Scope out a few of the game industry news stories from the last week below, hand-picked from across the world of games. Take a look at stories about the National football League’s virtual Pro Bowl, a new ticketing service for streamers, the continuing challenges of trying to buy a new retail Xbox console, and much more!
Index:
- NFL’s 2021 Pro Bowl to be Held as a Virtual Event with Madden Football
- Streamlabs Announces New Ticketing Service for Livestream Events
- Xbox Series S|X Consoles Expected to be in Short Supply into 2021
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nixes In-game Politics
- Video Games May be Good for Mental Wellness
- New Sealed Copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 Sells at Auction for $156,000
NFL’s 2021 Pro Bowl to be Held as a Virtual Event with Madden Football
Source: CNBC
American pro football league, the National Football League (NFL) has made a significant change to its end-of-season schedule. Like many events that have transitioned to a virtual format, as CNBC details, it’s attached to a video game.
“It was supposed to be a star-studded event in Las Vegas. Instead, the 2021 Pro Bowl will take place virtually, with players going head-to-head in Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL ’21 video game, the league announced on Tuesday.
In a sign of the times, EA Sports and the National Football League have teamed up to create a week-long series of virtual match-ups that will include celebrities, football legends and current players, leading up to the main event — a game of Madden between the league’s best players. The exact date of the game is still being determined.
“We’re excited to bring this to life virtually and be the first to do so,” Peter O’Reilly, executive vice president of club business and league events at the NFL, told CNBC. “It’s an opportunity to connect with young fans in a way that’s really accessible.”
As Twitch sees a surge of viewership on its platform, Streamlabs, which integrates with Twitch, is adding to its offerings with a new ticketing service for streamers, as Windows Central covers:
“If you put any significant amount of time into streaming on popular platforms like Twitch, there’s a very good chance you’re already using Streamlabs, a popular suite of tools and features for creators to customize and enhance their streams. Previously, streaming as a living was about donations from the audience, ad revenue, and sponsorship deals, but Streamlabs wants to give creators another way to grow their business and connect with their audience. Enter: Lucra.
Lucra is a new service from Streamlabs and their parent company Logitech that allows creators of any kind, be them gamers, artists, musicians, or anyone else, to create exclusive events catered for their audience.
Xbox Series S|X Consoles Expected to be in Short Supply into 2021
Source: Video Games Chronicle
After the red-hot launch of the new Microsoft Xbox consoles earlier in November, but it’s possible that it may be hard to lock in an Xbox purchase during the holiday season (and for a while after), as this Video Game Chronicle article explains:
“Xbox Series X/S pre-orders went live in September and initial stock was quickly snapped up, leaving many fans unable to secure one of the new consoles for launch on November 10.
Retailers are expected to sporadically offer limited numbers of Xbox Series X/S consoles for sale as and when they receive new stock, but availability is likely to be few and far between for the foreseeable future.”
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nixes In-game Politics
Source: USA Today
College esports is bringing in new audiences to competitive gaming (Image: Alex Haney on Unsplash)
Just before the US elections in early November, there were some creative political presence on Twitch and in mass appeal games like Fortnite and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now, as USA Today covers, in Nintendo’s big game of 2020, they have decided to close that window for future political presences in their game:
“Nintendo wants to pull the plug on politics in its popular video game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”
The popular game for the Nintendo Switch just got a special holiday update with new winter weather features and special in-game events tied to Turkey Day (Nov. 26), Toy Day (Dec. 24) and New Year’s Eve.
But Nintendo also issued some updated guidelines for businesses and organizations for “Animal Crossing” that could nix politics in the game. “Please also refrain from bringing politics into the Game,” read the guidelines issued Thursday.”
Video Games May be Good for Mental Wellness
Source: Business Insider
Video games have for many years labored under an assumption in some circles that they may lead to aggression and antisocial behaviors. More research has emerged in recent years that tells a different story. Business Insider reports on recently published research that shows more possible positive benefits from playing games:
“A new study from Oxford University suggests video games could have a positive influence on people’s wellbeing.
The study, conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute, focused on two games — “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” and “Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville.” The study involved 3,274 gamers over the age of 18.
Working in tandem with the games’ creators, Nintendo for Animal Crossing and EA for Plants vs Zombies, the study tracked the amount of time survey respondents spent in-game, and combined this with a survey of players’ mental wellbeing.
“Contrary to many fears that excessive game time will lead to addiction and poor mental health, we found a small positive relation between game play and wellbeing,” the study found.”
New Sealed Copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 Sells at Auction for $156,000
Source: PCMag
Retrogames continue to show signs of strong interest as gaming as a whole rapidly expands its audience. This is evidenced in part by the record-setting auctions held for certain classic games. PCMag delves into the story of the latest auction that draw a record-breaking final sale:
“An unopened copy of 1990’s Super Mario Bros. 3 was sold for a whopping $156,000 Friday morning, breaking a record for the highest selling single video game at an auction.
The sale took place through Heritage Auctions, attracting 20 participants. The opening bid was a stunning $62,500 before soaring past the six figure amount.
According to Heritage Auctions, the $156,000 winning bid breaks the previous record, which belongs to a sealed copy of 1985’s Super Mario Bros. for the NES. In July, it fetched $114,000 in a separate auction.
Do you have interesting news to share, or something coming up that would also fit into this regular feature? Let us know!
