Target’s Big Discount Code Disater

Late last night, Target release six coupon text codes which gave users 15% off products and 20% off if you spend over $50. While most discounts are good, there was a glitch that allowed coupons to stack.

Some people began buying video game consoles and televisions with the coupons. People began to rush to order online and “Pick up a Store” before the store could cancel their request. Even I did it this morning. I paid for two Nintendo Switch games for $43. Some people saved over $300! Unfortunately, all the codes have been disabled and texting will no longer provide you with the discount. But for a brief couple of hours, Target probably lost a huge profit. Thanks to CheapAssGamers for tweeting this deal. Check out their website and Twitter for more.

Fortnite Summer Tournament begins!

Starting this weekend, Epic will be hosting their Fortnite Summer Skirmishes. The series is 8-weeks long with the reward being $8 million! This is the first in-game tournament with prize money on the line for Epic. The prize is $250,000 for Duos (Two people on the same team in a Battle Royale). Epic chose specific players and Community Creators who are actually competitively good. Invitations have already been sent so if you’re expecting to receive one, sorry.

Each tournament will be a different format which will keep tournament interesting. There will also be different qualifying factors for each tournament so players will change accordingly.

Earlier this year, Epic announced that they will be starting their own competitive venue with the pot being $100 million. With Fortnite becoming the top viewed game on Twitch, their self-hosted tournaments will grab them a bigger audience. It will be more professional but it may lead to smaller tournaments disappearing as more players will compete for a higher prize and properly run.

Sources:

Fortnite Summer Skirmishes

Polygon

TL;DR: Guild Wars 2 Writers Firing

Jessica Price and Peter Fries, former story writers for Guild Wars 2, were recently let go from ArenaNet. The company promotes their developers and game designers to communicate with the player base. However, a recent Twitter response from Prince against a player resulted in her release.

Click on the thread to see the response.

  • Prince is open with her opinions on her Twitter and wasn’t forced to respond based on corporate
  • Deroir is a YouTube partner with a focus on GW2 (Guild Wars 2)
  • Prince had recently done an AMA on story crafting for GW2 and went to Twitter to tweet further regarding the topic
  • Deroir responded and offered his own opinion on storytelling
  • Princes’ responded on July 4th:

Prince began to expand further on Twitter:

“Today in being a female game dev: ‘Allow me–a person who does not work with you–explain to you how you do your job.'”

Minutes later, she added: “like, the next rando asshat who attempts to explain the concept of branching dialogue to me–as if, you know, having worked in game narrative for a fucking DECADE, I have never heard of it–is getting instablocked. PSA.”

Peter Fries also jumped into the conversation and defended Prince:

“Today is a national holiday. It is our day off, after working hard for months on our most recent content release. If I’m being embarrassing and unprofessional, it’s because I’m enjoying a beverage in the sun in my backyard and this nonsense is being directed at someone I respect. Jessica is great at her job and deserves to be treated with respect, was the gist of what I was reacting to.”

ArenaNet president Mike O’Brien released a statement that both employees were released on July 5th:

Recently two of our employees failed to uphold our standards of communicating with players. Their attacks on the community were unacceptable. As a result, they’re no longer with the company.

I want to be clear that the statements they made do not reflect the views of ArenaNet at all. As a company we always strive to have a collaborative relationship with the Guild Wars community. We value your input. We make this game for you

Prince stated that O’Brien ” caved to a handful of people and an army of bots and sock puppets….now he’s got almost every female developer I know — as well as some men — furious with him.”

However, O’Brien stated “Whatever Jessica and Peter felt internally about the situation, this was objectively a customer engaging us respectfully and professionally, presenting a suggestion for our game. Any response from our company needed to be respectful and professional. A perceived slight doesn’t give us license to attack.

Who do you side with? Do you think Prince spoke too harshly and her layoff was warranted? Or do you believe O’Brien and ArenaNet took the proper steps to lay off Prince and Fries? Both sides have huge supporters and it will be interesting to see how this will end.

Sources:

Polygon

Guild Wars 2 Forum – O’Brien Response

Guild Wars 2 – Community Responses

Eurogamer

Princes’ Twitter Responses

 

 

 

Is the Switch doing well for 2018?

Last year, Nintendo set the gaming world on fire with the launch of the Switch. Within one year of its launch, it has sold more than 1.5 million units. Despite a very strong last year, 2018 has made fans and investors spectacle on the future of the Switch. Nintendo has stated they will sell 20 million units before the end of the consoles’ life cycle but investors are uneasy.

Investors POV

Nintendo rarely listens to investors or their insights. It took many years for them to start in the mobile market despite it being a multi-billion business. Gaming investors and shareholders generally push for companies to start in the mobile industry. After this year’s E3, Nintendo didn’t impress and their stocks dropped dramatically. Their highest this year was in March but has dropped by 34%. The drop is so drastic that Nintendo’s former President Tatsumi Kimishima had to reassure shareholders that Nintendo still has more games to be announced for 2018.

The two big games Nintendo has announced for 2018 are Pokemon Let’s Go and Super Smash Bros: Ultimate. Despite the new Pokemon entry, it is not a new mainstream Pokemon title. Smash is also more of an updated port of Smash 4 rather than an entirely new title. This has led to investors’ lack of confidence in the company. Despite this, Nintendo has made over three million dollars in profit from their new title, Pokemon Quest.  Their other mobile games such as Mario Run, Fire Emblem HEROES!!!!!!! and Pokemon Go have also made millions in profit. Despite fears, GameStop has seen massive sales increase for the Switch.

Switch Sales grows at GameStop

While the digital purchases continue to grow, GameStop still remains a prevalent store for young consumers. After E3, Switch sales doubled over the course of the week. Super Smash Bros: and Pokemon received a multitude of pre-orders including the Pokeball accessories. However, the sales of the Nintendo Labo still remains to be heard but based on all of the boxes left at stores, I don’t think it is going well.

Opinion

I have complete faith in Nintendo. Despite the slow year, I am having a blast with the Nintendo Switch. Although many of their games this year have been ports, Nintendo will continue to work on great games. They take their time and are willing to take fan complaints without succumbing to pressure from investors or public demand. How well do you think Nintendo will finish their 2018?

Sources:

Forbers – Investor Worry

Gameindustry Biz – GameStop sales

IGN – President of Nintendo tries to quells investors fear

Cnet – Pokemon Quest Revenue

Nintendo Life – Pokemon Go profits