Hey folks, as usual, my name is Zaid, here to talk about all the gaming news that has been going on this week. Let’s get you caught up, a bunch of stuff, some good news and some bad news.
Fortnite Cheater Fined $175,000
Let’s start off with the crazy news. A cheater has lost in court and has been fined an insane amount of money. Tom’s Hardware reports that this cheater was fined $175,000 for using cheats to win in competitive “Fortnite” tournaments. According to the report, in four months he used a direct memory access device and cheats to get around anti-cheat measures and essentially won something to the tune of over $6,800 in prize winnings.
Imagine cheating to win seven grand and then you get nailed for $175,000. That seems like a big jump, but IGN actually got a look at the court documents and the court documents say as follows: “While the court notes the amount sought by plaintiff exceedingly surpasses defendant’s alleged actual gain, $6,850, defendant took significant measures to conceal the true scope of his cheating activities by creating multiple fake accounts and employing a hardware spoofer to circumvent detections.”
Epic Games did say that what they will win in court, they will donate the proceeds to charity. I think that is very cool, and yeah, this is just a big one, cracking down hard on cheaters. If you’re competing in cash competitions for cash prizes and you’re essentially cheating and stealing money, it seems like you’re gonna get nailed. It seems like “Fortnite” is gonna go out and kill you. (laughs)
There you have it. If you wanna read up on that and how that all went down, that’ll be linked in a description down below.
Massive Xbox Layoffs and Cancellations
Along with, you know, all the other news stories I talk about, which the next one is a big one. If that seemed like crazy news, this is rougher news. So Microsoft has announced something like over 9,000 layoffs, but a significant portion of that is Xbox and their gaming division.
So over the last day or so, we’ve seen a lot with reported layoffs across the board, from like Turn 10 Studios, ZeniMax Online, multiple “Call of Duty” Studios, King, the “Candy Crush” people, Xbox internal teams and significant Rare layoffs, with one of the head OG Rare people behind things like “Banjo Kazooie” and “Sea of Thieves” leaving the studio.
Along with those layoffs also comes cancellations. From what we know, we’re getting rumblings of like a bunch of different projects getting canceled with Matt Booty at Xbox’s statement saying unannounced projects were canceled. So stuff we didn’t even know about will now never see the light of day at all, as well as a project that ZeniMax Online was working on. Apparently they had invested significant time and resources and apparently it was going well. They were working on a new MMORPG ’cause that’s kind of their bread and butter. That has been canceled as well as the new “Perfect Dark” game.
Yes, this game that seemed like it was gonna be Xbox’s big thing in the next couple of years is completely canceled, and the studio they built up to make this game, The Initiative, they shut it down. Also, Rare’s other big game, “Project Everwild,” which was revealed a few years back, that has been completely canceled.
Most of this news dropped yesterday and I’m recording this Thursday afternoon to be off for the Friday holiday and it seems like information is still trickling out about this. We’re still hearing about cancellations, a canceled agreement with Romero Games, like John Romero’s studio to make some project, that has apparently been scrapped. There’s just a lot of stuff, a lot of fallout still coming from this. Studios and teams still finding out about layoffs, and yeah, it seems like a big one.
When the rumors were bubbling up for this, I actually expected even more damage, but even still, this is actually I believe the fourth major round of layoffs from Xbox in about two years. So this is crazy. This is restructuring, you know, Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer put out like this whole statement being like, “We need to do this to,” like, you know, quote him, but yeah, essentially to paraphrase, trim the fat to set up the future of Xbox and be more profitable and blah blah blah blah blah, all that stuff. Whatever, man.
Of course our heart goes out to like people working hard on games that just lost their jobs. I feel like we say that every time, but at this point now, it’s kind of just getting extremely frustrating as someone who just plays games and wants new games to play, it seems like Xbox seems to be fumbling a lot here.
I just want more games to play and it just seems like Xbox has continued to fumble that and kind of like get in the way of themselves.
Red Dead Online Gets a Spooky Update
Along with the Xbox stuff, it seems like cancellations have kind of been the theme for the last week or so. I missed this at the end of last week’s news show, but “Hytale” has been canceled. Yes, the long, long in the works project has been shitcanned. So it’s like what was even going on there?
Also, Techland, you know, the developer/publisher behind “Dying Light” and stuff like that. They have reportedly canceled two games as well. No layoffs there, but apparently that sci-fi game that they revealed like a few years back, that has been canceled according to Insider Gaming.
But in some more positive news, it seems like “Red Dead Online” is back, kind of, maybe a little bit. Like Rockstar was like, “Oh yeah, we have this. Let’s make this cool again.” So suddenly, out of nowhere for people, a new trailer dropped revealing a whole new thing for “Red Dead Online.” This is “Strange Tales of the West” and this just brings a bunch of updates as of right now. New outfits, discounts like double XP, double money, all this like stuff like that.
But the most significant thing is four new “Strange Tales of the West” Telegram Missions, essentially involving haunted stuff in Braithwaite Manor, a swamp creature in the Bayou, a weird sickness in Armadillo and more. Is this enough to like really inject a ton of life into “Red Dead Online?”
I don’t know, I still think all the focus is probably on the next generation of “Red Dead Online,” but I figured this was worth mentioning ’cause some people were like, “Oh my god, Red Dead Online is back,” and technically it is ’cause it got a little bit of an injection here. Is it enough? I don’t know. But I’m happy there’s something and I’m also happy that it’s something a little spooky, like how “Red Dead,” of course once flourished with “Undead Nightmare.”
