GYGO: A Crunchy Delay, Brawling (well, Meleeing) Over Politics, and Tracking Layoffs

Hello, and welcome to GYGO! I’m Kael, and I’m officially declaring 2020 the year of the gamer (and only a few days late too). To celebrate this momentous occasion I’ve been playing Control, which has some of the best few opening levels I’ve ever played. I also started reading more, which has nothing to do with the year of the gamer—I just like to keep you informed about my life. Anyway, here’s some news!

Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed till September, will Use Crunch

I’ll be honest, I don’t love that Cyberpunk 2077 is getting delayed. I’m a supplementary teacher in public school, which means it would have been pretty easy for me to take a couple half days in April—Cyberpunk’s original release date—while all the kids are taking end-of-year tests. Now that it’s in September I’ll be in the height of back to school fervor, which sucks a little, y’know.

That being said, I’d be happy to wait for September 2021 for this game, if it meant not cutting into the developer’s health and well being. I think I’m like most people when I say I don’t love feeling guilty about enjoying things. And yeah, no ethical consumption and all that, but when CD Projekt Red’s CEO says Cyberpunk will need crunch to be made, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

A Top-Ranked Melee Player Is Using “Free Palestine” as his Gamer Tag

Man, I really love politics in my games. In this case my joy comes from Palestinian-American Super Smash Bros. Melee player, Anees Asaaf, who’s currently ranked as the 72nd best player in the world. Inspired by a Twitter thread, Asaaf changed his competitive gamer tag from “Milhous” to “Free Palestine” in 2019.

In an interview with Kotaku, he said that the name change sparked conversations in the Smash community. He says the community has been generally positive, and many IRL players take it as an opportunity to learn. That makes sense to me, even in writing this story I found myself looking up facts about the Green Line and various proposals for two-state solutions.

New Website Tracks Video Game Layoffs with a Stopwatch

Video Game Layoffs is a site created by John Emerson that tracks mass layoffs in the video game industry. The site contains both an active timer since the lass mass layoff event and a table that records previous events. It’s an interesting look at the industry that inspires both hopeful and kind of dire feelings in me. As of writing, the last mass layoff recorded was in October 2019, a month which saw 136 developers lose their jobs in this way.

In Other News…

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Gets Byleth, Another Fire Emblem Character
• Metro: Redux Announced on Switch
• Anonymous Sources Tell Kotaku Horizon: Zero Dawn Is Destined for PC
• Dad Mods Xbox Adaptive Controller to Work on Switch
• Joe Biden Is Out There Calling a Game Industry Exec a Little Creep
• Valve Adamantly Denies Working on Left 4 Dead 3
• Man Booted from Airport Monitor Mid Apex Legends Match
• Arcane Rituals Shorten Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Speedrun Record
• The Last of Us Part 2, on My PC? It’s More Likely than You Think

Kael Langdon

A genderless eldritch beast bound to mortal flesh. Interests include games, gardening, magical realism, and the complete restructuring of America’s political and economic systems. Frequently orders too much food at restaurants. Tweets @unnnez.