Get Your Game On: Overwatch League Has No Women, New Switch Games

Happy Wednesday! What games have you been playing lately? I finished a second playthrough of Life is Strange: Before the Storm‘s sweet and heartbreaking final episode. Here’s my commentary-free playthrough of Before the Storm if you want to check out Chloe and Rachel’s compelling romance and turbulent lives. I’ve also been playing Uncharted 4 and MetaHuman, Inc., a text-based game from Choice Of Games where you’re the CEO of a corporation that sells superpowers.

Here’s some of the news and links on our minds this past week:

Overwatch League Has No Women Players

The Overwatch League, a professional league overseen by Blizzard Entertainment, just began its inaugural season. There are no women players on any of the twelve teams.  These teams are owned by huge esports companies, sports team conglomerates, and even massive tech companies like Comcast and NetEase. These owners are showing us they blatantly do not care if women are shut out from access to all levels of professional sports.

New Games Coming to Switch in Spring 2018

Nintendo announced a number of new games coming to Switch in spring 2018, including The World Ends With You and Dark Souls Remastered.

Destiny 2 Changes Planned

Bungie has announced planned changes to Destiny 2, which has been losing players.

Loot Box Controversy and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

How do loot boxes work in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds? Here’s a detailed look. Some items are selling in the secondary market for thousands of real-world dollars.

Coming Soon From Major League Soccer and EA: eMLS

Major League Soccer is partnering with EA Sports to launch an esports league, eMLS. Nineteen clubs will participate. Each club will field one (yes, just one) professional gamer to represent it in FIFA 18.

An Updated, Aluminum Classic Game Boy

The Ultra Game Boy, an updated version of the classic Game Boy, was announced at CES. It’s being manufactured by Hyperkin with an aluminum housing, a target release date of late summer 2018, and a price under $100.

Interesting links

• Here’s an interview with Amy Hennig, director and writer of the first three Uncharted games, and Sean Vanaman, a founder of Campo Santo and lead writer of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season One.
• Which image is cosplay and which is 3D art?
• Over the years, players have found glitches in Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI that allow players to speedrun the games even faster.
• A suspect has been charged with manslaughter in the recent Call of Duty “swatting” incident.
• Nintendo shut down Miiverse in November, but a large amount of Miiverse data has been archived.
• Remember a book based on Mass Effect: Andromeda written by N.K. Jemisin was releasing? It’s out now, and here’s a review.
• The Switch had phenomenal sales in Japan in 2017, selling over three times as many consoles as the PS4 did in its first year in Japan.
• Hori is releasing a PS4 controller with an analog stick layout similar to Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers.

Upcoming Releases

• Dragon Ball FighterZ, developed by Arc System Works and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, releases on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 26th.
• Monster Hunter: World by Capcom releases on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 26th.
• Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age releases on PC on February 1st from Square Enix.
• Shadow of the Colossus remake for PS4 releases on February 6th, developed by Bluepoint Games.
• Assassin’s Creed Rogue remastered for PS4 and Xbox One releases March 20th, developed by Ubisoft Sofia.

Games Bleat

Welcome to Games Bleat! I’m your resident deals warlock Joesph, and this week I’m going to be bringing you the hottest deals and new releases from around the web. I didn’t get a lot of bleating done last week, so this time I’m bringing you an enlivening number of deals.

PC

• RPG Maker MV $19.99
• Disgaea $7.49
• Hyper Light Drifter $9.99
• SUPERHOT $14.99
• Everything $9.89
• The Sexy Brutale $9.99
• Ladykiller in a Bind $9.99 (NSFW)
• Kentucky Route Zero Season Pass $12.49
• Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015 $0.69
• Pajama Sam Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 $3.99 each

Xbox

• Digerati Couch Co-Op Bundle Vol. 1 $10.65

Nintendo 3DS

• Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Conquest $27.99

I’ve also been scrolling through the annals of itch.io and Steam to bring you the latest new releases you may not have heard of, like the newly released demo for My Magical Demon Love (NSFW), a yaoi VN about romancing hot demons. For those more interested in a couple hours of atmospheric fun there’s The Ferryman, a game in early development about Charon ferrying the dead across the River Styx. Coop Crawler offers, unsurprisingly, some fun Co-Op dungeon crawling with local multiplayer support (a feature important to me). Finally for those with a VR system looking to explain it to their friends and family there’s Richie’s Plank Experience, a game about walking out onto a plank and flying through the sky with rocket arms.

That’s it for this week’s bleat! We’ll catch y’all next week for another GYGO filled with news, deals, and of course those sweet, sweet interactives.