Gaming

The news from immersive experience and beyond

The group aims to gain proper press freedoms globally, image via Reporters Without Borders
Gaming
Minecraft library allows people to access censored journalism around the world

Reporters Without Borders has created a massive library in Minecraft, one of the most popular video games in the world, where players can access journalism that may be banned in their country. Minecraft is allowed and uncensored in many countries around the world. They have called it the 'Uncensored Library' and it can be accessed by anybody.

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Sat Mar 14 - PCGamer
Many stream exclusive events have also been suspended, image via EA
Gaming
EA suspends all esports events, including FIFA and Apex Legends tournament

EA has announced that all of its scheduled live esports events have been suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus. This includes what would have been the first-ever Apex Legends major as well as FIFA and Madden NFL tournaments. Online events will still take place however and it is unclear when things will return to normal.

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Sat Mar 14 - PCGamer
Epic Games acquires facial recognition and mapping startup Cubic Motion. Image via Engadget.
Gaming
Epic Games acquires facial mapping company

Epic Games, the developers of Fornite, which has been the bestselling game in the world for two years, and also the creators of the Unreal Engine, have acquired a UK-based facial recognition and mapping startup called Cubic Motion, in order to be able to capture much more realistic facial animations for their characters. Cubic Motion's technology was previously featured on the popular God of War and Spiderman game series.

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Fri Mar 13 - TechCrunch
The championships will still be streamed online, image via Valve
Gaming
Major eSports tournaments forced to make changes due to coronavirus

All three big upcoming League of Legends tournaments will now take place without audiences within closed studios while a Dota 2 major has been postponed altogether. These cancelations are coming after the global coronavirus pandemic spread rapidly over the last few days. Fans who bought tickets will be refunded soon.

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Fri Mar 13 - PCGamer
E3 2020 has been canceled due to coronavirus fears. Image via Engadget.
Gaming
E3 2020 canceled amid coronavirus outbreak

The largest annual gaming conference in the US, E3 2020, which last year attracted a crowd of more than 60,000 people and since 1995 has been the main event for most developers to launch flagship games and showcase the new technology, has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers Entertainment Software Association have stated they are looking into ways to host the event online.

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Thu Mar 12 - CNN
The company will also be working on expansions for Cyberpunk 2077, image via CD Projekt Red
Gaming
CD Projekt Red to work on new Witcher game once Cyberpunk 2077 is out

Fan-favorite gaming studio CD Projekt Red has announced that their dev team will immediately start work on a new Witcher game once the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 hits shelves. It seems unlikely that the game will be called Witcher 4 but we do know that it will be set in the same universe.

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Thu Mar 12 - PCGamer
The physical copies will have reversible cover art, image via CD Projekt Red
Gaming
Cyberpunk 2077 female protagonist revealed just in time for Women's Day

In order to celebrate women's day, gaming studio CD Projekt Red has revealed the female version of the default protagonist for their long-awaited game 'Cyberpunk 2077'. They changed their original design to make the character more distinct from the original male protagonist. Although many now claim the male protagonist looks too generic.

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Tue Mar 10 - PCGamer
Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world, image via Mojang
Gaming
Long-awaited Minecraft Festival canceled due to Coronavirus

This year's Minecraft Festival has been postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus and it is unclear if the event will occur at all. The festival was going to be another in a long line of conventions centered around the popular building game 'Minecraft'. They will still be doing a Minecraft live-stream event sometime in September.

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Mon Mar 09 - PCGamer
No other details regarding the game have been leaked, image via EA
Gaming
Unannounced Star Wars game title leaked on Twitter

A Twitter bot has recently leaked the title and some images of a new Star Wars game currently in development at EA. The game is called 'Star Wars: Maverick' and will likely focus on space combat, with the player piloting various ships, such as the iconic X-Wing. This looks to be a smaller Star Wars game than most.

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Fri Mar 06 - PCGamer
The skin will cost around $10-12, image via Epic Games
Gaming
Fortnite adds a new skin to represent the disabled in a brand new update

Fortnite, one of the most popular games in the world, has recently released a new playable character that walks around on two robotic prosthetic legs. This is the first time disabilities have been represented in this game although its competitor 'Apex Legends' has been doing so for some time.

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Wed Mar 04 - PCGamer
League of Legends is one of the most popular online games in the world, image via Riot Games
Gaming
League of Legends forums are being shut down due to lack of popularity

Riot Games has announced that it will be shutting down the League of Legends forums as most users had migrated to other discussion forums such as Reddit and discord. The company took the time to thank the volunteer moderators and said that the forums will be officially offline by March 9th.

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Tue Mar 03 - PCGamer
Riot teases summer launch of 'CS:GO killer' Valorant. Image via Polygon.
Gaming
Riot teases upcoming 'CS:GO killer' game Valorant

Riot Games, the developers behind League of Legends, one of the world's most popular games, have announced that their new game Valorant will be released this summer. Dubbed the 'CS:GO killer', Valorant features five-person squad-based competitive shooter gameplay like CS:GO, and the flashy character designs and special powers of Overwatch characters.

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Mon Mar 02 - TheVerge
Ndemic Creations' Plague Inc has been banned in China for featuring illegal content. Image via USGamer.
Gaming
China bans pandemic simulation game Plague Inc

A pandemic simulation game called Plague Inc, from UK-based Ndemic Creations has been banned by the Chinese government for featuring content prohibited in China, though details have not yet been provided by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Plague Inc has been recognized by both the Center for Disease Prevention and the WHO as an important educational app that encourages players to take health issues seriously.

