My top picks in gaming news this week:
- Travis Scott joins PlayStation as a strategic creative partner
- Microsoft release an Xbox Series X refrigerator
- GamesIndustry.biz shares analysis on how to lift barriers for Black professionals in the games industry
- Gamers talk about accessibility as next-generation consoles release for preview
- Annapurna Interactive forms an in-house studio
- Phasmophobia continues its success outselling major titles on Steam
Disclaimer: I cheated this week and curated 6 articles! I’ll keep my comments short so it’s still a 5-minute read.
Industry News
Travis Scott joins the PlayStation team as a ‘strategic creative partner’
Travis Scott and his Cactus Jack brand have teamed up with everyone from Tesla to Fortnite to McDonalds, and today Sony announced he’s a “strategic creative partner” for PlayStation.
What that means exactly is something we’ll have to wait to find out, but they kicked things off with a video tribute to that old Maxell High Fidelity tape commercial. The video also reveals what he was working on when he posted a picture of the DualSense 5 controller to his Instagram last month.
Richard Lawler – Engadget: October 23, 2020
The ability for games to stay relevant is extremely important with many folks staying home and causing a boom in gaming activity. Epic has always shown an impressive ability to stay on top of trends, and the Travis Scott concert over the summer a perfect example of a smash success. I’m very excited to see what results from this new partnership between Travis Scott and PlayStation.
Microsoft made an Xbox Series X fridge that it’s giving away
Microsoft first revealed the Xbox Series X nearly a year ago, and the internet went wild and immediately compared it to a fridge. A meme was born, and Microsoft embraced it to reassure us all that the Series X is, in fact, smaller than a fridge. Microsoft has now embraced the meme even further and actually created… an Xbox Series X fridge.
Tom Warren – The Verge: October 28, 2020
It shows a lot of personality when a company embraces absurdity from its community, which is why the Twitter accounts for Fall Guys and Wendy’s are so popular. It’s also an extremely clever marketing tactic. Watching a video of Snoop Dogg show off his Xbox Series X fridge is an instant lifelong memory.
Games Culture
Lifting the barriers for Black professionals in the games industry
Back in June, there was an outpouring of support from the games industry, ranging from statements to donations, to promoting inclusion programmes. However, we did question at the time what it really meant for games companies to say that “Black Lives Matter” — us included. The industry is notoriously young, male, and white — us included. And while some studios have undoubtedly taken these lessons onboard to build a better workplace going forward, the discourse has quietly moved on; for some companies the Black Lives Matter movement was only a moment suspended in time before moving on to the next big thing.
Marie Dealessandri – GamesIndustry.biz: October 27, 2020
This is an excellent article that dives into the issues and barriers facing Black people in games, as well as what the industry can do to improve the retention and promotion of Black talent. It’s encouraging to see that not all organizations have “quietly moved on.”
Gamers Forge Their Own Paths When It Comes to Accessibility
When Mark Bartlet realized there weren’t many gaming resources available for a friend with multiple sclerosis, he and Steven Spohn helmed a solution that would change countless lives. They created AbleGamers and turned a personal mission into a global vision of video game accessibility for all.
“AbleGamers hasn’t followed any path. We’ve created our own,” Spohn said. He’s AbleGamers’ COO and has spinal muscular atrophy, which attacks his muscles and limits movement from the neck down. “We entered an industry with a bunch of staircases and brought our own ramps.”
Williesha Morris – Wired: October 29, 2020
There are so many barriers to gaming, so it’s awesome to see the gaming community work together to support each other and share solutions. Ideally all the major industry organizations will step up to empower all abilities of gamers.
Games I Love
Annapurna, the most exciting indie publisher around, is making its own games
Annapurna, an independent media production company best known for producing award-winning video games and films, is forming an in-house game development studio to create its own projects.
The company already operates a publishing business started back in 2016 under the name Annapurna Interactive, and it’s responsible for helping fund and market some of the most beloved indie games of the last decade. Those include What Remains of Edith Finch, Kentucky Route Zero, and Outer Wilds, among many others.
Nick Statt – The Verge: October 29, 2020
If you’ve seen me write about indie games then there’s a very high likelihood that the game was published by Annapurna Interactive. I’m very excited to see what results from these in-house projects!
Phasmophobia is Outselling Some Massive Games on Steam
The indie game tasks players with teaming up to investigate a series of haunted houses, with the spirits lurking in each residence searching them out and trying to kill them.
… Phasmophobia has held on to the number one seller spot for two weeks running. To put that into perspective, the game has outsold huge titles such as the recently released Baldur’s Gate 3, The Outer Worlds, which just launched on Steam, and the viral sensation that is Among Us. Phasmophobia even beat out pre-orders for Cyberpunk 2077, which has been a dominant force on the rankings for quite some time.
Callum Williams – Game Rant: October 26, 2020
Phasmophobia is one of the rare games where I’d prefer to watch rather than play. The game has been insanely popular this month, likely because it embodies the Halloween spirit and is extremely entertaining to stream.
Weekly Reads is a weekly Friday post sharing game industry articles I read throughout the week. Each post is a 5-minute read that covers no more than 5 articles (except today where I cheated and curated 6 articles). Subscribe to this blog on the Home page or follow me on Twitter to receive notifications of new posts!
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