Call of Fortnite

Good Afternoon. Welcome to all of our new subscribers who have joined us over the past couple of weeks!

Make sure to check out today’s Weekly Checkpoint below. Normally this recap quiz is exclusive to readers who have referred at least 3 new subscribers, but this week we’re making it available to everyone. Have you been keeping up with gaming news this week?

Have a great weekend!

— Jason Liu, Derek Neville

MAIN QUEST: Call of Duty goes full Fortnite

It’s been a big content year for Call of Duty as the franchise sought to replicate the broad appeal of Fortnite with a plethora of content crossovers. This new state of play has come a long way from its military simulation roots — which begs the question, has it become too diluted? Here’s a breakdown of CoD’s “Fortnitification” from this year:

• Season 6 Operator Bundles include Spawn (Image Comics), Lilith & Inarius (Diablo), and Skeletor (He-Man) to usher in Halloween events.

• Celebrity Operators this year included Nicky Minaj, Kevin Durant, and ‘Burger King’ guy.

• A collaboration with Amazon Prime Video saw the introduction of Operators from The Boys, which included game-breaking laser beam eyes.

Step back: Brand collaborations and cross-pollination of assets is a great way to introduce users to your stickiest and most profitable games. Introducing more fantasy and caricature broadens the appeal of the game to a younger audience. However, it’s not a very novel model — do we really need another Fortnite and will it be detrimental to retaining the purists?

HUD

• 👍 After a week they’d probably like to forget, Microsoft picked up a big win today as the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approved Microsoft’s restructured deal in their Activision acquisition, which will see the cloud gaming rights of Activision sold to Ubisoft for 15 years. This was broadly seen as the last regulatory hurdle for Microsoft to execute on the deal.

• 🚔 Rockstar Games is now offering free games to subscribers of its GTA+ subscription service. Subscribers from both Xbox and PlayStation will get a rotating assortment of titles, starting with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition, consisting of remastered versions of GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas.

MAJOR W

• 💅 Baldur’s Gate 3 received its patch 3 today, which allows players to change their appearance, voice, and pronouns. Players will not be able to change race, body type, or origins.

• 💻 The Steam VR Client received a major update — Steam VR headset on the way?

F IN THE CHAT

• 📆 While it seems like everyone is releasing their own take on handheld gaming devices, Steam Deck fans looking for a sequel, will have to wait a few more years.

• 🏎️ Forza Motorsport is available for pre-load, but you’re going to need a lot of space. The Xbox Series X requires 133GB of disk space, while the Series S and Steam versions are also over 100GB.

CAREER CORNER

• Social Media Manager, Pokémon GO - Niantic (Bellevue)

• Graphics Engineer Intern - PlayStation (San Mateo)

• Gameplay Animation Engineer - 2K (Vancouver)

HIVE MIND

Weekly Checkpoint

Have you been keeping up with this week’s headlines? Welcome to the weekly checkpoint, where we test your knowledge of the biggest gaming stories from the past week. Do you have what it takes to ace this quiz?

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