TGO Daily | January 12, 2021 | LucasArts Rebrands
January 12, 2021
In The News
Lucasfilm Games Returns
Lucasfilm is officially introducing a unification of their games branding under the aptly named Lucasfilm Games.
This was its original name when the division was founded in 1982, putting out classics like Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island. Eight years later in 1990, they rebranded into the more well-known name of LucasArts. It was then acquired and effectively shut down by Disney in 2012/2013. It has operated as a licensing brand ever since.
They’ll have a new presence on social media and their logo in games will be different — otherwise, it doesn’t seem likely that the name change indicates any larger change in their operation. Their Star Wars exclusivity deal with EA expires in 2023 if it’s not renewed, and I have to imagine they are already bringing in the money that Disney is looking for.
But you can’t help but daydream about a comeback, right?
Riot and Bungie go after cheaters
Source: polygon.com
Riot Games and Bungie have teamed up in a lawsuit against a cheating software creator named Cameron Santos. He runs a brand called GatorCheats which sell hacks for Valorant and Destiny 2, among others, through a website, email, and Discord. Their lawyers claim that these hacks may have caused millions of dollars in damages, which doesn’t seem too wild considering these cheats are sold for $90/month or $500 lifetime.
Bungie has previously sent them a cease and desist, but they claim that GatorCheats is still selling it on a private section of their website.
It’s pretty interesting when you have two major companies teaming up in an effort like this. Especially for something like cheating, which hurts not just their business, but overall community enjoyment.
System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition
In August 2019, Nightdive Studios announced that they were working on an enhanced edition for System Shock 2. They said it was using the same engine as their enhancements for the first game, and will have improvements for co-op. Otherwise, we haven’t heard much since.
Today, they put out a tweet showing that it is going to have some form of VR option! What!
That’s all we get so far, but it’s interesting to see nonetheless. Nightdive is also working on the remake for System Shock, and System Shock 3 is still in flux at a different studio.
Play Pokemon Red On Twitter
You might remember something by the name of Twitch Plays Pokemon. The concept was that somebody programmed Pokemon Red to respond to Twitch chat inputs, essentially making the game crowdsourced by thousands of people at once. That concept has taken off in a variety of ways, and today we are seeing perhaps the wildest one yet.
Users on Twitter are now able to play the game exclusively through a person’s avatar.
Their avatar updates every 15 seconds with the most commented input in that timeframe. I can’t imagine refreshing Twitter is as fun as just watching it on Twitch, but people are doing it nonetheless!
I know this isn’t a piece of industry news, but you have to agree that it’s notable. Imagine trying to explain this to someone when the game came out 23 years ago! I love the creativity.
Also In The News
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