Playing EA’s College Football early, despite the hike

A lot of people are really excited about the return of a college football video game. Some were even willing to pay more to play it three days early. How many? Find out below. Also the 2024 Spiel des Jahres winners are announced and more gaming news. Let’s go!

The 2024 Spiel des Jahres winners are…

The 2024 winners of the Spiel des Jahres were announced last week. The German award is one of the most prestigious in board gaming, choosing games that are more casual or family-friendly. The 2024 winners are:

Spiel des Jahres: Sky Team

Manufacturer description: Sky Team is a co-operative game, exclusively for two players, in which you play a pilot and co-pilot at the controls of an airliner. Your goal is to work together as a team to land your airplane in different airports around the world.

Kennerspiel des Jahres (enthusiast's game of the year): Daybreak

Manufacturer’s description: Daybreak is a co-operative game about climate action. Each player controls a world power, deploying policies and technologies to both dismantle the engine of global heating and to build resilient societies that protect people from life-threatening crises.

Kinderspiel des Jahres (best kid’s game): The Magic Keys

Manufacturer’s description: Magic Keys is a simple and beautiful push-your-luck game to collect gems.

Congratulations to all the 2024 winners and nominees.

Huddling around EA Sports College Football 25

College football is back, at least in video game form.

EA Sports College Football 25 arrived last Monday for players who spent the extra $30 for the Deluxe Edition. Apparently, those sales were substantial, as on the first day it was available, the game had over 700,000 concurrent users playing the pre-release version of the game. 

Turns out, over 2.2 million people shelled out the extra cash to play the game early, making it one of the best selling games of the year before it was even officially released. 

The game had its full release on Friday, but it still contained some errors. The game uses the wrong Stanford logo, and launched without Team Builder, which allows players to create a custom team. EA said they will fix these issues soon. Also, there is a weird “Lorem Ipsum” error that some players receive in Dynasty Mode. 

However, most reviews of the game so far are positive. It is the first college football game in a decade, and the first that uses the actual college players thanks to recent image and likeness litigation that allows college athletes to be paid. Players who are in the game received $600 and a free copy of the game. 

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

💲 After the changes Microsoft made last week, the FTC blasted Game Pass for “degraded” Standard Tier and price increases. Microsoft disagrees, saying “it is common for businesses to change service offerings over time.”

📈 82% of U.S. players made in-game purchase in freemium titles in 2023.

 🧟Resident Evil 7 on iOS has earned just over $28,000 and has under 2,000 players since launch.

📺 The Fallout show is nominated for 16 Emmy Award, including a Best Actor nomination for Walton Goggins.

📉 United Kingdom video game sales dropped nearly 30% in the first half of 2024.

🏅 Baldur's Gate 3 won so many awards, it started to cause problems for its developer. 

👍 Bethesda Game Studios workers voted to become the first Microsoft game studio to fully unionize.

🎮 Microsoft created a Deadpool Xbox controller shaped like the title character’s…posterior. Currently you can only win it, but fans want Microsoft to sell them as well. Related: there is now also a Wolverine version of the controller. 

⚽ Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham will be the cover athlete for EA Sports FC 25 Standard Edition, while he will be joined by other soccer stars that include David Beckham on the Ultimate Edition. 

🥤 Two-thirds of players say in-game advertisements do not negatively affect their experience. 

📺 Paramount+ canceled the Halo TV series after two seasons. 

😠 Translators are frustrated they are not getting credit for their work on Nintendo games. 

🎩 Hasbro is making a Monopoly board game based on its Monopoly Go! mobile game, which is  based on the original board game.

⛔ The head of Warframe says big publishers give up too soon on live service titles. 

😥 Studio Saber Interactive asks players to avoid a leaked version of the “unfinished”' Space Marine 2 game.

🤗 How a small studio convinced Netflix to make a Queen's Gambit game.

🔫 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 5 will feature a WWE crossover. Also, MW3 is reportedly coming to Game Pass this month. 

🏀 Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Terrence Shannon has a Grand Theft Auto cheat code tattooed on his arm. 

🤝 A former Blizzard senior executive is joining Hasbro as the Digital Gaming President for Wizards of the Coast. 

🤬 Microsoft reportedly shut down their diversity and inclusion team. 

📈 Ubisoft’s year-on-year sales are up 12%.

💰 New social media app Dusk received $8 million in funding and plans to "reimagine social multiplayer gaming for the mobile generation."

😢 Brett Jones, a former artist at Rare Studios who worked on GoldenEye and the original Perfect Dark, has died.

😈 Diablo IV revealed its next new class: Spiritborn. 

🫣 Nintendo’s “Emio” teaser trailer was actually for a new game in a 35-year-old game series.

👀 The first image of Bioshock 4 has reportedly leaked. 

🏈 Steve-O, star of the television show Jackass was paid $100,000 to appear in NFL 2K5.

New Releases this week: 

Check out our article 11 New Games to Play in July.

7/23: F1 Manager 2024 (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
7/23: The Star Named EOS (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
7/25: House of Golf 2 (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
7/25: Earth Defense Force 6 (PlayStation and PC)

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