Minecraft: Toy Story Mash Up Pack Leaked

Movies have always been quite popular within the gaming culture. From old school Pokemon movies to the upcoming Minecraft Movie which is planned to release this century hopefully. But one movie franchise which never got many games made about it was Toy Story. Well it looks like, with the release of Toy Story 4 Pixar and Minecraft have teamed up to create a mash up pack of the Toy Story franchise. But it hasn’t been announced yet… Thanks to the amazing work of this generation, Miste (who I previously interviewed) created an API to track marketplace content and he detected a mash up pack in the system. This looks like a great way to mark the end of a franchise. What do you think this pack will contain?  Will you be picking it up? Source

Next Flagship Sonic Title To Release 2021, Sonic Team Head Shares

Now that Sega has released this year’s Team Sonic Racing last month, the next thing to do is look ahead as the next major installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog series is currently in the works. Sonic Team Head Takashi Iizuka revealed that the developer is already working on the next title back in March at this year’s South by Southwest event. Now fast forwarding to this year’s E3, Game Informer’s Brian Shea spoke with the Sonic Boss on the unannounced title and discussed what’s planned for the Blue Blur’s next project. Side stepping the question, Iizuka brought up 2017 released Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces along with a minimal tease on the next game. The next big year for Sonic is 2021. That’s the 30-year anniversary for Sonic. We are now preparing. Adding on to the sense of commemorational titles such as Sonic Generations for 2011, Iizuka stated that the coming title “maybe” to the same caliber as the one for the series’ 20th anniversary. While on the discussion of Sega’s mascot, Shea questioned the addition of the drop dash move that is evident in Sonic Mania as well as Sonic Forces and the recent Sega Ages for Nintendo Switch. Revealing that he personally requested the mechanic to be present in the titles following Mania seeing the popularity of it upon fans, as well as himself. Iizuka continues by sharing that future games will also accrue the gameplay mechanic from how well received the drop dash became following the decision. Concluding the conversation, Iizuka shared that Sonic Mania Plus’ Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel alike the drop dash were also fan-requested to be included in the newer iteration of the 2018 title. “Very fan-requested to me, so that’s why we decided to use those characters.” As for the name of the upcoming Sonic title or what platforms it will be available for, Sega has yet to release information on the subject for now. Source: Game Informer  

EA Attempts To Relabel Loot Boxes As “Surprise Mechanics”, In Comparison To Kinder Eggs

The past year has been quite the turn-around surrounding the implementation of loot boxes/pay-to-win mechanics in video games following the negative connotation that the business model has rightfully earned since being embraced by the industry years prior. Though not fully accepted in theory, many would expect them to be present with each new game that drops from AAA studios and publishers mainly. This eventually brought attention to the eyes of law makers as the concept falls in the category of gambling which was frowned upon as children are being introduced to the activity at a younger age; Missouri Senator Josh Hawley proposed with a bill previously. Just this week in testimony with the United Kingdom’s Digital, Culture, and Sport Committee, Electronic Arts Vice President of Legal Kerry Hopkins went to the extent to defend loot boxes as “quite ethical” this past Wednesday in response to Brenda O’Hara of the Scottish National Party. “Well first, we don’t call them loot boxes, we look at them as surprise mechanics,” Hopkins explains. “If you go to…a store that sells a lot of toys, and you do a search for surprise toys, what you’ll find is that this is something people enjoy, they enjoy surprises.” In continuation to his statement, Hopkins expands on the “surprise mechanics” concept of loot boxes as an element that many players see as “quite fun [and] quite enjoyable;” the randomized outcome is what players anticipate to participate with said microtransactions. Despite Hopkins’ idea of what players think, many have been vocal with how lootboxes and their role within video games. Especially under the publisher that he represents, fans have been the primary source to rework the business model in Star Wars Battlefront II foloowing its launch in 2017. What are your thoughts on EA backing lootboxes? Source: PCGamesN