It’s time for another episode of Pause Screen! This week William really wants to talk about Nier: Automata’s ending E, Kyle is lukewarm on Bravely Default 2, and Kaz has finished Link’s Awakening and dipped back into Stardew Valley. On our Hype Train we talk the D&D Dark Alliance trailer, the PS5 VR controllers, and more! We then jump to the Sad Train to cover Nintendo putting games back in the vault, Blizzard’s layoff of esports employees, Sony’s acquisition of EVO, and we finish off on a more neutral note with the new developments around the harassment claims made against Riot’s CEO. Come pause with us!
HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*
- D&D: Dark Alliance got a trailer with gameplay, and it actually looks fun? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaobG3z18zg
- Outriders is coming out on Games Pass on launch day
- Sony unveiled their new PS5 VR controller https://blog.playstation.com/2021/03/18/next-gen-vr-on-ps5-the-new-controller/
- Red Candle Games (the Devotion people) are now selling their games themselves in DRM-free format https://twitter.com/redcandlegames/status/1371335941542060032
SAD TRAIN *womp womp*
- Nintendo is going to murder Mario (and Fire Emblem) in a week and a half, so be sure to give in to consumerist greed before then
- Activision Blizzard is laying off 50 esports employees, with an additional 140 elsewhere in the company https://sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/Breaking-News/2021/03/Activision-layoffs.aspx https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/gaming/activision-blizzard-esports-announces-layoffs-update/ar-BB1eDQWv?ocid=uxbndlbing
- EVO sold out to Sony https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1372639787270639616?s=20
- Riot’s CEO was cleared of the sexual harassment claims by an investigation from a law firm; docs the court used have since leaked and definitely don’t paint the plaintiff in a good light. Looks like we’re probably eating crow on this one. https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/m72v8a/ghostcrawler_shares_the_docs_riot_filed_in_court/