The Strikes Continue
The combined power house of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue, with further elaborations made by the latter in regards to confusion that stirred over strike guidances.
Voice actors have chimed in on the ongoing issues that continue on the table, expressing concerns over AI uses of their voices without their consent.
Representatives of the strikes have continued to urge consumers that effective means of supporting the strikes is not through boycott, but by either showing up at local picket lines or monetarily supporting through funds such as the Entertainment Community Fund, Groceries for Writers, and the official SAG-AFTRA Emergency Relief Fund.
What is Even Going On With Overwatch Anymore?
While it has been noticed that the game is now listed on Steam, Overwatch 2 is not igniting the fire that Activision Blizzard is hoping it would in the pro scene, with a recent report indicating the engagement is on the decline.
Teams in the Overwatch League are also voting on a $114 million exit payment, as the League could be faced to make major structural changes by the end of the current season based on a recent Activision quarterly report. Activision also recently laid off about 50 employees from their Esports department.
Meanwhile, Team Fortress 2 had a big summer update: Seals. The Valve shooter has not just introduced a new game mode and about 14 new maps to the game, but a new Player Destruction map that involves the simple objective of feeding Selbyen, a seal, the most amount of fish. Team Fortress 2 appears to be hitting new all-time player peak numbers thanks to this latest update.
In other news…
Neopets is in full force right now marketing their soft relaunch of the name, which includes a revival of the Neopets Trading Card game.
Bandai Namco is planning to open a store in London, the first of its kind outside of Japan. Bandai Namco publishes and distributes various brands such as Pac-Man, Tekken, and game rights to Dragon Ball.
On the other hand, Bandai Namco will be shutting down Gundam Evolution, announced less than a year it has been online. A free-to-play game, sales of the game’s premium content will cease to be available by the end of July, and the final season of the game is still on set to go on as schedule in late October. The game will officially go shutter by the end of November this year.
Roblox is planning on giving developers tools to create subscription models within their experiences. Through this system developers would be given the channels to deliver content in monetized chunks as they see fit, similar to subscription model tools like Patreon. “Experiences” are what Roblox labels the many games, projects, and virtual labs utilizing its platform. Roblox has repeatedly come under fire due to its dominantly young userbase, which critics have pointed out are susceptible to being exploited by its own monetization practices.
Pokémon Go has rolled out a new feature letting players to customize their own Routes. In Go, Players can “record” their paths, choosing a PokéStop or Gym as a starting point. Senior producer Chad Jones says hopes that “the intention that [Routes] becomes a nice addition to how trainers think about their normal play sessions.”, encourage players to curate and exhibit more interesting landmarks in their local areas. Pokémon Go developer Niantic has recently come under fire in a recent lawsuit that accused the company of nurturing “boy’s club” culture, in wake of a recent major layoff.
The upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot has received their first roster of guest characters, which includes comic book characters Omni-Man from Invincible, Homelander from The Boys, and DC Comics’ Peacemaker.
In a surprising development, the girls seem to no longer be fighting, and The Idolmaster and Love Live! idol game franchises will be joining forces for an upcoming joint concert at the Tokyo Dome in December this year. The lineup is slated to feature singers from the different generations of the respective series.
