🎮Coronavirus continues to hurt the industry

Xbox boss calls for greater transparency on key issues

If you've been reading Load Save, you're no stranger to articles about the negative side of the games industry. While video games can bring good to the world, the industry can really hurt its employees.

In light of this, Phil Spencer has called for more transparency in the gaming world, especially from big name gaming companies. In the past, all of the bad news we've heard about development cycles and toxic work environments have been from journalists, from "the outside-looking-in," as Spencer puts it. He also mentions that the transparency needs to be prevalent in cases when people think that working in games is the best job ever. Because honestly, it comes with a lot of stress and hard work, and you have to committed and driven by passion to really enjoy the work.

I feel like this happens in a lot of industries: young people want to work in a certain field, and people don't have the heart to tell them how hard it can be. Then these people get to college or to their job, and they're shocked by the difficulty of the job. So maybe this transparency Spencer is calling for should be applied elsewhere too. Maybe we need to be more honest with the younger generation, encouraging their goals but being realistic about the challenges that come with those goals. What do you think?

Image credit: Phil Spencer's Twitter

Just For Laughs

The 9 dodgiest religions in games

RPS has been killing it with hilarious articles, plus religions and cults in video games are in 50% of video games, so a top 9 list is obviously needed. 10 is way too many, and 8 just isn't trying.

One I'm surprised didn't make the list is whatever is going on in Resident Evil 4? Those people are crazy over something.

Image credit: This article

💲💲💲, the future, and great games

Welcome back to Load Save! This week was a little bit light on news, but there's still a lot of great stuff to talk about.

Platinum Games is making money moves, but some people are skeptical of its Kickstarter

GameStop is looking to reinvent its store experience

Ori and The Will of Wisps looks incredible

Let me know what you think about this week's articles! Shoot me a tweet, drop a comment on Facebook, or respond to this email, odds are I'll reply quicker than you'd expect. If you like what you're reading, share it around! You telling others about it is more effective than anything I could do, so any type of recommendation would be much appreciated.

As always, enjoy the read!

Development

Ori And The Will Of The Wisps hands-on and interview

Ori And The Blind Forest was one of my favorite games from 2015. The Metroidvania style was what pulled me in, but the unique approach of seamless level design, a beautiful world accompanied with an amazing soundtrack, and a really great story is what kept me involved. It's even more impressive that this game had me hooked in 2015, because that was during a period of time that I wasn't playing a lot of video games. So that should tell you how good it is.

The sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, comes out in just a few weeks, so this article looks at a few hours of hands on and details a great discussion with the developers. It's incredible to see the development cycle of this game, especially the way that music works. Instead of the game being built then handed to the music director, the director is working with the dev team while they're building moments in the game. The director could even have the say of how short a long a certain moment in the game should be in order to match the music! That's so cool.

The developer of the series describes the game experience as a "giant long form ballet," which is a perfect description to me. Check out this article and get hyped with me for when Ori and The Will of the Wisps comes out on March 11th, 2020.

Image credit: Moon Studios

Xbox Series X gets its first great selling point

A bit of previous knowledge you need to know to fully understand this article: Xbox One games will be able to be played on the Xbox Series X with full access to the upgraded version. This isn't like last-gen, you'll be able to play something like Cyberpunk 2077 on your Xbox One, then play it a graphically enhanced version on Xbox Series X when it launches. Pretty cool.

This article talks about how this is a great decision by Microsoft and how it works so well because they don't have the player-base that PlayStation has. It also takes a guess of how Sony will respond with PS5. Will it have the same function or will it be like the PS4 where we'll get updated, remastered versions of last-gen's games? I surely hope they follow in Microsoft's footsteps, but this article presents a compelling argument on why they wouldn't.

Image credit: Xbox

Community

How does 2004's Far Cry hold up today?

It can be shocking and entertaining to look at how far video games have come. Anyone you ask who has played video games can probably give you a story of when a game mechanic, graphics, or story blew them away. Maybe it was Super Mario 64 or a PS1 game that did that for you, but this article looks at how the original Far Cry did that for the author.

Like many, Far Cry 3 was my first journey into the FC universe. I liked it, but I never beat it. For some reason, the tropical vibe didn't work with me so I fell off about halfway through the game. Far Cry 4 is what really drew me in. I know it was widely seen as a Far Cry 3 reskin, but I loved the mountainous region and the mythical undertone of the game. I thought the story was pretty interesting and the villain, Pagan Min, was pretty entertaining! I tried out Far Cry 5, but I quickly lost interest in it. I think the FC formula has worn off for me, unfortunately.

Being so familiar with the current formula is what makes this article so interesting. Seeing where the series started is really cool and it's always nice to get a reminder of what gaming used to look like.

Image credit: This article

GDC postponed to later this year over coronavirus concerns

I originally had an article linked about all the companies that were skipping GDC and I commented that the convention should be cancelled or postponed. Looks like it happened!

It is a bummer that it had to be cancelled. GDC is often time a great networking place to new workers and smaller companies. It's a shame that it won't happen this time around, but hopefully it can be rescheduled soon.

Image credit: GDC

Roundups

Platinum Games announces a new game and studio

Platinum Games is making big moves after a huge investment from Tencent and a mind blowing Kickstarter campaign.

This week they announced a completely new IP that they will own 100% of, which is something that they have always wanted to do. In light of this new game, they're opening a new Tokyo studio of 100 people. The future is looking bright for this talented developer, but some people are skeptical of their Kickstarter.

Earlier this week, Platinum announced that The Wonderful 101 Remaster is coming out on May 11th in North America. Remember that the Kickstarter started at the beginning of February. A lot of people are saying the timeline doesn't line up, and it's hard to disagree. Platinum was obviously already working on this remaster and sold a different story to the public, asking for money to start working on it. I'm glad that it's getting released soon, but it seems a little shady that they hid the fact that they were already working on it.

If Platinum had been upfront and said, "we're working on this remaster, but it won't become a reality unless you help us raise the money so we can publish it on our own," then I wouldn't feel so weird about this. But maybe that wouldn't have raised as much money. It's a strange situation, what's your thoughts?

Image credit: Platinum Games Inc.

Long Read

GameStop's concept stores: A "laboratory," not a Hail Mary

In stark contrast to the GameStop article listed last week, Rebekah Valentine from GamesIndustry talks about the new "experiment store" by GameStop.

Instead of a million games and accessories to look through while an employee is trying to sell something to do, GameStop is trying out stores that are filled with multiple gaming stations so that people can come and play games. A bigger focus on community and not so much on shoving sales down people's throats. As you can expect, you'll be charged per hour if you want to play (after the initial 15 minutes), but they have to turn a profit somehow.

This seems like a really promising idea and the possible middle ground that I proposed last week. What do you think? Would you go to GameStop if they had weekly "Fortnite Fridays" or DnD games? Let me know!

Image credit: GameStop

Before You Go

March Madness (of video games)

It's hard to believe that it's about to be March. The the end of February marks the end of the gaming drought. March sees the release of some huge titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, DOOM: Eternal, and Half-Life: Alyx. I'm so excited to get my hands on AC and I can't wait to see the reviews for Alyx. It's gonna be a good month.

Thanks for reading, I'm still surprised that people are interested in what I have to say. I'll see you next time!