TGO Daily | Friday June 18, 2021 | FNAF Creator Retiring
Our response regarding FNAF creators retirement, Pokémon Unite gets a release date, Tetris Effect update coming to PlayStation, Xbox Design Labs back open for business, and some neat free games!
TGO Daily | Thursday June 17, 2021
✏️From the Author
I have such a love/hate relationship with ‘talking politics’. Having those kinds of discussion are so important because they directly affect your country. We directly influence this and it’s incredibly important. However, it seems near-impossible to have political conversations without it eventually turning vitriolic. Politics has become such a ‘my team versus your team’ mentality and it should never be that way. If I don’t agree with you, that’s fine. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. People are entitled to their own thoughts and ideals.
Regarding today’s headline story: No one deserves to be threatened or have their family threatened. It saddens me that this is a statement that even has to be made. It’s Cawthon’s right to donate to whomever he wants and to hold whatever ideals he thinks are right. It’s our right to not support him and to express, in the proper venues, that we disagree with his viewpoints. Minds and hearts can change when we have open and civil discussions about things. When we threaten and intimidate, people lock up and become defensive, and change becomes essentially impossible.
I think this is a great time to remind you that the 2021 Queer Games Bundle is still on sale for another 16 days. There’s 236 games in the bundle, so there’s a very high chance you’ll find something you’ll like - it’s a great price and directly supports the wonderful artists and developers in our LGBTQIA+ community! ❤
Until next time,
Brandon
📰 In the News
Scott Cawthon Retires
Written by: Adrian Briski (Editor)
Scott Cawthon, creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) franchise, has announced his retirement following a major controversy. Last week, Cawthon went viral on Twitter, after his political donations in the United States were publicized. Over the course of the last four years, he has contributed thousands of dollars to politicians like Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Ben Carson.
This event has made waves through the franchise’s fanbase. FNAF has a strong LGBTQ+ community, and Cawthon has been justifiably criticized for directly contributing to policy makers who are oppressing that community. He has also been given a significant amount of support, with #IStandWithScott gaining traction on Twitter.
Cawthon initially responded to these events with shock, but without remorse. He emphasized that he has happily worked with people of all walks of life, and treats everyone equally.
I highly encourage you to read this Kotaku article from Ash Parrish, which reflects The Gaming Observer’s stance on this matter. Notably:
“Cawthon wrote that in the aftermath of his donation disclosure, he and his family had been doxxed with people threatening to come to his house.”
“I unequivocally agree that Cawthon should not have to suffer threats to his family’s safety because of his political affiliations. And of course Cawthon is entitled to support whatever candidates he pleases. But his insistence that he loves his fans and that his personal actions regarding whom he’s hired, worked with, and befriended over the years should speak louder than his political donations makes no sense.”
“…like racism, the rampant homophobia and transphobia in this country is systemic. It is a vast network of laws and practices that work together to oppress marginalized groups. And because it is systemic, only systemic action can reverse it. That means passing laws that protect the rights of people of the LGBTQIA+ community. It also means not supporting the kinds of people that vote for laws that disenfranchise these communities. It doesn’t matter that Cawthon has so many diverse friends, because his donations enabled the continued oppression of those friends.”
Cawthon will be handing ownership of FNAF to someone of his choosing, and will be making projects as a hobby moving forward.
Pokémon Unite Gets Release Date
Pokémon Unite is a unique game as it’ll be the Pokémon Company’s first foray into the online battle arena (or more commonly known as a MOBA) genre. The game will be free-to-play and will be coming to the Switch and mobile devices with cross-play enabled. It’ll be coming to Nintendo Switch in July 2021 and to mobile devices in September 2021.
The game itself is a 5v5 team battle arena. The victor is decided by the team with the highest score at the end of the battle. This can be achieved defeating the opposing team’s Pokémon, defeating wild Pokémon, or by depositing energy into the enemy team’s goal. As your Pokémon levels up, it’ll also evolve (in the same vein as other MOBAs). In short, it looks like it’ll be similar to League of Legends or Dota, but with Pokémon.
It’s a fascinating genre for Pokémon to be heading into, especially when you don’t see them breaking away from their formula too often. I’m certainly looking forward to giving it a try. For those of you also interested, you should check out the trailer.
Brandon’s Thoughts: It’s League of Legends with Pokémon…I mean, am I the only one that checked for flying pigs out their window? I stopped playing LoL a while ago and I’ve been recently starting to miss it. Now this? I’m totally playing this. Is this game going to be amazing? Have I gone off the deep end?
Tetris Effect: Connected Connects Itself to PlayStation
Originally an Xbox exclusive, Tetris Effect is soon coming to PlayStation with its latest update. The update will also be bringing new multiplayer modes as well as a spectator mode for others to watch. The game will also have cross-platform play, so you can play with friends from other consoles in multiplayer.
Of all the solo-type games, Tetris would be the last one I’d have ever guessed to see doing multiplayer successfully, yet here it still stands. It’s truly fascinating and a testament to innovation.
Tetris Effect: Connected will be available on the PlayStation in late July. Those who already own Tetris Effect will be able to download a beta version of the game starting June 23, 2021.
Xbox Design Lab Makes its Return
The Xbox Design Lab officially is re-opening for designs. With it you can design the colors and buttons of your Xbox controller, now including the Series X controller.
There’s a lot of zany creations you can make and you can find quite a few examples of them online. It’s not much more expensive than buying a new controller either, so I’d say it’s something worth looking into if you’re in the market for a new Xbox controller and want to customize it up. Check out their site if you’re interested.
Epic Games Store Free Titles
The Epic Games Store has some really neat titles I think you may be interested in coming up.
These will be available for free until June 24th:
Hell is Other Demons - an action-platformer with some pretty cool graphics
Overcooked 2 - An absolutely wonderful solo/co-op chaotic cooking game
These will be available from June 24th to July 1st:
Sonica Mania - A well-received 2D love-letter to what makes Sonic games great
Horizon Chase Turbo - A racing game with big inspiration from your classic racing games from the 80s and 90s
There’s also a nifty drift-racing game on GoG as well, called Absolute Drift.
💡 Miscellanea
Roguebook, a deck-builder with Slay The Spire vibes, is out now
Amazon Appstore reducing revenue cut to 20% for devs that earn under $1 million USD
Cyberpunk 2077 releasing patch 1.23 to resolve more bug issues
👋 Say Hello!
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Thanks for the read <3