Acceleration Bay, seeking a declaratory judgment that their game Fortnite did not infringe on patents owned by the defendant. The lawsuit was predicated on contacts between the two parties where ABC appeared to be offering a “mutual resolution” to avoid potential litigation, as it believed that Epic Games had infringed on a patent owned related to network technology. Epic got snarky with its response, noting that ABC appears to exist solely to litigate patents it buys in bulk from third parties.

Last month Acceleration Bay filed a motion to dismiss on grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction (wrong court) and lack of controversy (there must be reasonable anticipation of a lawsuit in order to file for a declaratory judgment). Following oral arguments on October 22, the court denied the motion. Acceleration Bay must file an answer to the lawsuit no later than November 5.

As always, MMO Fallout has uploaded the relevant dockets to our Google Drive. You can view the decision at this link. The file included a motion to seal certain exhibits so you may see some of our documents get replaced/removed/redacted in the future depending on circumstances.

ArcheAge Disables ArchePass After It Collapses Economy


New version, same old tricks. Gamigo has announced that the ArchePass, ArcheAge Unchained’s version of the battle pass, has been disabled following massive backlash from the community regarding the pass’s impact on the in-game economy. Player frustration grew to a boiling point over claims that the pass introduced an overwhelming amount of gold to the economy with nothing in place to remove the gold.

The announcement was made on Gamigo’s Discord server.

“The ArchePass has been temporarily disabled on all North American and European ArcheAge: Unchained servers. All existing progress has been saved and the Diligence Coin store is still accessible. We are evaluating the range of issues that have been presented from gold reward values, to quests distributed repeatedly, the level of effort required to progress, and overall enjoyability of participating in the related progression.”

There has been no comment on when the pass may come back, however all player progress has been saved.

Source: Discord

Ubisoft’s Stock Drops Following Ghost Recon Disappointment


This week Ubisoft announced that it would be dramatically scaling back income expectations following the “very disappointing” reception and sales of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. The latest game in the Tom Clancy franchise left both gamers and critics angry over the abundance of game-breaking bugs as well as what was perceived to be an egregious reliance on over-monetization of various aspects of the game.

In the time since that announcement, Ubisoft’s stock prices have plummeted both in the United States as well as in France. Ubisoft’s NASDAQ listing dropped from $12.60 on Monday to a low of $10.06 before rebounding slightly to $10.35. Bloomberg meanwhile reports that stocks in France fell as much as 29% which brings the year decline to 38%.

In addition to the disappointing reception of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Ubisoft announced that all of its major releases for the rest of the fiscal year have been delayed until next fiscal year. Investors were not entirely satisfied by the announcement.

Source: Bloomberg

In Plain English: The Grinch Who Spoiled Fortnite


Dear internet,

That video game nondisclosure agreement that your buddies tell you doesn’t matter because “it’s video games” and thus not enforceable in court? It’s probably enforceable in court. In fact it’s very likely enforceable.

To the shock of the world and heaven in the sky, Epic Games has filed a lawsuit this week against a user of Fortnite. The lawsuit targets Ronald Sykes (aka “@Snipa_King2k,” aka “@FNGzus,” aka “@invisiblellama9”) and alleges that Sykes spoiled the surprise of Fortnite Chapter 2 in breach of a nondisclosure agreement.

“Epic is suing Sykes because he broke his contractual obligation to keep Epic’s secrets about the upcoming season of Fortnite®, Epic’s popular video game. Information is currency. Sykes cashed in on what he learned as a User Experience tester for Epic. He did so at the expense of Epic and those in the Fortnite community who were anxiously awaiting the new season of Fortnite only to have some of Epic’s planned surprises spoiled by Sykes’ leaks.”

Sykes was a member of the User Testing Experience, which is fancy talk for confidential beta tester. He along with a number of others were given the opportunity to test Fortnite’s big new update, presumably so it would be as fine tuned as possible before Epic released it to the masses. Sykes allegedly disclosed those secrets before they were meant to be public.

Fortnite Chapter 2’s reveal for those who weren’t glued to their computer for the weekend was massive. The servers went offline for two days as the game was literally engulfed in a black hole, resulting in all sorts of streaming records being broken as people watched a black hole in anticipation of what would come next. The event had been preceded by easter eggs being dropped into the game throughout the past seasons of the game, and ultimately it was a major product of Epic’s work.

Epic is seeking civil relief under the Defense Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) as well as the North Carolina Trade Secrets Protection Act (NCTSPA). The DTSA allows for damages for actual loss, any unjust enrichment caused by the leak of trade secrets, and in cases of willful and malicious disclosure, exemplary damages may be awarded of up to two times the actual loss/unjust enrichment.

The NCTSPA is similar in that the language allows for compensation for economic loss or unjust enrichment, as well as punitive damages in cases of willful violation. The lawsuit alleges that Sykes created several Twitter accounts to leak the new map introduced with Fortnite Chapter 2 as well as a number of new features coming to the game.

Epic seeks injunctive relief as well as attorneys’ costs and fees, and economic damages as well as punitive damages as allowed under law. As always, MMO Fallout has provided the relevant documents at our Google Drive for those who wish to read them.

Source: Google Drive