If you weren’t able to get your hands on the NES Classic two years ago and have been avoiding scrapers who are selling the console for three times the price, you’re in luck. Nintendo is bringing back the NES Classic Edition on June 29th. They expect the stock to last for the rest of 2018.
The NES Classic is set for $59.99 and the games will remain the same.
Last week, a group of female gamers known as “Bully Hunters” was created. The organization was created with collaboration from FCB Chicago, a marketing agency. Their goal was to attack players who harassed women players in Counter Strike: Global Offense. They described themselves as “vigilante hit squad of elite female gamers.” The Bully Hunters would attack harassers of women from the game with their “skills and talent.” Bully Hunters was backed by some high-profile supporters: Twitch streamer ZombiUnicorn, a spokesperson for the campaign, as well as SteelSeries, Vertagear, CyberPowerPC, the Diverse Gaming Coalition, and the National Organization for Women. Their goal was to bring more awareness of online gaming bullying. A noble goal but Bully Hunters had suspicious activities from day one.
Their debut stream showcased footage that was prerecorded, excessive promotion of their sponsor, Steel Series, and a poor statistic showcase of harassment in games.
Many sponsors stopped supporting Bully Hunters after the first stream. They began to disagree and were misled with the methods of how Bully Hunters worked. Natalie “ZombiUnicorn” Casanova was another part of Bully Hunters that was heavily scrutinized. She is a YouTube and Twitch streamer. Many tweets, streamed footage included her using homophobic slurs and using offensive language. They were spread across Twitter and social media websites to discredit her as an appropriate spokesperson. Casanova defended her responses as they were in the past, particularly the stream footage which was 6 years old. She also defended her use of foul languages as they were responses back to online harassment.
Statement on my involvement with #BullyHunters as a host & consultant for experience with harassment:
Due to the o… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…—
🦄 Nati Casanova | ZombiUnicorn (@TheZombiUnicorn) April 13, 2018
After 5 days, Bully Hunter has been disbanded. FCB Chicago announced the disbandment of the organization on April 17th. All videos, websites, and social media pages have been deleted. The Global Chief Communications officer, Brandon Cooke, stated: “As this effort did not live up to our high standards, we decided to end this program, but hope the conversation it has raised around ending harassment in gaming continues.”
Everyone can agree that the gaming community can be improved. There are different communities for different games so its impossible to target every gamer. Online competitive gaming communities are notorious for being unwelcoming to women. However, creating a group of women players to attack players was a dangerous tactic that didn’t work. The way Bully Hunters were marketed as a serious, dangerous group of females but ended up being a joke before the end of the day. It makes them too serious without proving their abilities. All talk and no action, especially since the first stream footage was revealed to be fake.
Some trolls can escalate their negative emotions through gaming. “Not only does engaging griefers and trolls validate their negative behavior, it can also backfire and antagonize them, increasing the aggression towards their targets,” said Holly Greene, an assistant editor for Paste Games and has done work on Gamasutra, Polygon, Unwinnable, and other video game news publications.
PC Gamer – Bully Hunter Origin
PC Gamer – Bully Hunters Disband
Steel Series Statement on Bully Hunters
Diverse Gamer drops Sponsorship message
After the amazing success of the Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy, Activision is now remastering the Spyro trilogy (Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, Spyro: Year of the Dragon) from the PlayStation. Known as Spyro Reignited Trilogy, the game is for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The release date is September 21st. The game was originally created by Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Jax, Infamous, Spider-man). Developer Toys for Bob is handling remastering duties for the Spyro trilogy. They are known for their work on Skylanders.
Similar to the Crash Trilogy, the game is being remade from the ground up. The game will feature all new assets, lighting, controls, and some characters will have “creatively re-imagined with additional flair.” The game will also have improved control. Although the PlayStation 1 Spyro games are classics, the controls can be improved. The soundtrack will also be a re-imagined version of composer Stewart Copeland’s soundtrack.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy will cost $39.99.
Last year, Niantic held their first outdoor event festival dedicated to Pokemon Go in June. It was held in Chicago Grant Park and the idea was for players to meet, catch the rare Pokemon, Lugia, and create an event that people have been asking for since the creation of Pokemon Go. It didn’t go as planned.
Huge issues occured such as failed cellar connectivity, huge lines, sign in issues, and the inability to play the game frustrations and led to lawsuits. People were understandably frustrated and Niantic responded by offering to refund the 20,000 attendees the ticket price of the Chicago event and offer $100 of in-game currency. Niantic was involved in a class action lawsuit and will be paying $1,575,000 to refund the attendee’s ticket prices along with airfare, hotel fees, parking, car rent and fuel, and toll fees.
According to documentation in the Chicago court, the settlement should be solve by May 25th and victims will receive emails regarding the payment. There are check systems to ensure people aren’t lying about attending the event. You’ll need proof that you checked in at the Go Festival in Chicago and anybody who has spent over $107 must provide receipts to receive full reimbursement. If there is any leftover money, the remaining balance will be split evenly and donated to the Illinois Bar foundation and the nonprofit organization Chicago Run. Niantic will not receive any money for the event.
From a business POV, its great to hear a company apologizing to their users. Recently, gaming companies have been closely inspected for poor business practices. Niantic has been working to create smaller, focused events such as raids for Pokemon Go and has clearly learned from their mistakes from the Chicago Go Fest. They have continuously improved and updated on the game and still remains as one the most downloaded app.
The Gaming News Corner 
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10588413/Spyro_Reignited_Trilogy_009.jpg){kind=link}