The Gaming News Corner

China will begin restricting Game Releases to “Reduce strain on kid’s eyes”

China has always been strict on video game releases. As a country with massive censorship and regulations, video games are difficult to release. This month, China started a video game freeze to prevent new game releases which made many studios and developers nervous. China has the highest sale potential outside of the United States. The gaming industry in China was expected to have over $24 billion in revenue in 2018 according to Newzoo. Unfortunately, China recently announced they will start regulating video game releases.

Chinese president, Xi Jinping, stated the game regulations are ruining children’s eyes. A recent growth in myopia (nearsightednesses) in China has caused great concerns. While reports from the BBC and Professors state it may due to excessive studying and lack of sunlight, the Chinese government believe it’s a different goat.

“With a wave of my hand, you will see again!”

The regulations are still blurry at the moment but expect heavier censorship from China. New video game releases will be heavily moderated and limited and reduce the number of online games available. In response to the changes, Tencent’s stock has dropped by 5% in a single day. Tencent is a game publisher in China and they own Riot (League of Legends) and has huge stock in Epic (Fortnite). They were supposed to release Monster Hunter World in China but it was pulled off the market due to “complaints.” The removal may have been due to the proposed video game regulation.

Sources:

Ben Plays: Kingdom Hearts 1.5. Episode 9

Nintendo takes down Pokemon Fankit

If you ever played or downloaded an unofficial Pokémon game on your computer, it was most likely built with Pokémon Essential. It is an RPG Maker XP using Pokémon assets from previous generations.

Pokémon Essentials provides full tilesets, maps, music, and sprites that players can drag and drop onto a canvas. All the classic mechanics necessary to collect and battle Pokémon come packed-in, too. While the tool has a learning curve, for the most part, fans are able to focus more on the plot of their games. Accordingly, some cool recent projects I’ve spotted include narrative concepts like telling battle stories around a camp fire, and staging an attack against the notorious Silph Co. corporation – Kotaku

Voluntary Twitch, the creative director behind Pokémon Uranium stated Pokémon Essential and was essential to its 9-year development. Uranium was downloaded over 1 million times before receiving a Cease and Desist by Nintendo two years ago.

New Pokemon was developed for the Uranium

Today, Marin, from the PokeCommunity forums, stated that Nintendo of America has forced them to take down the Wikia and all associated downloads for Pokemon Essential. Any mods that used Essential must be taken down. Although Marin asked the community not to be angry with Nintendo, many fans have clamored against the company. On the gaming forum, ResetEra, fans are angry over Nintendo’s decision to take down Essential.

Some users are commenting that the IP and assets are originally Nintendo’s content and they have the right to take it down. This isn’t the first time Nintendo has taken down fanmade content. They have taken down the fan remake of Super Mario 64, Super Metroid and most recent, ROM sites that host many of their games.

Nintendo and many gaming companies have the right to take down fanmade games but this has led to many fans criticizing their practices. Often the fan games are free and don’t take money or time from the companies themselves. Some companies are more supportive and allow fan content to be created such as Capcom with Megaman X Street Fighter. It is a difficult issue for any company.

Do you think gaming companies should be more lenient on fan developers making free games using their IP?

Sources:

PokeCommunity

Eurogamer

ResetEra

Kotaku – Pokemon Essential Write Up

Polygon – Uranium taken down

2K and Blizzard removes Loot Boxes from Belgium and Netherlands

Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Heores of the Storm) and 2K (Borderlands, Mafia, NBA 2K series) has removed the micro-transactions portions from their games: Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and NBA 2K18. This is to comply with Belgium and Netherlands’ gambling laws. The countries considers loot box as gambling. 2K’s and Blizzard’s official statement are below.

TL;DR: In Belgium, players can’t purchase MyTeam packs (read: loot boxes) with real money, though they can still be acquired by earning currency in-game. in Netherlands, players will not be able to access Auction House, a feature that allows you to buy and sell your players. (Eurogamer.net) For Blizzard, players can no longer use real money for loot boxes in Overwatch and HoTS.

If you read the statement, 2K and Blizzard disagrees with the banning and believes they are following the law with their initial practices. They actively asked their players to contact the local government to allow their loot box system.

The loot box system is a disgusting and frustrating way to extract more money from players. While more people are growing aware of the unfair practice, there are still many players purchasing loot boxes. Last year, Blizzard earned over $3 billion USD from loot box sales. Often, gaming companies state that loot boxes are to make back the expenses from development.

Sources: