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New Nintendo Direct Gives Us News… But Not THAT News
Nintendo held its first non-franchise specific direct since 2019 on February 17th, and it contained a whopping fifty minutes of trailers, but, disappointing fans, it had nothing on the much-anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild.
All of us watching the #NintendoDirect waiting for a Breath of the Wild 2 announcement. pic.twitter.com/e6kdU3XG10
— Alan Echeverria (@GamerWinner55) February 17, 2021
What it DID have, however, was an announcement about a new entry in a beloved franchise that promises to add new lore to the series:
Splathreen?
— Hard Drive (@HardDriveMag) February 17, 2021
That’s right, folks, Splatoon 3 will be a reality in 2022. The reveal trailer promises a new look into how the universe of the game is actually an adorable Adventure Time-esque post apocalypse where humans have been replaced by cephalopod people.
I, personally, am delighted, since Splatoon has been my favorite Nintendo property since it debuted on the Wii U.
For a full recap of the Direct, you can watch it here.
Not to Be Outdone, Here Comes Blizzard
BlizzCon, or BlizzConline as some have been calling it, is currently in its second day, per the writing of this document. Day 1 had some interesting updates about a new class for Diablo 4, and some very cool news about the future of Overwatch with updated character skins and news of a full story campaign in the sequel.
But the livestream hit a snag: because of the highly contentious nature of music rights for internet streaming and distribution, the official Twitch Gaming channel dubbed over the live Metallica concert with copyright-free music to avoid getting copyright struck by their own site. An extra layer of hilarity is provided by the fact that Metallica is the band some call responsible for the current state of music use restrictions because of their infamous lawsuit against the site Napster. An unfortunate unforeseen circumstance of protecting an IP, or karmic retribution?
In Other News
Now that all of the large event reporting is out of the way, let’s talk about some of the other stuff that went down this past week.
Epic Games is the driving force behind a bill in North Dakota that would bar app stores like Google and Apple from taking cuts of app sales. This bill was summarily shot down by the state senate, but it does indicate interesting machinations on the part of games hubs like Epic.
The Mortal Kombat movie released a trailer earlier this week:
Fans were delighted by the showing, but some fell prey to a bit of trolling by the sometimes-satirical website Jezebel, who asked a question that enraged franchise fans: Where was Chun-Li? The site later added an update to their satirical piece, indicating that the legions of angry fans had sufficiently educated them on the matter.
Finally, Nintendo sneaks back into this section with an absolutely WILD announcement:
We’re celebrating 25 years of fun with a virtual concert starring @PostMalone!
❤️ this tweet to set a reminder for this can’t-miss event! #Pokemon25 pic.twitter.com/oBdS8dS4gS
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) February 15, 2021
The virtual concert with a Pokémon-ized Post Malone will take place on February 27th.
Emma is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Composition who studies how play impacts learning. Her words have also appeared in Critical Distance and Unwinnable. When not writing, she enjoys passing the controller between friends for runs of Silent Hill. She can be found @kostopolus on Twitter.
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