Game Bytes: FF XIV Ban Hammers Hit, And Animal Crossing Jumps The Gun
It’s been a heck of a November already and with the holiday season coming up, new video games and sales are all right around the corner just waiting to become that perfect gift. November came in heavy with tons of news, drops and more controversies.
Animal Crossing kicked off last week well with its 2.0 update, however the update wasn’t supposed to arrive until Friday but instead they released it early much to the happiness of its fan base. The update has brought with it new hairstyles and the ability to store DIY recipes, among many other things. Nintendo did make a choice to wait until Friday for their paid update to the same game, the Happy Home Paradise DLC, which many have been saying is like a whole separate game with how much there is to do. As far as Nintendo has currently announced, these are the final updates to the global phenomenon that has become Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
There has been more news from Nintendo than just Animal Crossing. The global computer chip shortage continues to negatively impact gaming companies, and Nintendo isn’t immune. The new generation consoles have been in high demand but low supply for some time. Nintendo will produce only about 24 million units of the Switch through March, 2022. This is a decrease of 20 percent from what Nintendo had originally planned to produce 30 million of its consoles for the period. For many who sought to get a Switch during the pandemic, it already was a hard run so it’s as yet to be seen what impact this will have on the holiday buying season.
The acclaimed Final Fantasy XIV has been banning accounts for real-money trading (RMT) in its recent update and crackdown. Final Fantasy XIV recently introduced a number of changes to how players could make use of in-game advertisements and the game’s Party Finder tool in an effort to stop accounts participating in RMT. After a week of this crackdown more than 7,000 accounts have been banned. Final fantasy XIV isn’t the only MMO that has started to really crackdown on the issue of RMT, as World of Warcraft and other popular MMOs have also been following suit.
Activision Blizzard is once again in the spotlight for their ongoing controversy. Jen Oneal, one of the top bosses at Blizzard, announced her departure from Blizzard Entertainment on Nov. 2, just three months after she was named co-leader, alongside Mike Ybarra, of the Warcraft and Diablo studio. “I wanted to tell the Blizzard community this personally because I want you to know I believe so strongly in Mike and the rest of Blizzard’s leadership both in terms of Blizzard’s culture and Blizzard’s games,” Oneal said in an interview. This announcement comes only a week after the cancellation of the related major gaming event, Blizzcon 2022. Blizzard says that the energy usually dedicated to putting on the yearly convention will instead be put toward “supporting our teams and progressing development of our games and experiences.” The cancellation happened during the ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination charges at the company, although Blizzard has made no connection between the two. While Oneal stated her departure had nothing to do with the negatives of the company and instead is a positive thing, the timing was rather poor.
PlayStation had its holiday State of Play event and announced a few new games as well as some new DLC. One of the bigger announcements was Star Ocean The Divine Force which had a trailer. A new Among Us-type game titled First Class Trouble was shown and will be coming to PlayStation Plus this month and seems to be in line to be a hit game to play with friends. A free-to-play cart racer titled Kartrider Drift was announced for PS4 as well as the indie game Death’s Door coming to both PS4 and PS5 this month on Nov. 23.
November so far has graced us with many releases. On the first of November, First Class Trouble (PC) was released. On the 2nd, First Class Trouble (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4), Fortnite Minty Legends Pack (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch), Tunche (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Unpacking (Xbox One, Switch, PC) and World War Z (Switch) were released. Bloodshore (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS, Android) and The Solitaire Conspiracy (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S) were released on the 3rd. Releasing on the 4th we had A Boy and His Blob (Switch), Just Dance 2022 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Stadia), The Binding Of Isaac: Repentance (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Switch), and Where Cards Fall (Switch, PC). Finally on the 5th, Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise DLC (Switch), Call of Duty: Vanguard (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), and Let’s Build a Zoo (PC) were released.
November is only just getting started so stay tuned for tons of more gaming news and releases. Remember to follow us on YouTube and Twitch or any other platform you like to use for reviews, articles, cosplay and so much more of the content you all love.
