Fast Travel Through The Week: November 17th Edition

by Jordan Love | Nov 17, 2017 | weekly

Fast Travel Through The Week: November 17th Edition

by Jordan Love | Nov 17, 2017 | weekly

Each week, Fast Travel helps you get caught up on everything going on in the gaming industry. We start by highlighting a few of the week’s biggest news pieces. Then it’s on to a little dollop of indie news. Followed by a helping of “The Best Thing on the Internet, This Week.” And finally, we gather up all the week’s headlines and smash them into a TL;DR pie for you to enjoy.

This Weeks Headlines

EA Experiences a PR Nightmare

To say EA had a bad week is a bit of an understatement. In a week in which sexual assault allegations flooded the headlines, EA still couldn’t fly under the radar for what they did to Battlefront II. In fact, we spent more time covering their screw-up this week than we’ve spent on any other single topic in the past. So much so that we could have covered just EA in this recap and it still probably would’ve been too long.

Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List Paints A Bright Future for the Gaming Industry

Among the most notable names on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Gaming list were Vernon Shaw and Leighton Gray, writers for Game Grumps and creators of the game Dream Daddy. Sue “Smix” Lee, a Twitch Partnerships Associate who can be regularly seen hosting major tournaments around the globe, also made the list. Gamers will also likely recognize YouTuber Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach and streamer Tucker “iijeriichoii” Boner, two of the biggest names in gaming and esports entertainment.

Writer, voice actor and YouTube star Ashly Burch also made the list alongside two professional gamers, EVO 2017 Champion Saleem Young and TSM’s Søren Bjerg.

Belgium Investigates EA and Blizzard for Gambling in Battlefront and Overwatch

As if EA’s Battlefront II ordeal wasn’t bad enough already, Belgium announced this week that their gambling authority has started an investigation into both EA and Blizzard.

If Belgium finds either company guilty, they could fine them upwards of $100,000 or more and possibly even remove their games from the domestic market. While most national and international regulatory bodies have sided in favor of game companies, the recent wave of backlash against EA, as well as the recent petitions in the UK, may be giving some of these developers pause.

YouTube Speaks Out on Demonetization

YouTube’s recent policy changes have had nearly all content creators up in arms, gamers in particular.

Youtube has been fairly quiet about the whole affair, despite numerous attempts to force a response. The largest issue is that content creators don’t know what they’re doing wrong and they confused as to how to bring profits back.

During a recent interview, Youtube’s head of gaming Ryan Wyatt, outlined Youtube’s focus. “You have to be able to appeal to advertisers because they’re the ones who are spending money, and we want to empower advertisers,” he said.

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The Best Thing on the Internet, This Week

Guerrilla Games Rendered the Grass Under the Snow in Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

With all the EA drama, you could be forgiven for thinking that the gaming industry is just in a bad place. Luckily we have Guerrilla Games to remind us that isn’t the case.

As pointed out by Reddit user falconbox, Guerrilla Games actually took the time to render the grass underneath the snow. It’s an almost unnecessary detail that we absolutely love. Further more, he goes on to point out that they also made it so that Aloy runs differently based on the depth of snow she’s in. This kind of attention to detail just puts a smile on our face. It’s the kind of thing that reminds us that the gaming industry is full of people who truly do put their all into some of these games.