Hi everyone, it’s Jason. Today we’re paying homage to the death of a relatively new video game, but first...
This week’s top gaming news:
Video games dying of old age
Some video games have been around for decades, and even as they fade in popularity, they linger peacefully out there waiting for an occasional rediscovery. But one recent shooter’s life was cut short in fewer than eight years.
This week, the Electronic Arts Inc.-owned Respawn Entertainment announced that it’s pulling its first game, Titanfall, from stores. Although Titanfall, which came out in March 2014, will still be playable for current owners, curious newcomers will never be able to buy it.
The move wasn’t completely shocking. Titanfall has struggled with hacks and coordinated cyberattacks for years. At a certain point, it must have made sense to pull the title rather than spend more resources chasing down hackers in a game that very few people play.
It’s yet another example of how the video game industry struggles with preservation. More than 1,500 games have been removed from storefronts in recent years, according to a archival group Delisted Games. Some were mothballed because of licensing issues; many others simply weren’t played enough to justify continuing to pay the costs to keep their servers running.
Titanfall is a particularly interesting case. It’s a multiplayer-only game, with no story campaign or other single-player component. So you can only play it if there are other people around. With no new players, Titanfall will likely be a ghost town within the next few years.
Granted, most people will flock to the sequel Titanfall 2 or the other popular shooter from Respawn, Apex Legends. Still, the move raises questions about whether companies owe it to the industry to preserve games and their history.
It reminds me of another bizarre story: Destiny, which came out in September 2014 to polarizing reviews. A year later, the developers at Bungie took several big steps to overhaul the game, including replacing lead voice actor Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame, whose wooden dialogue had become a running joke among players.
It was a smart change for the game, but since then, there’s been no way to play Destiny with its original narrator. Outside of a few YouTube videos, that part of video game history has simply been erased. One day, we’ll be telling our grandkids about the time Game of Thrones’ Tyrion Lannister sounded ridiculous while pretending to be a space robot. And maybe we’ll tell them that, before Titanfall 14 and Apex Legends 27: The Re-Apexing, there was once a game just called Titanfall.
What to play this weekend
Two months ago, I wrote about Danganronpa, a series that can fairly be summed up as “the Squid Game of video games.” The main three games were re-released for Nintendo Co.’s Switch Friday. I’ve replayed the first game on an early code provided by publisher Spike Chunsoft and I can unreservedly recommend it.
The short version: More than a dozen high school kids are trapped in an abandoned academy and told by an adorable, talking, psychopathic bear plushie that they are participants in a “killing game” and must murder one another to escape. You solve mysteries, explore the school and generally have a great time getting to know the kids and their quirks along the way.
In other gaming news
Talent agency UTA has started a $200 million SPAC for gaming acquisitions. The most interesting part is it’s headed up by former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé.
Six state treasurers are joining the now-very-crowded chorus of people criticizing Activision Blizzard, Axios reports. Treasurers from California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Oregon, Delaware and Nevada said they don’t think the company is doing enough in the wake of sexual misconduct and harassment allegations.
Watch a single sniper rifle shot take out 23 other players in Halo Infinite. It is very entertaining.
You can reach me at jschreier10@bloomberg.net or confidentially at jasonschreier@protonmail.com.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-12-03/ea-sends-titanfall-to-the-video-game-graveyard
2021-12-03 20:27:08Z
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