It’s the end of July, it’s been a super busy time at Stoffel Presents with a lot of workings going on in the background. Never fear however here is all you need to know what is happening in the gaming world for July 2019….
Gamestop hit lowest share value of all time
In news that no gamer ever wants to here Gamestop America’s major gaming retailer has hit its lowest value of shares ever. The previous lowest of $3.96 was beaten this month when shares dipped to $3.87. Gamestop which currently operates over 5800 stores across 14 countries is now targeting a massive restructuring within its stores. They are currently revamping to include some store closures, some EA specific stores, some full retro stores, increasing trade-in value as well as more Gamestop exclusives.
Nintendo heading for a class action lawsuit?
As time has gone on more and more people have been reporting “drift” in their Joy-Con controllers. Drift as it’s commonly known refers to movement without there being any input from the user, So in a racing game, for example, holding accelerate and nothing else you would still turn. Enough stories have broken that a class action lawsuit (in which multiple affected persons sue a company as a collective) is being filed.
Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP (CSK&D) announced that it was filing a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo over the “drifting” problem many Switch owners have experienced with the console’s Joy-Con controllers. The suit alleged that the joystick used in the Joy-Con, which appears to be registering movement even when it’s stationary, is disruptive to gameplay and is misleading.
Nintendo must be feeling the pressure as they have recently announced the Nintendo LITE (which Stoffel presents were one of the first to break) with a rather heavy price tag of £199 and the need to purchase additional joy-cons for some titles as well as new colour joy-cons being released.
Nintendo has since released a fix and refund program but it has yet not currently stopped the class action lawsuit as far as we at Stoffel Presents are aware…
Microsoft Announce a fall of 48% of Hardware Revenue
Microsoft has announced what appears to be a staggering 48% loss in Revenue from the hardware. Although some media outlets are touting this in a negative aspect what needs to be taken into account is this is following the announcement of their next console “Project Scarlet” which would cause quite a few potential gamers to sit on their wallets as the next-gen is far away and the current-gen has not seen a major price drop. Xbox Live users have also jumped significantly from 57million to 65million active users. It can be taken however that Microsoft has conceded the war of this generation as the lack of exclusives on their platform and a somewhat media silence in 2019 content suggests that they are gearing up hard for the next generation.
Loot Boxes and British Parliament
EA & Epic games are on the defensive as of late across the world as more and more countries finally call into question Loot boxes and the level of gambling associated with. Turns out they are not loot boxes but surprise mechanics like Kinder eggs as offered by Kerry Hopkins EA’s Vice president of Legal and government affairs. This comment gets the first Absolute bonehead award if we ever start the Stoffel Awards. The “conference” with the British parliament and the gaming commission is so vast to cover but with Epic games saying that they don’t make money off of fortnite or other pearls such as they don’t know what a typical gamer is…we implore you to watch all about it. Keep checking back to Stoffel presents for more on this very soon…
New Digital Minister
Margot James has resigned as digital minister following the UK’s newly appointed Prime minister. This comes as the gaming industry has been answering in parliament regarding the ethics of loot boxes (or surprise mechanics as EA had the audacity to try to label) Margot James has been replaced by Nigel Adams. A staunch Prime minister supporter who leaped to Twitter to say: “a privilege and honour” to be serving under Johnson”. Is an interesting development at what potentially is a crucial time for the industry….
EA we don’t understand why they are viewed as the bad guys…
Matt Bilbey, who works at EA as the company’s EVP of strategic growth, has stated his surprise that in the gaming community EA is not one of the good guys.
“25 years at EA and I still struggle with the external perception that we’re just a bunch of bad guys,” Matt Bilbey says now in a candid interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “We love making and playing games. Unfortunately, when we make mistakes on games, the world knows about it because it’s of a size and scale.”
This statement follows a dire time in gamers’ eyes at EA’s ethics and productivity. With Battlefront 2 being such a microtransaction mine, Disney pulled ranks against the license as the community rose higher than has been seen for a long time. Also to mention is the appalling support Anthem has been given since launch.
EA’s latest move which has angered fans is to reduce the cost of NBA 2K19 form $60 to $3 dollars in the US and place UNSKIPPABLE ads in the title. Leading those who have paid full price angered as they have no way to skip these ads. I am predicting that as more countries look to ban Loot boxes that EA may attempt to use this format in its place to generate further revenue and if I am right, you heard it first here.
Stoffel Presents are on a plane….
Our chief dons his Stetson, breaks out his truth serum and heads to Gamescom in Germany 20th – 25th August in Germany. I recently asked him if he was looking forward to it to which he replied Excited and nervous. When asked why he was nervous, he replied he doesn’t know how to order beer in German. it would be a worry for us all. Any questions, queries or comments find us on facebook, twitter, twitch, youtube and discord.
One line news:
- Bully 2 leaked some reports are suggesting – not enough credible evidence for us to cover at this time
- Epic games begin experimenting with cloud saves
- Mario maker 2 levels double from 32 to 64
- EA Access launches on ps4 July 24 (if you have this I would love to hear your thoughts, email me at jonathan.wilkie@stoffelpresents.com)
- Defiant Development makers of Hand Of fate close their studio
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