MultiVersus is Huge!
MultiVersus is Huge!
E87: MultiVersus Season 1 launches this week.
Good morning gamers! The newest free-to-play platform fighting game MultiVersus has been in beta for about a month now and it’s already a smashing success. Within the first two weeks of beta testing it surpassed 150,000 concurrent players on Steam and 180,000 peak viewers on Twitch, and has now achieved well over 10 million players across PC, Xbox and PlayStation.
MultiVersus Season 1 launches on August 15 and the 50 tier battle pass will cost users 950 Gleamium (roughly USD $10). Season 1 content will be rolled out periodically over the entire season, and will include new game modes such as an online ranked mode and a single-player classic arcade mode, new cosmetics unlockable via the battle pass and the introduction of the games newest “expert” level fighter Morty (from Rick & Morty), coming on August 23. Players have also reported seeing an ad appear early on the Xbox store that indicates Black Adam (DC anti-hero) and Stripe (first Gremlins movie) will be new characters introduced sometime this season.
Balance changes are also coming to MultiVersus over the coming days, here’s the patch notes. The games director previously confirmed that they’re already overhauling the hit detection system, but for now, Bugs Bunny, Velma and Finn have received nerfs while Wonder Woman, LeBron James and Arya Stark got buffs (amongst other changes across the roster of characters). MultiVersus’ $100,000 tournament at EVO 2022 (the biggest fighting game event of the year) was also a major success hitting a peak viewership of 62,000. The event saw tons of character utilization but Bugs Bunny, Velma and Tom & Jerry came out as the massive threats.
Bungie vs Cheaters
In June, a Canadian cheats distribution company called Elite Boss Tech settled with Bungie for $13.5 million and agreed to stop creating new cheats for Destiny 2 or any other Bungie game. The settlement was reached by taking the number of times the cheat software was downloaded, which was 6,765, and multiplying it by a $2,000 penalty. Bungie said that the company threatened the integrity of their game and reputation.
Bungie’s cheater battle continued last week as Destiny 2 cheat maker AimJunkies fired back at the developer. Bungie’s case against them for alleged copyright infringement was thrown out by the court. AimJunkies released a statement saying "Bungie also claims that we caused grievous harm to their game when in fact some of their most popular months of player counts and sales were during the time AimJunkies offered their software products”. The cheat maker has issued subpoenas to Google, PayPal and Valve to collect evidence against Bungie.
AimJunkies offered to work together with Bungie to find a solution to their cheater problems but Bungie declined the opportunity. The company insists that Bungie is trying to make cheating illegal because they don’t know how to keep cheaters out of their game.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to,
Team BDS for winning the 2022 Rocket League Championship Series.
Team Spirit for winning the 2022 PGL Major Arlington.
100 Thieves (North America), Team Liquid (EMEA), KRÜ Esports (South America), and Edward Gaming (East Asia) for winning their regions 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour: Last Chance Qualifier.
EA and the NFL have renewed their partnership to further expand the Madden NFL Championship series (MCS) and Madden Esports. This renewal will see the total prize pool for the upcoming competitive season expand to $1.7 million, and will better align MCS events with NFL events. The competitive season will end with the Ultimate Madden NFL 23 Bowl hosted the same week as Super Bowl LVII.
The International 11 is the biggest Dota 2 event of the year and the 12 teams that directly qualify based on DCP points have been finalized. The qualifying teams include TSM and Evil Geniuses (representing North America), PSG.LGD and Team Aster (representing China), Team Spirit and Beastcoast (representing South America), OG, Thunder Awaken, Tundra Esports, Gaimin Gladiators, and Outsiders (representing Europe) and BOOM Esports (representing Southeast Asia). The International 11 grand finals will take place at the end of October and will have an estimated $45 million prize pool up for grabs.
Activision has already announced some of the details for the 2023 Call of Duty League season. The kickoff date is going to be at the end of August when free agents are allowed to sign new contracts, and teams can start making roster moves. Player contracts must be between one and three years, offer a minimum guaranteed salary of USD $55,225 (including healthcare and retirement benefits) and players must be awarded at least 50% of tournament winnings. The CDL start date is still TBD but expected to begin shortly after the worldwide release of Modern Warfare 2 on October 28th.
Gaming Roundup
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan said that they had multiple discussions about making a Grand Theft Auto style video game adaptation of the show.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns has been delayed indefinitely. Firaxis Games says the game will be released prior to the end of their Fiscal Year (March 2023).
Hogwarts Legacy has been delayed, it will now release on February 10th, 2023 for Xbox, PlayStation and PC (Nintendo Switch dates will come at a later time).
Prey director Dan Trachtenberg says that the shield and tomahawk that Naru used were inspired in part by the God of War series.
Ghost of Tsushima movie director Chad Stahelski says that Sony has backed his intentions to make a Japanese movie with a Japanese cast.
THQ Nordic has 43 games in development including 25 unannounced projects. The publisher teased that they’re working on a South Park game.
Fortnite will be introducing Dragon Ball content to their game on August 16th, days before the release of “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” in North America.
Pac-Man has a live action film currently in development by Bandai Namco Entertainment alongside Wayfarer Studios.
Grand Theft Auto V has now shipped close to 170 million units according to Take-Two Interactive. There were 5 million copies shipped last quarter.
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