Welcome to Checkpoint, a new regular segment from the authors here at LevelSave designed to quickly let you know what is on our minds, how we are reacting to current news and trends, and some looks into content coming soon from LevelSave.com.
February 8th, 2017
I still don’t know if I’m just cynical or if there’s really something wrong with this industry.
Checkpoints:
- For the first time in forever, E3 will be open to the general public. It seems a lot of developers (and media) aren’t too pleased with this, fearing that fans will be looking for an experience like PAX – consumer focused – while E3 is a lot of hands off, press and industry focused presentation.
- The Nintendo Switch, in a bold move that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, will not ship with a web browser. The mobile, tablet-based console that looks like an iPad, will not launch with any form of web browsing capabilities like the ones my cell phones have had for at least ten years. Are we surprised?
- And on that note, we also won’t have any basic tablet functions, not even Netflix. Nintendo had the chance to step up and make a stand on the mobile/tablet industry, but a small battery and lack of basic functions will cripple that.
- Daft Punk will be hosting a popup shop with items curated by some of the biggest names in fashion right now. They’ll also be showing off some of their old helmets, props, and memorabilia. Yeah, this has nothing to do with video games. But it’s pretty cool.
- Overwatch is getting some great quality of life additions, including a server browser and some advanced custom game techniques. Cool!
Bonus Level:
It seems like Nintendo doesn’t really know what they’re doing in the console landscape, and I’d venture to say they’re really the only ones still trying to perform in the traditional console environment. Nintendo’s always been ‘different’ from the competition, but all this bad news coming out about the Switch has me feeling like Nintendo is still trying to beat Sega. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the competition still does what Nintendon’t.
Checkpoint reached.
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