PSA: Need For Speed: Heat Will Be (Almost) 50% Off This Month


Need For Speed: Heat is the latest title in the popular Need for Speed franchise, and those of you who went out of your way to buy it on day one are set to be rewarded by paying a $30 premium for a couple of weeks head start. Need for Speed is going on heavy discount this Black Friday.

Target this past week released their Black Friday ad which runs from November 28-30 and Need For Speed is about to get a substantial discount. $35 in fact, down from its current asking price of $59.99. The $35 sale includes “over 10 games” and also contains recent releases like Borderlands 3, NHL 20, and Monster Hunter with Iceborne. We do not know what the other titles are that are included in the sale.

Need For Speed: Heat launched on November 8 and notably released with no microtransactions.

Sony’s Cartridge Patent May Mean Absolutely Nothing


With Disney Plus launching on Tuesday and Google Stadia not out for over a week, it’s time to set our sights on 2020 and that can only mean one thing; Next gen console speculation. Letsgodigital is reporting that Sony has filed a patent for a game cartridge in Brazil. Not a whole lot about the cartridge is known; in fact, nothing is known outside of a flat image of its design. The patent was filed by Yujin Morisawa who is the senior art director of Sony Interactive Entertainment and is listed as the inventor.

The internet of course has gone into full-blown speculation mode. Could this be a feature of the Playstation 5? Is Sony working on a Vita 2? Or some other handheld? What if this is for a standalone wireless VR system? Maybe it’s an expansion pack like the Nintendo 64 had. Maybe it will boost the ram of the system.

Or maybe it’s nothing. Honestly you could pick out any of the major game companies and fill a book with the number of things that they have patented and never ultimately created a product out of. Sony has stated on several occasions that a new handheld system just isn’t in the books thanks to the fantastic support that the Vita received, but there is also nothing to say that Sony hasn’t looked at the success of the Switch and given a second thought to a portable successor. On another side, it would seem odd to imagine that there is a time where Sony isn’t actively thinking about coming back into the portable world.

Or it could be for another kid computer toy like the Toio.

Call of Duty, WoW Classic Make Activision Blizzard Mucho Dinero


The success of World of Warcraft Classic could only come as a shock to J. Allen “You think you do but you don’t” Brack, but to the rest of the world the idea that the classic servers brought back a lot of players isn’t surprising in the least.

Activision released their third quarter statements for 2019 and the results are pretty great for them. With sales from Call of Duty BLOPS 4 and WWII still strong and World of Warcraft Classic leading the way, Activision hauled in $1.28 billion dollars compared to $1.51 billion in 2018. World of Warcraft Classic drove subscriptions to its highest quarterly increase in franchise history while Candy Crush somehow continues to grow in revenue. In addition, the launch of Call of Duty Mobile has been a major success in terms of downloads and revenue.

Despite recent controversy, Blizzard has created a good amount of hype with the announcement of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV at this year’s Blizzcon.

The quarter ends on September 30 and does not reflect any potential consumer reaction to the Blitzchung Hearthstone controversy, nor does it include sales from the latest Modern Warfare title.

Source: Activision report

Pearl Abyss Announces Three New MMOs


Pearl Abyss today has dropped a surprise ahead of the annual Pearl Abyss Connect event in the form of three new games under development.

  • PLAN 8 is an exosuit MMO shooter.
  • DokeV is a collectible MMORPG for all ages.
  • Crimson Desert is an open-world MMORPG set in an epic-fantasy world.

Pulling no punches, Pearl Abyss announced that PLAN 8 is being spearheaded by Minh Le serving as technical director. You may recognize that name as one of the co-creators of Counter Strike. DokeV has brought on a couple of former directors from Black Desert Online including Sang-young Kim and Suh Won Choi.

All three games will be featured at next week’s Connect event. In the meantime you can sign up at the links above to be notified of the trailers when they go live.

