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.
As U.S. cities and airlines are weighing COVID-19 protocols like mask and vaccine mandates, Canada continues to ban travelers who are not fully vaccinated -- including professional athletes. The MLB season is now underway, and the Toronto Raptors have advanced to the NBA playoffs, so several athletes are expected to not participate in upcoming games in Canada. Gabe Lacques, MLB reporters and Baseball Editor for USA Today Sports, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to dsicuss.
Bence Jendruszak, COO and Co-Founder of SEON, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says his platform sees more victims of online fraud during economic downturns, but explains why his company's solution can stop that trend.
Andrew Miller, Chief Operating Officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, joined Closing Bell to discuss the warning from Rivian's CEO about a possible EV battery shortage due to lack of access to key metals like lithium.
Fathom Digital Manufacturing, one of the largest on-demand digital manufacturing platforms in North America, went public late last year and serves the product development and manufacturing needs of companies such as Google, Amazon, Tesla, Johnson & Johnson, and more. CEO Ryan Martin joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss what the IPO means to the company and how he thinks digital manufacturing can help mitigate supply chain issues seen throughout the pandemic. "We can take parts that would take 4-6 weeks condense that down into just days using additive manufacturing in many cases. And so it's all about speed," he said.