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Doublejump Digest: December 13, 2020

This week in gaming: Cyberpunk 2077 breaks a PC sales record, Twitch takes on lewd behaviour, 343 Industries talks Halo Infinite, and more!

In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head on into the archive for news from weeks gone by!

FROM DOUBLEJUMP 

MAJOR NEWS

Cyberpunk 2077 is the fastest-selling PC game of all time

CD Projekt RED has taken to its official investor Twitter account (via GamesIndustry.biz) to reveal that the company’s latest release, Cyberpunk 2077, is the fastest-selling PC game of all time. The company noted that it had recorded 8 million pre-orders, of which the PC version accounted for 59 percent or 4.72 million units. This figure beats out the previous record holder, last month’s World of Warcraft Shadowlands expansion, which sold through 3.7 million units by launch day.

Twitch takes aim at hate speech and sexual harassment behaviour with new rule changes

Twitch has announced an update to its Hateful Conduct & Harassment Policy that is designed to crack down on three major areas of online behaviour: Harassment, Hateful Conduct and Sexual Harassment. The planned changes, which are set to go live on January 22 next year, stand to better protect streamers, users and the Twitch community in their online arenas.

With this update, Twitch plans to hold offenders accountable for what they say or do regardless of their intentions. There are many specific changes to acceptable conduct in the article, but the main takeaways include:

  • Claiming that the victim of a well-documented violent tragedy is a crisis actor, or is lying
  • Encouraging others to DDoS, hack, doxx, or swat another person
  • Inciting malicious raids of another person’s social media profiles off Twitch
  • Malicious use of emotes and due to its historic and symbolic association with slavery, displaying the Confederate flag
  • Repeatedly commenting on someone’s perceived attractiveness
  • Making lewd or explicit comments about anyone’s sexuality or physical appearance
  • Sending unwanted/unsolicited links to nude images or videos

The accompanying blog post also includes information for future streams and an FAQ section to assist users with understanding the reasons and research for the changes in policy.

343 Industries issues long awaited Halo Infinite news, delays it to Spring 2021

Halo Infinite Campaign Project Lead Joseph Staten finally gave light to the visual concerns for the game and announced a new (tentative) release window of Spring 2021. In a lengthy community address via Halo Waypoint with various 343 Industries team members, Staten assured the Halo community that the gameplay demo aired earlier in 2020 was made to preview gameplay and not to set visual expectations for the final product.

Neill Harrison, Director of Art Management, explained that “while that aspect generally landed as we wanted, the reality is that the art and visuals weren’t at the bar we hold for Halo – even in a work-in-progress state”. Staten and his colleagues also introduced new screen grabs and concept art featuring character models, weapons, level design, and a sneak peek at a multiplayer map.

343 Industries team members added that Halo Infinite will hold a player-first focus with an ongoing commitment to community feedback and user experience well beyond release.

Gayming Awards pledges to be world’s first games awards show to celebrate LGBTQ+ recognition

UK-based LGBTQ+ gaming publication Gayming Magazine has announced that it has partnered with various major gaming companies to host the world’s first LGBTQ+ video game award ceremony – The Gayming Awards – on February 24, 2021.

EA Games will present the show, which will air exclusively on Twitch, with the program including include eight categories: Game of the Year, Gayming Magazine Reader’s, Best LGBTQ Indie Game, LGBTQ Streamer of the Year, Industry Diversity Award, Authentic Representation Award, Best LGBTQ, and Best LGBTQ Narrative.

Each category will be presented by various industry stalwarts such as Sony Interactive Entertainment, Xbox, Square Enix, and Rocksteady Studios. A global panel of over twenty LGBTQ+ representatives will judge the nominees while the public will vote for “LGBTQ Streamer of the Year” and “Gayming Magazine Reader Award”.

NOTABLE GAME RELEASES

  • Cyberpunk 2077 (PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One)

INTERESTING READS FROM OTHER OUTLETS

  • Games Made Under Crunch Conditions Don’t Deserve ‘Best Direction’ Awards: Kotaku

OTHER NEWS

  • Big Ant’s CEO has urged the government to support Aussie game development: Smart Company
  • Facebook will pay black streamers to play live full-time: Kotaku
  • Pelagos is World of Warcraft’s first trans character: PC Gamer
  • Netflix is working on an animated Sonic the Hedgehog show: Polygon
  • It looks like we’ll have to wait even longer to play Windjammers 2: Twitter (official)
  • Epic Games plans to release one free game every day for the Holidays: PC Gamer
  • Ubisoft is giving away a US$10 voucher to players who try its battle royale game: The Verge
  • Insomniac has added support for ray tracing to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales’s performance mode: Polygon
  • A US Senator wants to make streaming content featuring copyrighted music a felony: GameSpot
  • We can finally collect bounties from within Destiny 2’s companion app: Official
  • Minecraft’s ray tracing update is now available on Windows: NVIDIA
  • Ubisoft has delayed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake to March: IGN
  • Christiano Ronaldo is now in Free Fire – a mobile battle royale: Eurogamer

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