recorded 2019-03-15

HEADLINERS

 Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 standard edition launches today with the other versions released earlier

·         Reviews are not in yet but early review impressions are pretty positive

 Jade Raymond becomes a VP at Google likely to head future gaming division (Engadget, Polygon)

·         Raymond has been around since the PS1 era when she got her start at Sony in 1998, eventually going on to establish Sony Online's R&D department. 

·         She previously worked at Ubisoft, where she served as executive producer and co-creator of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and later general manager of Ubisoft Toronto. While at Ubisoft Toronto she oversaw multiple AAA games like Far Cry and Splinter Cell:  Blacklist. Raymond then worked at Electronic Arts, where she oversaw EA’s Motive Studio, PopCap Studio, and Star Wars portfolio. She left EA in October 2018

·         Jade will join other former game executives at Google, including Phil Harrison, formerly of PlayStation and Xbox, and Jack Buser, previously the director of PlayStation Now and PlayStation Home.

LITTLE BITS

 Respawn Entertainment bans 355,000+ players since its launch for cheating on PC (BBC News)

·         Respawn has since put a statement and it reads below:

o    "The service works but the fight against cheaters is an ongoing war that we'll need to continue to adapt to and be very vigilant about fighting," it said.

o    "We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players."

·         Respawn said they would be adding a report button in the next update

·         New character Octane and Battle Pass leaked, Respawn has acknowledged this (GameSpot)

o    Battle Pass possibly priced at 950 Apex Points or about $10

The Master Chief Collection is heading to Steam this year to great fan desire (The Verge)

·         The Master Chief Collection includes Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), Halo 4, and now Halo: Reach.

·         This does mean the collection won’t be available immediately, The collection will appear in stages. Halo: Reach will appear first, followed by the rest in chronological order: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4.

Google teases gaming entrance w/ retail version of Project Stream and controller to be at GDC

·         Speculate on what this means for gaming and how Google can make a splash

Microsoft now allows PC users to stream games to their Xbox One with updated app (The Verge)

·         Microsoft is now letting Xbox One owners stream their PC games to the console and use a controller to play them. A newly updated app, Wireless Display app, from Microsoft enables the support so you can play Steam games or other titles directly on an Xbox One. You can use a regular Xbox controller to control the remote PC, enabling game play or even the ability to use an Xbox for presentations.

Epic Games has released their plan for the new Epic Games store for the next 6-ish months (PCGAMER)

·         Taken from Trello

·         Add