Issue 15

Phil Spencer Says "Nobody's Asking For VR" on Xbox

The journey of VR has been a rollercoaster. I know I've talked about it before, but it went from being the hottest conversation topic in gaming to being a niche market for a few good games a year. It seems that the VR market is starting to level out this year, but Phil Spencer's comments here show that Xbox still isn't satisfied with where it's at. Once again, this is another point of differentiation between Xbox and PlayStation. PlayStation has said that they plan on making PSVR a part of PS5, which shows that they are still committed to the VR platform. They've also made a point of highlighting new PSVR games in the PlayStation State of Play videos. It'll be interesting to see the package of PS5 and PSVR when PS5 launches. To me, this points more to a future where Xbox prides itself on its inclusive game streaming services that everyone can get in on while PlayStation pursues the serious gaming market with high-quality gaming experiences and the potential of VR.

What do you think? Will Xbox ever get into VR?

Image credit: Phil Spencer Twitter

Twitch Streams Are Being Embedded In Websites, Inflating Views

TL;DR: Twitch streamers are embedding their streams onto websites, so when users visit that website, they'll be counted as a "junk viewer" someone who is counted as a viewer but doesn't even know they're watching a stream.

It isn't just individual streamers, Twitch itself is advertising popular streamers in paid ads on websites like Reddit. So when you're scrolling through Reddit and you see a Twitch ad for a live stream, you're technically counted as one of those streamers. This can lead to streamers making money off of people who aren't actually watching. So their audience isn't gained by any effort of the streamer's but instead because they sneakily placed the stream on a website or in an ad. This could be seen as a clever business move by the viewer, but it's simply allowing uninteresting streamers who are money-hungry to top the charts with junk viewers. This covers up the dedicated streamers who are trying to create great content. Twitch really hasn't said anything about this yet, but I'm against it.

What do you think? Is this just part of the streamer lifestyle or is this technically cheating the system?

Image credit: Twitch Twitter

Just For Laughs

17 Reasons To be Thankful In Video Games

In the spirit of this past week, let's think of things to be thankful for in video gaming. I would have to add "Appropriately placed auto-saves", "games where you can pet the dog," and "The ability to switch the game audio to Japanese" (Astral Chain is a million times better now) to the list. Let me know what you would add!

Image credit: Me, the guy who is so thankful for load optimization in Death Stranding.

A Time To Be Thankful For News

Whether or not you celebrated Thanksgiving this past week, I hope you had a good week! The news was hard to find because of all the Black Friday news is over, but there were some gems to be found! This week we look into Xbox's opinion on VR, some streaming inflated views, and video game reasons to be thankful. The newsletter is a little shorter this week due to taking a few days off for the holiday, but I'll be back to the longer comments next week! Check out the bottom of this newsletter to see where you can contact me.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, enjoy the read!

Development

Why Apple Arcade Is A Great Place For Devs

I love that a big company like Apple is opening the doors for more developers to get their games on a platform that can ensure they get a decent return. This filters more money into the video game market, which keeps is thriving and healthy! Can you see a future where controllers with a phone stand are common in transit and waiting lines? With the development of xCloud, the seemingly successful Apple Arcade, and maybe Stadia if it can get it's stuff together, I think there's a good chance for this to become commonplace!

Image credit: Apple Arcade Twitter

Xbox's Project Scarlett Is Planned To Have A First-Party Title Every 3-4 Months

This is a big goal to reach, especially with Xbox's track record for the past year or so. If you've been keeping up with first party titles, Xbox seems to not be concentrated on them with Xbox One. Yet, they continue to tout the game studies they have under their belt, which is now 15. Has Xbox been laying low with their exclusives in preparation for next-gen? If so, 2020 will be a big year for Xbox. It would also completely ruin my prediction that Xbox is going towards a next-gen concentrated on providing services like Game Pass. We also have to consider what Xbox considers a First-Party title? My initial thought when I saw this headline was that Xbox wanted AAA games for Scarlett every 3 months. What's more realistic is that we'll see more indie games coming out every few months which will most likely not have as much meat on their bones as a full-blown AAA game would have. But this is all speculation at this point, we'll see next year!

Image credit: Xbox.com

Community

Popular Streamer Signs Exclusivity Deal With Facebook Gaming

While the Streaming Wars raged on around us, we didn't even notice the much quieter, more elegant Streamer Wars carried on. The first major news was Ninja's switch to Mixer, and since then, there's been a steady flow of popular streamers signing exclusivity deals with other streaming services. It seems that Facebook has thrown its hat into the ring with Facebook Gaming signing an exclusivity deal with DisguisedToast (a fantastic name). Not only does he have a fantastic name, he donated the $20,000 budget for his announcement video for going to Facebook Gaming (side note: it's ridiculous that there's that high of a budget for an announcement video) to a children's hospital. I've never watched this streamer before, but he's a good guy to me. I wish him the best in his career!

Who's next for signing an exclusivity deal? What will Twitch do to keep streamers on their platform? Find out next time on Load Save (probably not)

Image credit: Facebook Gaming Twitter

Pokémon Games Can Be Strange If You’ve Never Played One Before

Every now and then, it's fun to take a step back and look at something you love from someone else's perspective. If you celebrated Thanksgiving this past week with family or friends, you might have had this experience of explaining a hobby or something you love, like a game, to someone who knows nothing about it. Imagine trying to explain the world of Pokemon to someone who knows nothing about it and how weird it would sound. This article comes from the perspective of someone who has never experienced the world of Pokemon. It's a good read, and it's fun to see an adult still feel the wonder of the world of Pokemon.

What was your first Pokemon experience? Mine was Pokemon: Diamond, but I quickly played Ruby after this. I've been a fan ever since!

Image credit: Pokemon.com

Long Read

The Final Fantasy VII Remake Team Talks About What To Expect and Their Journey

I love this look into the development of Final Fantasy VII: Remake. The passion of dev team comes across clear in this blog post, and you can see that they really care about honoring the original as well as creating something new and exciting. The only reserve I have about this is that it'll be released in parts. The first part, the one we've seen the commercials for and that's planned to release on March 3, 2020, will only be in Midgar. This is a small part of the entirety FF7 story. In this post, the dev team says that they added a lot for part one, so it will probably feel like a full game. But it will definitely end on a cliffhanger, and how long will we have to wait for part 2? I'm skeptical about this release schedule, but I hope it works out.

Image credit: Final Fantasy VII Twitter

Before You Go

The End Of The Tunnel

Thanks for stopping by! The next few weeks are looking to be very hectic for me, but I'm determined to keep Load Save to the highest standard possible! After that, it's smooth sailing until the end of January. I hope that you got some good deals through Black Friday and don't forget about Cyber Monday coming up! I haven't seen a lot of pre-Cyber Monday Sales, but hopefully it'll be as good (maybe even better) than Black Friday.

You can contact me by responding to this email, messaging Load Save on Facebook, or shooting me a Tweet @SethMcMorris. I'll see you next week!