Weekly News Digest #2

Another week has brought a lot of unexpected stuff happening in the gaming industry. Huge profits, major partings, ambitious announcements and esports events - we've got a lot of topics to cover. In case you've missed something, we are here to guide you through the most eye-catching news headlines.

You should care more about your spending, as some companies have lost any sign of dignity is offering pay-to-win content for their customers. We are talking of course about the recent Team of the Year promotion by EA for FIFA 19 Ultimate Team with the strongest player card in its entire history. Regarding money, there's a whole company laying off its stuff and still owing its employees a 2-month salary. A sad finale for the blockchain streaming platform Play2Live.

Well, it's not entirely that bad, as some greedy publishers are left defeated in a never-ending fight for customers' money. Bungie is parting ways with Activision - and the studio was happy enough to announce that it was keeping the rights for Destiny series. Miracles do happen. Amazon is reportedly developing a brand new game-streaming platform which is a sign of an inevitable shift in the industry. And speaking of famous industry faces - we've covered the story of Daniel Vavra.

Console gaming is on the spot right now with PS4 exclusive God of War leading in nominations count for the D.I.C.E. Awards including of course The Game of the Year nomination. You can find more on the matter through here. PlayStation Store has also unveiled stats on the most downloaded games in 2018, and the first place is unsurprisingly occupied by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Not an exclusive on its own, but packed with exclusive offers. In case Nintendo Switch is more to your liking, here's the list of free January games from Nintendo Switch Online service.

Regarding PC, it's been a pretty exciting week as well. AMD has announced a few hardware novelties both GPU and CPU wise. Firstly, we have a brand new Radeon VII graphics card which is capable of native 4K gaming support but lacks ray tracing technology. Secondly, AMD also showed in action 7nm third-generation Ryzen CPUs, which are also a must-have for those of you who want to invest in 4K-gaming. Last but not least, HTC has announced a highly portable VR headset Vive Cosmos.

Feminism is on the rise nowadays, and it goes without saying that the movement influences the gaming industry. In our dedicated article, we've made an attempt to categorize this influence and find out whether it is a healthy one. We've also covered the topic of girls in esports. Gamer-girls - who are they? How much do they earn in a mostly men-occupied field of activity? Are they born girls biologically? Find out here.

If you are feeling that we are slightly approaching the topic of offensive events in the gaming industry, then you are absolutely right. Facebook has recently rejected an ad for lovely Gris claiming it was "sexually suggestive". Spoiler - it's not, and we've tried to find out what had actually happened in this article.

Epic Games is slowly becoming a significant force on the market reaching all the field of gaming industry you can imagine. Epic Games Store is getting in a better position literally with every day, and now it turns out that The Division 2 will miss Steam instead releasing on PC through - you've guessed it right - the aforementioned Epic Games Store. You can already pre-order. Btw, The Walking Dead: The Final Season is also there, and here's the trailer for the third episode.

But the most remarkable step made by Epic is perhaps a freshly announced deal with Improbable - the creators of a cloud-based development platform SpatialOS. The company has suddenly lost its license to use Unity engine for its cloud-based games - and Epic elegantly offered a $25 million worth solution for this situation packed with Unreal Engine support. Epic is also adding a new tournament system to Fortnite in order to further develop the competitive component of the game.

Have you ever been offended for playing Soldier: 76 in Overwatch by other players who called you gay because of the character's legalized aimbot? Well, that offense now has an official justification as Soldier: 76 is indeed gay according to the game lore. More on the matter - in the article through the link.

The Alien universe is paving its way back to the gaming industry, although you shouldn't be too excited over it. Fox has announced Alien: Blackout which is a strategic spin-off for mobile devices. It's neither a sequel nor a related to the Alien: Isolation project being a completely separate experience. Once again, for iOS and Android only.

In case you are interested in future trends that will guide the industry in 2019, here's a comprehensive guide regarding all the predictions on the topic. Stan Lee was honoured in World of Warcraft by a dedicated cameo - a great way to say the final goodbye. And Ready at Dawn is hiring for a new AAA title - which is not a sequel to The Order: 1886, sadly.

We've got a lot of stuff wrapped up, being in full swing and planned for the nearest future - in terms of online tournaments. The Winter Madness has finally reached its finals over the weekend with Gambit flawlessly defeating OG with a devastating 3:0 score. You can find the final day recap here, and we also had a chance to talk to the winners in a comprehensive interview.

WePlay! Artifact Mighty Triad: Agility is the one being in full swing right now. We are rapidly approaching the Group Stage which starts early next week, and you can find the groups announcements and details through here. We've also announced a new CS:GO tournament called Lock and Load, and it's time to give the event a chance.