As 2020 comes to a close and the next-gen consoles are finally here (for some), this week marks the beginning of a new console generation. Game Rant has compiled some of the biggest gaming news stories from this past week together into a concise post for fans and enthusiasts to stay up to date on the most important events in the industry per week. Highlighting the most relevant stories, this list is not inherently and totally objective, and will not contain every news story this week. Rather, this is intended for gaming fans who want a quick rundown on the largest/most impactful stories that occurred in the last week in games.
Spearheading this week’s news in the gaming industry are the official launches for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, finally ushering next-gen for fans after a long wait this year. Of course, there are the usual launch day hurdles as well, with some fans reporting no issues at all, while others report catastrophic issues, and a vocal minority are even reporting fake issues. Twitch has finally addressed the elephant in the room with DMCA copyright strikes, though any looking for a comprehensive solution may be disappointed. An unfortunate incident at Ubisoft’s Montreal development studio forced a shutdown and an ongoing criminal investigation. Here’s the biggest news from the gaming industry this week.
After an unusual year of reveals and announcements, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are finally in the hands of some consumers. Media and influencers have had production consoles for a few weeks now, shelling out coverage and reviews of next-gen consoles and games. Tuesday brought on the Xbox Series X/S consoles, and Thursday brought on the PS5 consoles, at least for those who were able to snag an early pre-order.
Even now, getting a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S is incredibly difficult thanks to limited supply and predictably high demand. Xbox’s launch for the Series X and Series S has been breaking records for Microsoft, and though Sony hasn’t made any official announcements on sales, Walmart’s website crashing consistently during launch day is probably a good indication.
However, like with any other previous console launch, hardware issues have plagued the launches of both PS5 and Xbox Series X. For PS5, it’s been reports of issues with hardware noise, downloads getting stuck in a queued status, issues with Rest Mode, and more. For Xbox Series X, it’s been random shutdowns and disc drive issues. For both consoles, they’ve had issues with some cross-platform games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which has caused controller disconnects and hard crashes on both PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Some even reported that their Xbox Series X consoles were catching fire and billowing out smoke, but as viral as the above video became, turns out it was faked. A Spanish content creator named Xbox Studio pointed out on Twitter that it was easy to replicate the issue with a vape pen. Blowing smoke into the bottom of the console forces the Xbox Series X to circulate the air out of the top of the console, and results in what looks like the above video.
On Friday at around 2 PM EST, Montréal Police reported that a hostage situation had been reported at the offices of Ubisoft Montréal. At first, it was reported that several Ubisoft employees were being held for ransom in the development studio, but as it turned out that was false. According to police, an anonymous caller threatened to “blow up the building” if they were not given $2 million as ransom. As it turned out, the threat was actually a swatting.
Montréal Police soon determined that there was no active threat to the office building or any employees, determining that the incident was a “hoax.” Ubisoft later issued a statement and thanked local law enforcement, as well as fans’ kind words in response to the situation.
Alongside the Xbox Series X/S came the launch of Destiny 2: Beyond Light, the latest expansion for the looter shooter. Even prior to release, Beyond Light‘s been surrounded by controversy and backlash, even for all the good its done to the game. Visual upgrades, new loot, a new quest, plus tons of other quality-of-life improvements are already making Destiny 2 better, but there’s always problems. Plenty of issues like “sunsetting,” which has cast an even larger net than players expected for weapon and armor retirement.
Not to mention the Darkness subclasses, which were evidently too strong to the point of delaying Trials of Osiris by a few weeks as well. This is without even counting the disabled exotics like the Witherhoard grenade launcher, or disabled bounties on the Moon which resulted in huge Season Pass XP gains.
After numerous streamers starting receiving an onslaught of DMCA copyright strikes on their channels, Twitch finally spoke at length about the platform’s copyright problem. Twitch published a long-form blog post on Wednesday detailing the situation, and what streamers can do to protect themselves from the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Unfortunately, those looking for a more comprehensive solution to DMCA from Twitch won’t find one.
At the moment, there’s only three non-negotiable ways streamers can protect themselves from DMCA copyright strikes: Either take the preventative measure of not playing any licensed recorded music (with the exception of Twitch-licensed music) on stream, disable audio of any licensed music featured in the games being streamed, or immediately delete/disable VODs and Clips with licensed music in them. Failing to do any of these steps puts streamers at risk of receiving a strike or several.
Once again, rumors and leaks reported that Cyberpunk 2077 was going to receive another delay past its December 10 release date. Gaming fans have been getting antsy over the game’s numerous delays, with Cyberpunk 2077 being delayed three times since its initial planned release date of April 16, 2020. CD Projekt Red was quick to dispel any possibility of another delay, and stood firm on its December 10 release date.
Supposedly, the leaker was “hearing bad stuff internally” and was using that as proof that another delay to January 2021 was happening. So long as Projekt Red doesn’t say otherwise, Cyberpunk 2077 is planned to release on December 10, 2020.
And lastly, with the next-gen consoles finally released, a slew of games comes out with them. Here’s all the major game releases this week:
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – November 10
- Astro’s Playroom – November 12
- Bugsnax – November 12
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – November 13
- Demon’s Souls – November 12
- Destiny 2: Beyond Light – November 10
- Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition – November 10
- Dirt 5 – November 10
- Fuser – November 10
- Godfall – November 12
- Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory – November 13
- Observer: System Redux – November 10
- The Pathless – November 12
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure – November 12
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales – November
- Tetris Effect: Connected – November 10
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon – November 10
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