General Gaming News.

[meiam]

Could this signal the beginning of the end of Blizzard's Battle.net app?

Blizzard’s bringing its PC games to Steam, starting with Overwatch 2

Blizzard Entertainment’s PC games are no longer exclusive to Battle.net. Starting with Overwatch 2, Blizzard will bring select PC games to Valve’s Steam store.

www.polygon.com

At least this is one thing that we can probably thank Microsoft for.

But honestly, this seems like a little tiny thing, but it really opens a lot of opportunities. Frankly, I often forget about my Battle.net library (and everything in it) because Steam really is the PC's one-stop-shop for my PC library, and everything that I own outside of Steam, just kind of fades away into the abyss that is my memory. Putting Blizzard's games on Steam gives them a brand-new spotlight.

And secondly: Steam Deck. Sure, you can probably fenangle the Steam Deck to allow you to install Battle.net, but this is just going to make the whole process so much easier.

blizzard seem to be officially giving up on OW2

The Overwatch League As We Know It Is Dead

Around 50 people in Activision Blizzard's esports department were let go this week as OWL interest rapidly cools

kotaku.com

Who would have tought that severely mismanaging one of the most promising new IP would lead to failure.

 

[BrawlMan]

blizzard seem to be officially giving up on OW2

The Overwatch League As We Know It Is Dead

Around 50 people in Activision Blizzard's esports department were let go this week as OWL interest rapidly cools

kotaku.com

Who would have tought that severely mismanaging one of the most promising new IP would lead to failure.

The OverWatch League was already dead to begin with. It's just that everyone around was either too oblivious or too stupid to notice.

Evo is here!

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[FakeSympathy]

blizzard seem to be officially giving up on OW2

The Overwatch League As We Know It Is Dead

Around 50 people in Activision Blizzard's esports department were let go this week as OWL interest rapidly cools

kotaku.com

Who would have tought that severely mismanaging one of the most promising new IP would lead to failure.

And of course rather than admitting their failures, they'd rather double down and ride the derailed train off the cliff. Isn't that how they killed off HotS?

 

[Cicada 5]

 

[laggyteabag]

blizzard seem to be officially giving up on OW2

The Overwatch League As We Know It Is Dead

Around 50 people in Activision Blizzard's esports department were let go this week as OWL interest rapidly cools

kotaku.com

Who would have tought that severely mismanaging one of the most promising new IP would lead to failure.

This is almost exactly what happened to Heroes of the Storm before they put the game on life support.

All of these games chasing eSports, without realising that eSports simply isn't something that you can just force into existence.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Because they either don't have battlenet account or don't have the games. For either case, they want the games to be bought and installed from a uniform platform, usually steam. Kinda with them on that one.

If Diablo 2 or 4 comes to steam, I am 90% sure they will get it. Especially this one guy who is absolutely in love with looter games

That never made a lick of sense to me. I wish I could go to McDonalds to get sushi, but alas I have to go different places to get different things. Crazy.

I think in this case of buying and using games it would be like ordering a Big Mac but having to drive to the BK parking lot to eat it. One of those double edged swords regarding PC being a decentralized environment.

 

[laggyteabag]

That never made a lick of sense to me. I wish I could go to McDonalds to get sushi, but alas I have to go different places to get different things. Crazy.

I know it sounds petty, but it really is frustrating.

If it was just two, then fair enough. But it isn't. I literally have nine different libraries of games installed on my PC at the moment. Theres Steam, the EA App, Occulus/Meta Quest, Ubisoft Connect, the Riot one, Epic Games, Battle.net, Xbox, and GOG. Even Bethesda tried to have their own launcher with DOOM Eternal. Fragmenting your library of games like that gets beyond frustrating, and I often forget that I even own certain games, because they aren't on Steam, which is probably 99% of people's primary library of games.

I would never turn my nose up at a game that I was interested in playing, just because it wasn't on Steam, but it is just frustrating that I literally have to use a third-party app just to keep track of where I own my games.

And sure, knowing where some games are is easier than others, like if I wanted to play an Xbox gamepass game, I would obviously open the Xbox app, but some of it (especially where the Epic Game Store gets involved) is completely arbitrary. And additionally, some of these apps force their way into other launchers, like needing to open up the Ubisoft Connect app to play a game that you brought through Steam, which can actually break compatibility for something like the Steam Deck.

Its just a massive inconvenience and constant frustration.

At least Epic gives you free games though.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I know it sounds petty, but it really is frustrating.

I mean petty is the right word for it.

And maybe it is just me, but I have no problem with this. I have i think 402 games on steam, 50 on Epic (mostly free), and I have battle net. While I typically only shop on steam, it doesn't bother me to have games installed from different platforms. I don't have to drive anywhere, at worst it's clicking a different icon on your desktop. And some games have always been exclusive to certain things like Blizzard games, so I know where to get WoW or Diablo from.

