Fast Travel, A Weekly Gaming Recap – March 2nd Edition
Fast Travel, A Weekly Gaming Recap – March 2nd Edition
The Fast Travel weekly gaming recap is your resource for staying 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 dollop of esports 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
Digital game sales were on fire last month. According to a SuperData report, digital game sales in January rose over 10 percent, with gamers spending $8.9 billion digitally on games across all platforms.
SuperData credits the unexpected success of Monster Hunter: World as a key factor in the strong January’s sales numbers.
Heading the charge for the overall market growth was the soaring digital console market, which grew 57 percent year-over-year. The success of Monster Hunter: World undoubtedly playing a role in this segment. On top of that, digital ‘Premium PC’ sales grew 24 percent as well.
Loot boxes are a big part of LoL, but in the past, their drop rates have largely been a mystery. That changed last week when Riot made the preemptive decision to reveal League of Legend loot box drop rates.
The past year has been full of lawsuits and threats revolving around loot boxes, their drop rates and whether or not they should constitute gambling. For their part, Riot has managed to keep out of most of those conversations. Whether it’s because League of Legends does loot boxes right or because everyone else just does the much worse, is up for debate.
In perhaps the first punishment of its kind, a judge has recently banned a 16-year-old from playing any violent video games. His sentence was passed by Judge Robert Anderson of Illinois after the teen made a threat on Snapchat about a possible school shooting. The ruling stated that the teenager was on indefinite home detention, would have no phone, and would not be allowed to play any violent video games whatsoever.
Released in 2009, Angry Birds has been one of the most successful apps of all time. At one point, the game boasted 263 million active users. But while Angry Birds may have jump started apps and turned them largely into the market they are today, it hasn’t protected the company behind the game, Rovio, from investor anger. They learned this firsthand when the value of their company was halved after they reported less profits than promised.
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Esports Spotlight
Things have been fairly slow this split, especially in the kills department. TSM’s average games currently sit at over an hour long, and it is now common to expect zero kills by 10-15 minutes. This makes for some pretty boring League of Legends games. But FlyQuest and 100 Thieves changed that up this week, and it was exactly the kind of game that fans have been looking for.
The Best Thing on the Internet, This Week
If you’re an esports fan interested in fashion or adding to your wardrobe, listen up. A new esports themed clothing line has now officially partnered up with ESL and DreamHack.
H4X.gg, which is pronounced “Hacks” or “Hax,” is the name of the new clothing line. The brand is being advertised as the first official fashion line designed with esports players and fans in mind. The H4X.gg brand is a creation of Moniker, Inc, a company dedicated to making clothing and accessories designed for both fans and players of esports. So far, H4X.gg is Moniker’s first clothing line, but more brands are reportedly in development.
TL;DR for the Week
- Digital Games Sales Reach Almost $9 Billion In January
- Paladins Adds Battle Royale Mode Called ‘Battlegrounds’
- Final Monster Hunter World Beta Announced, PS4 Exclusive
- Tony Hawk Skates Away from Activision and Pro Skater Franchise
- PAX’s ReedPop Acquires Gamer Network
- Nintendo Now Allows Switch Game User Reviews on Its Site
- Twitch Streamer Aqualadora Admits To Killing Dog
- Fortnite Is Getting Jetpacks, Eventually
- Ubisoft Aquires 1492 Studio
- Phantoml0rd Sues Twitch over Mishandling of 2016 Ban
- New Overwatch Hero is Brigitte, Torbjorn’s Daughter
- Fortnite is Killing H1Z1 and PUBG
- Bloodborne Highlights March PS Plus Games
- Playstation to Undergo Worldwide Corporate Reshuffle Next Month
- Things Aren’t Looking Great for Metal Gear Survive
- Judge Bans 16-Year-Old from Violent Video Games over School Shooting Threat
- Final Fantasy 15 Outfit Coming To The Sims 4
- Angry Birds Developer Rovio Loses Half its Value in One Month
- Detroit: Become Human Comes Out in May
- Riot Reveals League of Legend Loot Box Drop Rates
- Dark Souls Remastered Coming to Nintendo Switch
- New Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery Trailer Drops
- Discord Purging Alt-Right, White Nationalist and Other Hate Group Servers
- PS Plus Dropping PS3 and Vita Games in 2019
Also…
Don’t forget to check out some of our other weekly pieces, The LoL Weekly Preview, Recap and Highlight, as well as Something I’m Forgetting and Week in Review.
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