So yeah, honestly, if you are a “Red Dead Online” person, I would love to know what you think more than anything.
Stop Killing Games Movement Gains Momentum
In some positive news, last week, you may have known I mentioned “Stop Killing Games.” If you’ve been following that initiative, I think it’s very important. Last week I talked about how it was falling short of its goals of getting signatures for petitions to essentially encourage the EU and the UK to look into measures, you know, essentially protecting games, people buying games and not losing access to those games because of those games shutting down.
It wasn’t just our video, like there were so many other people out there making stuff, like we’re a drop in the bucket. But like Jacksepticeye did a great video as well, raising awareness for this. And a resurgence has helped it cross a hundred signatures for UK. So now UK Parliament is going to have to take a look at this, which is great.
Also the EU as of today, as of recording this, has surpassed 1 million signatures. But Accursed Farms who has been behind this initiative has pointed out that like, you know, errors in these signatures or you know, fraudulent signatures are gonna be null and void. So people should still go to this if they haven’t yet, to make sure that that 1 million threshold stays surpassed.
So I said it in the last video and I say it now, if you heard about it and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I really gotta click on that and do that,” and you know, if you’re in the UK or the EU, now is the time. To speak a little bit more of my native tongue, get your ass out there, sign up for this thing, read up on it, you know, get going.
AC Black Flag Remake Teased
Also, if you’re like me and you love “AC Black Flag,” for me, it was like one of my favorite “Assassin’s Creed” games, really one of my favorite pirate games more than anything. Of course there’s been that long rumored remake, remaster floating around. If you’ve been waiting for news for that, you know, other than Ubisoft kind of low-key confirming it, we haven’t heard anything, but it seems like the voice actor behind Edward Kenway has dropped a big hint.
He was doing a signing at like a convention or something like that and a fan videoed him and he had kind of said, and I quote, “Have you beat the game? Well you may have to beat it again. There’s a reason I say that but I can’t say anything more.”
So there you have it, pretty much from the horse’s mouth. At this point, I think we have plenty of confirmation, but maybe it means sooner rather than later. You know, I’d still very much like them to make a new “Assassin’s Creed” pirate game. They should have just continued that as a thing. But you know, at least one of my favorite ones is getting some new love.
I didn’t necessarily think it needed like a remake, maybe a rerelease, maybe a little bit of a remaster. But either way, we’re just gonna have to wait and see what exactly Ubisoft is doing with it. ‘Cause of course, there’s been lots of questions up in the air for Ubisoft lately.
New Game Announcements and Updates
Next, some announcements and some videos you should check out. The first is a new game announcement. This is like a psychological horror first-person game with puzzles. It seems like it might have FMV sequences as well. This is from Surgent Studios. This is “Dead Take.” This has made a splash because it features heavily prominent voice actors. Neil Newbon, who of course you might know from “Baldur’s Gate 3,” as well as Ben Starr who you might know from like everything right now. (chuckles)
It seems like that might be a smaller game, smaller experience, but if it’s that genre that’s up your alley, maybe keep an eye on it.
Also, speaking of things I’ve been keeping my eye on, “Mafia: The Old Country,” got a new developer diary, this is their fifth one. You get little glimpses of gameplay here. So if you’re curious like me, this focuses on some of the vehicle stuff but also some of the shooting, the weapons, and stuff like that. But thankfully, we don’t have to wait too much longer for that ’cause that game is out in August.
Also a gameplay overview of “Robocop: Rogue City’s” new kind of, not expansion but standalone thing, “Unfinished Business.” I am so excited for this as a Robocop fan, I loved “Rogue City,” and here we get new enemy types, a whole new adventure, new weapons including like a cryo cannon. Finishing moves, like you’re gonna be able to walk up and do melee finishers to characters.
Also, it seems like there’s an enemy type that’s like the ninja from the awful “Robocop 3.” So if you get to like kick their ass and just beat them up, like that’s, I like that. I like that a lot. That appeals to me as a Robocop fan.
Also a new gameplay overview of “Donkey Kong Bonanza.” The hype cycle for this one has been ramping up, the marketing has been ramping up also. People have gotten hands-on previews of this, press and YouTubers and stuff like that, and it seems like the sentiment is very positive.
Helldivers Coming to Xbox
Also, lastly, I know it’s been gloom and doom, especially with like the Xbox news and stuff like that, but some good news for Xbox fans today. “Helldivers” is coming to Xbox, it’s gonna be dropping August 26th and that’s pretty cool. Obviously the floodgates are open now at this point with like exclusivity, it’s like everything is showing up on everything. Like you’re gonna be able to play “Gears of War” with a PlayStation controller, but I think specifically with “Helldivers,” it’s cool because “Helldivers” is awesome.
That’s all I got. So people who have been sitting around hoping to maybe play it one day, now’s your chance, it’s good. And that’s dropping August 26th.
Conclusion
But that’s where I gotta cut it short today, guys. Let me know in the comments what you’re playing. That’s the most important thing, pinned comment. Hit us up with what you’re playing for our blog research, whether it’s “Death Stranding 2,” something new or something old. Anything at all, hit us up.
And let me know what you think about all the stories, right? Of course, the Xbox layoffs, the massive bomb that Xbox dropped. What are they doing with these franchises? What are they doing with these studios? Let me know what you think about any of these canceled games. Let me know what you think about a cheater getting fined $175,000 for “Fortnite” cheating. Let’s talk about any of the gaming news down in the comments, man, hit me up.