GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain: "Star Wars Battlefront 2" Will Win Out Fans
Electronic Arts is in some trouble with its Star Wars fan base.
"Star Wars Battlefront 2," officially comes out on Friday, but many players are already upset over the expensive in-game transactions necessary to unlock certain characters. Tamoor Hussain, editor at GameSpot and Russell Holly, managing editor of VRHeads.com joined Cheddar to discuss the concept of paying extra within a game.
Hussain says that it used to take a significant number of hours to gain points in order to unlock certain characters, which upset players. So, companies began to add the option to buy the power to unlock them. But people are still upset. He says it could impact sales this week, but many people won't be looking into the issue too deeply.
Holly says in-game transactions are a tremendous business for Electronic Arts, which just bought Respawn Entertainment for over $400 million.
To ease some of the pressure, EA said that it will reducing the amount of resources it'll take to access key players in the upcoming game.
"They kind of changed the discoursed around the game," Hussain said, adding that this move will sway public opinion positively.
Virtual reality startup Sandbox VR recently announced it raised $37 million Series B funding round. It is a location-based VR company, a space that was hit hard during the pandemic. Sandbox was eventually forced to file for bankruptcy; however, the company is emerging from the pandemic with a fresh round of funding and plans to open new retail locations around the world. Sandbox VR CEO Steve Zhao joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest with the infrastructure bill, the growing state rebellion over boosters, Trump's dereliction of duty on the pandemic, Taylor Swift's reign of cultural domination and more.
2021 has been the year of many things, and one of them is the NFT or non-fungible token. We've seen NFTs come about for so many different things.
Digital artists have used them to sell their artwork in a more traditional art transaction than the internet had previously allowed. We've seen specific NFT campaigns like the pudgy penguins amass large followings. And now we're seeing them expand into horror films just in time for spooky season.
The iconic horror movie franchise "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" has launched its debut NFT line entitled "Leatherfaces." the illustrations are designed by Skinner in partnership with Ultra Rare to reveal a total of over 10,000 Leatherface avatars. The collection gives fans, NFT fiends and blockchain fanatics access to a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre metaverse unlike any that has been seen before.
Richie Hobson, co-founder of Ultra Rare, joins None of the Above to discuss.
The USO is hosting a 72 hour streamathon on Twitch called #OperationPlayItForward, and is tapping into Gen Z superstars and gamers to raise money for the organization through the power of the esports community. The goal here is to help support both the new generation of troops and their families. Director of Global Gaming Operations at USO Callum Fletcher and Former UFC Lightweight Champ and Twitch Partner Jens Pulver, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
