The race for the gaming vote

The race for the White House heats up in the virtual space. Also, Sony closes the studio that created Concord, and more on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. All that and all the latest news. Let’s go! 

Redefining the game of politics

For those readers in the United States, Tuesday Nov. 5 is election day (editor’s note: please vote). Individuals living in swing states have been bombarded by political ads for the past 11 months. Now, you might find those ads somewhere you did not expect: in your favorite video games. 

Last week, Presidential candidate Kamala Harris launched her own Fortnite map, Freedom Town, USA. 

Washington Post game journalist Gene Park visited the map and was interviewed by ABC News.

Harris is not the only one courting the game playing population. We’ve mentioned in the past Tim Waltz’s love of Crazy Taxi on the Sega Dreamcast. Meanwhile, Donald Trump streams his rallies on Twitch. 

Game journalist Patrick Klepek of Remap recently wrote a piece on how Roblox is becoming a place for politics. He discusses Virtual Vote, an initiative to encourage Roblox users to check their voter registration status. From his piece:

“Young people like to be entertained,” said Virtual Vote founding partner and Super League president and COO Matt Edelman. “With the right creative approach, entertainment can serve an altruistic purpose. Think Rock the Vote, Schoolhouse Rock, and We Are the World. Virtual Vote recognizes that Gen Z spends their time playing games. That’s their primary form of digital entertainment. So we made a fun game and it just happens to encourage civic engagement. And it’s working!”

Have you played or engaged with any in-game political content? Let us know in the comments. 

Sony makes Concord’s demise official

Many wondered if Sony would re-release their multiplayer game Concord as a free-to-play title after refunding those who purchased the title weeks after its release. This week Sony answered those questions by closing the studio behind the game and permanently shutting down the game. 

Sony explained the closure in a blog post: 

Regarding Firewalk, as announced in early September, certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline.  We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options.   

After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio.   I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.  

The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area. 

Concord reportedly cost Sony over $200 million to make, so it’s a bit of a shock they do not have a plan to recoup some of those costs. 

Also read:

• Is Concord the biggest live service failure of all time? Here's how it stacks up next to other major flops.
• Concord’s Demise Is Sony’s Fault.

Heavy Duty

Last week we spotlighted Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s big weekend. More details emerged this week, including that it was the biggest CoD launch ever. It is the first CoD game to launch on Game Pass, and it broke records for day one players. More news and notes:

• With the launch of Black Ops 6, the CoD franchise topped 500 million games sold.  
• Microsoft saw a 61% increase in Xbox software revenues despite weak hardware sales. 
• That increase is thanks to Microsoft’s Activision acquisition which accounted for 43% of the increase. 
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 recently accounted for 19% of Comcast’s internet traffic.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🎤 Fortnite announced its Chapter 2 “Remix” season with a Snoop Dogg and Ice Spice concert. Variety breaks down the full season schedule. 

🦝 The current free-to-play version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will be discontinued and replaced by a $20 version. 

📈 Roblox had a great quarter, beating expectations with a 29% revenue increase and an active user count of 88.9 million. 

🎶 Nintendo launched a new music app with soundtracks from classic games. However, the app does not credit the composers, and some worry it could cause more Nintendo DMCA takedowns. 

📉 Facebook lost $4.4 billion on virtual reality last quarter, bringing its total losses for VR to $59 billion since 2020. 

🍔 To celebrate 20 years of World of Warcraft, Shake Shack will offer a menu inspired by the game later this month. 

👹 The beta for Monster Hunter Wilds peaked at over 460,000 players on Steam. 

👎🏻 The former founder of Arkane Studio says Microsoft’s closure of the studio was a “dumb move.” 

🔫 As engagement declines, EA suggests it’s not planning to make Apex Legends 2. Meanwhile, the original Apex Legends is dropping support for linux and the Steam Deck. 

🧚 Final Fantasy producer Naoki Yoshida said that Square Enix plans to release games simultaneously on Xbox and PlayStation going forward.

🍎 Cyberpunk 2077 is launching on Mac in 2025. 

🐉 Dragon Age: The Veilguard launched this week with over 70,000 concurrent players on Steam. Despite its success, EA says they are not planning any DLC for the game. 

🏥 Gearbox says it will fly a terminally ill fan to their studio to see Borderlands 4 before it’s released.

⏰ Nintendo Alarmo has been hacked to the point where you can now run Doom on the clock. 

📰 Variety has an interview with Sony PlayStation co-CEOs Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst. Worth a read. 

📺 Netflix's animated Tomb Raider series was renewed for a second season.

✊🏾 Activision Blizzard’s staff walked out over a return to office mandate.

☠️ Ubisoft released their NFT-based game Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles with very little fanfare. 

🎮 PlayStation 5 Slim console covers are reportedly not compatible with the PS5 Pro. 

New Releases this week: 

Check out our article on 12 New Games to Play in November.

11/5: Metal Slug Tactics (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
11/6: Planet Coaster 2 (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
11/7: Chicken Police: Into the HIVE! (PC)
11/7: Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch)
11/7: River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next (PlayStation, Switch and PC)
11/8: Slitterhead (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)

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