Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news.
Console shortages: You probably saw all kinds of headlines this week about how President Biden is hard at work on important business, like… preventing shortages of video game console devices. Wait, what? As it happens, that’s not really the Biden administration’s core goal here; in fact, the president has issued an executive order to review multiple supply chains, including “semiconductor chips, rare earth minerals, pharmaceuticals, and large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles.” Consoles, of course, are affected.
CDPR: It sounds like CD Projekt Red’s misery over the nasty hack-and-ransom earlier this month is much worse than we thought. Not only was the source code for multiple games stolen and apparently sold when CDPR refused to negotiate with the thieves, but according to a new Bloomberg report, the situation has become a “nightmare” for employees, who had to freeze their own personal accounts in case they were compromised and send their computers to IT to scan for malware. As for the game itself, CDPR says that it’ll have to delay patch 1.2 in order to deal with the cyberattack. Expect it now in the back half of March.
Our goal for Patch 1.2 goes beyond any of our previous updates. We’ve been working on numerous overall quality improvements and fixes, and we still have work to do to make sure that’s what you get. With that in mind, we’re now aiming for release in the second half of March. 2/3
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 24, 2021
Gamestonk: Yes, a Gamestop stock rally is happening all over again, with after-hours trading shooting up to $170 per share overnight, though the stock is falling once again this morning. Obviously, it’s not a smart idea to get involved in this rally, which appears to have begun after Gamestop’s CFO announced he’d be stepping down in March.
Riot Games: Riot has introduced VCT Game Changers, “a new program which will supplement the competitive season by creating new opportunities and exposure for women and other marginalized genders within VALORANT esports.” Readers will recall that Riot leadership has been at the center of multiple sexual harassment and discrimination scandals over the last few years and is the subject of multiple lawsuits over the situation, so it’s certainly an interesting flex to see the company attempting to clean up its image using esports.
Call of Duty: Finally, we end on a horrifying note as multiple outlets are reporting that female Call of Duty esports player was killed by a fellow pro gamer. According to GI.biz’s piece, the murderer, who allegedly created a violent manifesto, filmed his crime, which he says he planned for two weeks, then sent the footage to his teammates and ultimately surrendered to police. We have no words, only sympathies for the victim and her friends and family.