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Mon Mar 02 - BBC
The game will soon get a massive content update, image via Bethesda
Gaming
Bethesda finds that most players would rather cooperate than fighting each other

A senior Bethesda official has recently revealed that the Fallout 76 team was very surprised by the fact that very few players engaged in their new player vs player combat system. Instead, most of their player base was focused more on cooperation with other players to defeat tough opponents.

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Mon Mar 02 - PCGamer
Na'Vi clean sweeps G2 Sports to win IEM Katowice 2020 Grand Finals. Image via Hotspawn.
Gaming
Na'Vi sweeps G2 to win IEM Katowice 2020 Grand Finals

Natus Vincere, also called Na'Vi, have defeated favorites G2 Sports in the Grand Finals for IEM Katowice 2020 to lift their first CS:GO major trophy as a team. Na'Vi swept G2 on the first 3 maps out of a possible 5, beating their opponents 16-4 on Nuke, 16-13 on Dust II and an upsetting 16-2 on Mirage.

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Sun Mar 01 - Dexerto
League of Legends i the largest competitive game in the world, image via Riot Games
Gaming
League of Legends tournament to go online only due to coronavirus fears

The League of Legends Chinese Pro League will resume after being canceled earlier this year due to the coronavirus. The matches will be streamed online and no spectators will be allowed to attend the event to prevent the spread of the deadly new virus. The tournament will resume on March 9th.

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Sat Feb 29 - PCGamer
Dota 2 is one of the most popular games in the world, image via Valve
Gaming
Cities to bid for a chance to host Dota 2 championship 2020

Valve has announced that it will now be using an Olympics style system to choose the cities that will host the Dota 2 world championship (also known as 'The International). This is the largest esports tournament in the world and hosting it will likely provide a serious boost to the economy of the host city.

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Thu Feb 27 - PCGamer
Players have been asking for such a mode for years, image via Ubisoft
Gaming
Ubisoft to add new colorblind mode to Rainbow Six Siege

Ubisoft has announced that it is working on a new colorblind mode for its world-famous game 'Rainbow Six Siege'. This mode will allow colorblind players to play the game without suffering any disadvantages or handicaps. It is currently unclear what this mode will look like or when it will be released.

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Wed Feb 26 - PCGamer
This is our first look at a next gen console, image via Microsoft
Gaming
Microsoft reveals brand new Xbox design

Microsoft has finally revealed the design of the new Xbox series X. The next-generation console was officially announced a few months ago and nothing outside the appearance and a few basic features have been revealed so far. The console will have the standard wireless controllers and backward game compatibility. Microsoft has said it will be their most powerful console to date.

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Tue Feb 25 - TechCrunch
Overwatch remains one of the most popular competitive games in the world, image via Blizzard
Gaming
Overwatch to add new revolutionary experimental mode tomorrow

This January Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan announced that the game will be getting a new experimental mode that will allow players to test out changes made to the game before they are made live. The mode will feature radical changes such as tripling the damage that heroes can do or changes to the role queue system.

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Tue Feb 25 - PCGamer
The company received a boost from the Witcher Netflix series, image via CD Projekt
Gaming
Studio behind Witcher games becomes second largest in all of Europe

CD Projekt, the studio responsible for the highly successful Witcher video game franchise has been revalued at $8 billion, making it the second-largest video game studio in Europe. They are right behind France's Ubisoft Entertainment, who is sitting at a whopping $9.6 billion. Many are eagerly awaiting CD Projekts new game 'Cyberpunk 2077'.

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Mon Feb 24 - PCGamer
Spawn was popularized by a 90's comic series, image via Nether Realm Studios
Gaming
Horror comic character Spawn to come to Mortal Kombat 11 in March

Mortal Kombat 11 is finally getting a new playable character in Spawn, who will be available to players in March. Spawn is just the latest extra character to be added to the game, we got the Joker and the Terminator last year. This will be the character's first-ever appearance in a PC game.

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Mon Feb 24 - PCGamer
It is unlikely Reddit will reveal the identity of the user, image via Activision
Gaming
Activision cracks down on all Call of Duty leaks

Activision has not confirmed whether or not Call of Duty Modern Warfare will be getting a battle royale mode, although there have been a number of leaks that suggest that it will be released soon. The company has been shutting down said leaks and has even subpoenaed Reddit to find out who the original leaker was in order to take legal action against them.

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Sun Feb 23 - PCGamer
Jedi Fallen Order will still get a sequel, image via Electronic Arts
Gaming
EA reportedly canceled a Star Wars spin-off game last year

In what may be the third cancelation of a planned Star Wars game by EA, the company pulled the plug on a Battlefront spin-off game that was going to be released sometime this year after they realized the game would not be ready by the release date. They currently have two other Star Wars games in the works.

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Sat Feb 22 - PCGamer
The new season is entirely espionage focused, image via Epic Games
Gaming
Fortnite Chapter 2 to bring some big changes

Epic Games has just launched its new Fortnite update, adding Season 2 Chapter 2 to the game. This new chapter will include a large number of new playable characters (such as a muscular anthropomorphic cat), new cosmetics and items. The map also has several new secret agent themed locations, including a volcano hideout.

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Fri Feb 21 - ESPN