Source: Pearl Abyss press release

China Clamps Down On Child Spending, Adult Gambling In Games


Sorry industry!

China, a country famous for its friendliness toward entertainment media, has officially begun cracking down on the gaming industry in the name of protecting vulnerable citizens. As reported by NPR, the move outlines six initiatives to prevent minors from indulging in online games. Minors are restricted to playing 90 minutes of video games every day except national holidays when that limit goes up to three hours. In addition, minors will be limited to spending $28 or $57 per month depending on age and can not game between the hours of 10p.m. and 8:00a.m.

But the restrictions don’t just apply to kids. All Chinese gamers will be prohibited from enjoying games depicting sex, gore, violence, and gambling.

China’s new directives implicate adult gamers too. A state spokesperson says that everyone, regardless of age, is prohibited from playing games that depict “sexual explicitness, goriness, violence and gambling.”

No word on how loot boxes fit into the depiction of gambling.

Source: NPR via MassivelyOP

Striker/Tamer Out Now On Black Desert (PS4)


Today marks the launch of two new classes in Black Desert on the Playstation 4; the Striker and Tamer.

The Striker class is a melee fighting class that specializes in hand-to-hand attacks to bring down his enemies. The Tamer as you might expect is joined by her animal companion and utilizes powerful area of effect attacks while evading counterattacks. In addition to the two classes, Black Desert on Playstation 4 sees the addition of a new world boss in the form of Karanda The Queen of Harpies. Karanda has a chance of dropping the dandelion weapon box which contains the most powerful awakening weapon in Black Desert.

Information on the classes can be found here with Karanda and a new world boss schedule here. Black Desert is currently 25% off on the Playstation Store and 50% off for plus members as part of the ongoing Double Discount sale.

Vicious Circle Goes Free To Play, Refunds Everyone


Back in September we reported on the failed launch of Vicious Circle, the latest title from Rooster Teeth Games. In that time, the crew has been working behind the scenes and at the start of the month announced that not only would Vicious Circle be going free to play, but that those who bought founders packs would be refunded.

“Why is Vicious Circle going Free to Play? In short, the game didn’t succeed. We came together on a super creative ambitious new project, put our hearts into it, did our best to support it, and it didn’t work out, and that’s okay. Not every idea we have will be a success. We have to fail to find success. Servers will remain up because we made a game and we want the community to still have a chance to play it. We don’t want price to get in the way. We remain proud of the work that was put into the game and want as many people to have the chance to experience it as possible.”

Don’t get too excited about that free to play, though. While the game is going free to play, Rooster Teeth has no intention of supporting the title outside of some bug fixes.

Source: Steam

Jagex Will Discuss RuneScape Monetization On November 5 Stream


RuneScape. Financially the game is in a fantastic position; back in May we discussed how Jagex had posted a 9.3% increase in overall revenue with subscription numbers at their highest ever in the game’s history thanks to the launch of Old School mobile.

But all has not been great on the western front. MMO Fallout has reported for several years on how RuneScape’s monetization efforts have been very successful, but also very polarizing in the community. Every couple of years, Jagex reaches out to try to pull on the brakes of the game’s heavy microtransactions and it looks like it’s time for another heart to heart. Community animosity has been high ever since a UK parliamentary report from September specifically called out the developer when discussing egregious microtransactions, pointing to one player who had spent more than $62,000 USD.

On November 5, several Jagex staff will host a stream discussing the future of microtransactions in RuneScape. Those of you placing bets should keep in mind that Jagex receives one third of its revenue from these microtransactions.

“Tune in at 5PM GMT on November 5th for a very important livestream. Mods Osborne, Warden and MIC will be on the couch discussing plans for the future of MTX in RuneScape.

Ask your questions in the Discord room, on the forums, or in the dedicated Reddit thread – or email Mod Warden directly at AskModWarden@jagex.com. Your opinion is important to us, especially when it comes to controversial topics like this one – so let us hear your thoughts!”

Source: RuneScape

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.