Plus once you have a game installed, just clicking the executable shortcut will automatically load any launcher required if it needs to. It's like complaining about crossing the street when there is literally a crosswalk that stops traffic for you.

On another note, https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2-battle-pass-pve-player-count-steam-blizzard-1850659184

This is why it's coming to steam. It's only to fish for players nothing more.

 

[BrawlMan]

Game over at the Federal Trade Commission

Concerns over the absence of regulatory guardrails are illustrated by the agency’s challenge to the Microsoft/Activision acquisition.

thehill.com

A new King Kong game has been leaked by Amazon | VGC

Update: Skull Island: Rise of Kong is officially coming to PC and consoles this year…

www.videogameschronicle.com

@CriticalGaming, you may not like this...

Borderlands: Eli Roth video game adaptation gets an August 2024 release

Director Eli Roth's adaptation of the Borderlands video game series will be getting an August 2024 theatrical release

www.joblo.com

Eli Roth?! Out of all the directors, they pick him?! I didn't even know the still made movies! After Hostel II, he pretty much when off the radar!

G.I. Joe Snake Eyes Game Gets the Thumbs Up From Wizards of the Coast - IGN

A G.I. Joe Snake Eyes video game has entered pre-production after approval from Wizards of the Coast.

www.ign.com

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[meiam]

Gundam Evolution to End Its Service In November, Updates Will Still Take Place

the game will seize operation effective November 29th, 2023.

www.gundamkitscollection.com

Gundam evolution, the overwatch clone with gundam, is closing down. It hasn't even been out for a year yet. Crazy how much money company throw at trying to make online only game that don't really have much of a chance to survive.

Combat trailer for atlas fallen (actually you need to skip the first minute to get actual gameplay), still looks decent

 

[CriticalGaming]

you may not like this...

Nobody does.

 

[Casual Shinji]

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Insomniac still isn't too good at realistic faces. I know they're all scaned in, but the way they're lit and animated makes them look very Avenger-y. Miles looks pretty alright, but Peter, M.J., and Harry...

Trailer overall looks alright though.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Insomniac still isn't too good at realistic faces. I know they're all scaned in, but the way they're lit and animated makes them look very Avenger-y. Miles looks pretty alright, but Peter, M.J., and Harry...

Trailer overall looks alright though.

Same thoughts. I think it's in the eyes. I thought Doc Ock in the first game looked way better than both version of Peter, which is kinda ironic.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Same thoughts. I think it's in the eyes. I thought Doc Ock in the first game looked way better than both version of Peter, which is kinda ironic.

Might be because Otto was supposed to look like kind of a wormy dude, like a grocery store owner, so that when he goes full Doc Ock he suddenly has this huge intimidation factor that was never there before.

And is it me or does Peter's face look kinda even worse now? Might be the hair. I don't want to come down too hard on this game, I am looking forward to it, but in the last few years I've taken a bit of a set against the designs in these Spider-Man games. In particular the villain outfits (minus Doc Ock, he looks great). Please, no more costumes that look like 3D-printed plastic. I'd ask for full-on spandex/fabric, but I know that'll never happen. But seriously, how much more fun and awesome would Rhino look if he was just a huge, hulking dude in spandex, as opposed to cyborg guy?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I mean petty is the right word for it.

And maybe it is just me, but I have no problem with this. I have i think 402 games on steam, 50 on Epic (mostly free), and I have battle net. While I typically only shop on steam, it doesn't bother me to have games installed from different platforms. I don't have to drive anywhere, at worst it's clicking a different icon on your desktop. And some games have always been exclusive to certain things like Blizzard games, so I know where to get WoW or Diablo from.

Plus once you have a game installed, just clicking the executable shortcut will automatically load any launcher required if it needs to. It's like complaining about crossing the street when there is literally a crosswalk that stops traffic for you.

On another note, https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2-battle-pass-pve-player-count-steam-blizzard-1850659184

This is why it's coming to steam. It's only to fish for players nothing more.

It’s pretty similar to the streaming service side of things now, where a different app is needed for nearly everything. It may be all contained in a dashboard menu and you can most likely just use the same ID/password for them all, but all apps don’t function equally. I’d say FireTV or Roku helps simplify things more-so than having a bunch of different game launchers that have their own issues. PC as a platform has always naturally been a step or two behind in this though.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[hanselthecaretaker2]

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Can’t believe I ever doubted their ability to infuse Souls-like aesthetics and atmospheric detail into an apocalyptic industrial setting full of robots.

 

[BrawlMan]

​

 

[FakeSympathy]

New Borderlands project is a massively multiplayer interactive streaming series

In the “massively interactive live event” from Gearbox and Genvid, announced at SDCC 2023, viewers will collectively decide on a shared outcome

www.polygon.com

And it looks like the movie isn't the only way BL is getting fucked over.

 

[Cicada 5]

​

Video game selection menus keep getting so much more fun.