Epic destroys Exciting Events for failed Fortnite Event

In Europe, Exciting Events hosted the “Fortnite event of the year” in Norwich. To compare it to the Fyre Festival would be silly but attendees were paying for a dedicated Fortnite event. Tickets were £12 (roughly $16) and unlimited access wristbands were £20 ($26).

At the event were a climbing wall, archery, go-karts, and a truck with a trampoline in it. It was more of a carnival rather than a Fortnite event. Epic Games had nothing to do with the event.

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This is a slide ride

You could play Fortnite but you had to pay to play at the venue which goes against its free-to-play model. The lines were over 90 minutes long to play the game. Many parents were rightfully angry as the ticket prices were quite high, lines were long, activities were poorly, the event was poorly staffed, and people had to wait in the cold. Refunds were provided for people on the first day of the event through Facebook but the page has closed.

Queues for Fortnite Live Norwich
The line to play Fortnite at Norwich

Exciting Events will not continue all future Fortnite events in other countries for the year. The organizer, Shaun Lord, defended the event in Norwich according to EDP. 

“I would love it to be an annual thing. Those people who didn’t get value for money on activities, we have got to make that better next year. It is highlighted to us now that we didn’t have enough of that.

Lord stated the event was for children and many of the activities were oriented towards them. He stated they greatly improved it on the second day for people. According to the EDP survey, most people were dissatisfied with the event and would most likely not come back. There were only 72 consoles for over 2800 people. Kids would wait over two hours and if they died, they were forced off the console.

They are now being sued by Epic Games. An Epic spokesman said, “The quality of our player experience is incredibly important to us, whether it’s inside the game or at official public events like last year’s Fortnite Pro-Am.” Due to the lawsuit, Exciting Events is no longer trading on the stock market. All assets will be turned into cash and the funds distributed among creditors, including the HMRC.

Pictures of the Events

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Fortnite Live day two at the Norfolk Showground. Picture: Conor MatchettFortnite Live day two at the Norfolk Showground. Picture: Conor Matchett

Sources

BBC

EDP

EDP Survey

Eurogamer

Eurogamer 2

Darkest Dungeon 2: The Howling End teased

 

Red Hook Studios has announced the development of the sequel to Darkest Dungeon. The first game was originally designed by a team of 5 people and has now expanded to 14. While not date of release has been announced, Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa, Producer and Designer, stated that they are in no rush. The trailer features six familiar character classes—the Grave Robber, Leper, Man-at-Arms, Plague Doctor, Highwayman, and Hellion.

More details are in PC Gaming’s interview. Sigman and Bourassa stated they are planning to finetune the gameplay combat and expand more into the dark lore.

TL;DW Nintendo Direct 2.13.2019

I will add pictures and trailers soon!

Mario Maker 2: July 2019

  • More customization, more enemies

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: Summer 2019

  • 4 player co-op and can play with 4 Switchs together.
  • Online and local play

Box Boy x Box Girl!

  • A unique platformer where you utilize the box shape to solve puzzles
  • two player modes
  • beating the game unlocks cutie – a rectangle

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

  • Joker will release at the end of April
  • Patch 3.0 will release soon but no updates have been announced

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker: Special Episode: Out NOW

  • Free DLC updates!
  • Two players modes
  • New DLC courses. 18 in total

Blood Stain – Ritual of the Night: Summer 2019

Dragon Quest Builder 2

  • you can dash, fly, play in first person, dive underwater and you can teleport
  • if you own the previous game you get a free character costume and the Dragon’s Throne

Dragon Quest XI: Definitive Edition: Fall 2019

  • more info will be released over time

Disney TsumTsum Festival: TBD 2019

  • Tsum Tsum party games
  • Two players classic mode

Starlink: Battle for Atlas: April 2019

  • New DLC includes Fox’s team: Falco, Slippy, and Peppy
  • Battle against Wolf’s team: Wolf, Leon, Pigmar, Andrew, and Panther

Rune Factory 4 Special: 2019

  • An updated version of Rune Factory 4
  • You can raise monsters
  • You can get married!

Rune Factory 5 is in development

Oninaki – Square Enix: Summer 2019

  • Made by the same team who did Lost Sphere and I am Setsuna
  • Save people’s soul from becoming monsters
  • saving their souls gives you different abilities and weapons

Yoshi’s Crafted World

  • Multiple perspectives
  • many new worlds and costumes. Some costumes can only be unlocked by owning certain amiibos or products
  • Demo is releasing today

Fire Emblem Three Houses: July 26th

  • three kingdoms live in harmony
  • You play as a mercenary. Your group is ran by your father
  • You choose your house and act as a professor
  • You train your students to beat bandits and quell revolts
  • By having your students interact, their partnerships built and can do special attacks

Tetris 99: Out now

  • Free game if you have Nintendo Switch online
  • Upcoming events

Dead by Daylight: Summer 2019

  • The game looks awful in comparison to the PC and other console versions based on the trailer

Deltarune Chapter 1: February 28th

  • For free!
  • future chapters will not be free

DaemonxMachina

  • free demo Prototype mission for a limited time out now
  • Short online survey for certain players to help improve it

Grid Autosport: Summer 2019

  • All DLC will be included

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Mortal Kombal 11: April 23rd

Unravel 22: March 22nd

Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered

  • updated control scheme
  • will include all dlc

Final Fantasy 7: March 26th

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon Everybody: April

Final Fantasy 9 out today

Astral Chain: August 30th, 2019

  • New Platinum game
  • Made with developers from Nier: Automata
  • New IP by Nintendo where you fight monsters as cops who can transform

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: 2019

  • The classic and beloved remake of the Gameboy title
  • Similar look to Between Two Worlds

 

Sony pushes for a bigger focus on PlayStation Network with Exec changes

Yesterday, Sony announced a change in their executive management for PlayStation. Starting on April 1st, Jim Ryan will become the President and Chief Executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). John Kodera, the previous President, will become deputy President. 1

CEO and president Kenichiro Yoshida stated the move will “ensure sustainable evolution of the PlayStation platform and further growth of the network area.” Yoshida believes the change will help PlayStation Network grow as it has 90 million users. With so many users, Sony is looking to add more content for users to access.

Who is Jim Ryan?

Jim Ryan has been with Sony since 1994 and has been overseeing the Europe PlayStation market. He has helped established PlayStation as the dominant console in Europe and was promoted to deputy President for his successes. He is also known for his statement against backwards compatibility for the PlayStation 4 back in 2017.

“When we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much,” says Ryan. “That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”

sony-jim-ryan.png

Future Changes for Sony

While Ryan hasn’t announced any upcoming changes, Sony will not be attending E3 this year. People are predicting Sony will announce the PlayStation 5 this year and will save it for their own event PlayStation Experience (Which was not held in 2018). Sony may move towards a digital subscription service similar to the Xbox Game Pass which gives players access to the entire Xbox One and 360 libraries for a monthly fee. Subscription services are becoming more popular as it helps bring consistent revenue across the year rather than huge spikes at quarter ends.

Sources:

Polygon

Eurogamer

Times

Stanford Business