Going Live

Good Morning. It’s September 6th. Not sure if you’ve heard, but there are some big game releases today.

If you’re on Xbox or PC, you’re probably exploring deep space in Starfield. If you’re on PS5 there’s a good chance you’re joining the ranks of Baldur’s Gate 3’s nearly half a million concurrent players.

Either way, you should have time to read through today’s edition while your download finishes.

— Derek Neville, Tim Rhyne, Jason Liu

HEADLINES

The Creator League roller coaster continues. Here’s the timeline thus far:

• Sept. 2nd: eFuse sponsors a Mr. Beast video to announce the Creator League — an esports tournament system featuring eight creators and their fans.

• Sept. 3rd: CdawgVA, a primary creator within the program, publicly backs out over NFT usage.

• Sept. 5th: eFuse lays off 30% of its workforce and postpones the Creator League. Additionally, commits to refunding purchased passes.

eFuse has not announced how long the Creator League is postponed for, but did state they “will take some time to reflect on community feedback and refine its structure.”

Our take: Creator League was a big bet compounded by another big bet in using MrBeast as their loudspeaker. Just a hunch, but signups were probably lower than expected + the negative press around NFTs tipped the scales to immediately go into cost savings and maintenance mode.

Xbox gets another Discord feature. A post by Microsoft on the Xbox Wire announced some big features coming to the Xbox Series X|S with the consoles’ September update. Last year Xbox added support for discord calls on an Xbox console. Now you will be able to stream your gameplay directly from your Xbox to your Discord friends with one click. The Xbox Series X|S will also receive the ability to toggle VRR on and off, and the previously announced Xbox voice chat reporting will go live in select markets.

Crowded October. If it feels like 2023 has been one big game release after another. Don’t expect things to change in the coming months. October in particular features massive titles such as Spider-Man 2, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, and Alan Wake 2. THQ Nordic has decided to push back the release of their upcoming survival horror game Alone in the Dark to January 2024 (originally scheduled for October 25), in an effort to avoid competing with the wave of releases. Remedy Entertainment announced a similar move earlier this year, pushing back the Alan Wake 2 release 10 days to avoid releasing the same week as Spider-Man.

HUD

• 🏎️ EA dropped the reveal trailer for their upcoming racing game EA Sports WRC. The official game of the FIA World Rally Championship is developed by the team behind the DiRT Rally series and is slated to release November 3rd.

• 💰 PayDay 3 is set to release later this month, but Xbox and PC players will get to test out one heist this weekend in an open beta. The test is based on an April build of the game, and progress will not carry over to the full release.

• 💫 Sea of Stars developer Sabotage Studios has half their team working on a DLC for the game called "Throes of the Watchmaker", which will tie Sea of Stars into their previous hit game The Messenger.

MAJOR W

• 🧟 The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann confirmed Season 2 of the hit HBO adaptation is outlined and “ready to go as soon as the strike ends.”

• 🐈 BlueTwelve Studio’s award-winning game “Stray” is getting adapted into an animated feature-length film.

• 🥊 EA announces Alexander Volkanovski and Valentina Shevchenko as UFC5 cover athletes, while Israel Adesanya will be on the deluxe edition. The full game reveal will be tomorrow.

F IN THE CHAT

Caffeine Soup? Nissin Foods, the manufacturer of the popular Cup Noodles, announced 2 new products designed for gamers in the Japanese Market — Gaming Cup Noodle and the Gaming Curry Meshi. These new flavors of their Cup Noodle and Curry Meshi product line contain caffeine and arginine, substances more commonly found in pre-workout than instant ramen.

*This could very quickly become a Major W if it tastes good

CAREER CORNER

• 3D Artist Generalist — Raid Base (Remote)

• QA - Web Tester — Plai Labs (Bogota)

• Senior Game Designer — Talofa (Remote)

HIVE MIND

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