In this regular entry in EarlyGame’s Industry Intel series, we’ll be talking a lot about social media. Let’s get you up to speed on all major news coming from the video game business from the past week.
Oculus is finally doing something a lot of VR enthusiasts have been fearing - forcing Facebook accounts on its users. Starting later this year, Oculus gamers will be forced to merge their accounts with Facebook and official support for the separate Oculus accounts will cease in January 2023.
This is something that gamers were concerned about when the social media acquired Oculus back in 2014, but so far, the two have been treated as separate entities. This rekindles the conversation of hardcore gamers not wanting to enter the Facebook Gaming, but having their hand forced, back when Microsoft pulled the plug on Mixer.
Hopefully, this won’t be a dealbreaker for most, because the Oculus headsets are some of the best on the market and the tool of choice for many VR fans.
Companies want to be funny little jellybeans. Ever since Fall Guys dropped and became a smash hit with gamers everywhere, corporate entities have been fighting each other for the chance to have their branding implemented in the racing battle royale in the form of in-game skins over Twitter.
Oh no @hellotushy is back $420,069.69 Money all goes to @SpecialEffect If you don't know what's happening, look here:https://t.co/JWm7rbsS83 https://t.co/1RALK119JA
— Fall Guys Season 4 (@FallGuysGame) August 19, 2020
Developer Mediatonic has found a way to make the best out of this situation and announced a bidding war for charity. The company that donates the most to the Special Effects organization will have their logo plastered over a funny little running Fall Guy. Some of the bidders include YouTuber MrBeast and esports org G2 Gaming.
Steam
While not necessarily a social media, Steam features Friends, Groups, and a chat, so we count it for the sake of this segue!
Steam users have been super upset over Microsoft Flight Simulator. The downloading of its whopping 150GB of data is done in-game, counted towards playtime. This means that not only gamers have to wait for hours before playing (depending on internet speeds), but then they are immediately ineligible for a refund if the game doesn’t run properly.
- READ MORE: Industry Intel: Releases and Release Dates
Valve made a statement that they’ll be making an exception for this title since they have the tech to distinguish between staring at a download progress bar and actually playing. This has regained some good faith with gamers and shown that ad hoc exceptions could happen every now and then.
In other Steam news, the EA Play service is coming to Valve’s store on August 31. It will grant gamers access to some of EA’s most popular titles including the Titanfall 2, Battlefield V, Sims 4, and many others, as well as exclusive in-game cosmetics for members only.
For more gaming news, keep reading EarlyGame!
