Oculus starts off the week with the highly anticipated Rift launch, Blizzard listens to its fans and pulls a controversial pose from Overwatch, and Twitch takes a gamble on mobile-MOBA Vainglory — all in this week’s TPOI!
Oculus Rift Launches
The Oculus Rift launched on Monday, becoming the first virtual reality device for consumer purchase. The Verge, like many other outlets, posted a lengthy review of the VR headset, with a positive outlook on the device’s capabilities and potential. Tech Crunch and many other noted that a few of the launch games didn’t feel like they needed to be in VR and brought on a tinge of motion sickness — largely due to the awkward pairing of the Xbox One controller. This might soon be remedied though with the launch of the Oculus Touch Controller later this year. Most importantly, the release of the Oculus stands as an important move forward in making VR a norm in the gaming industry.
Blizzard Pulls “Sexy” Overwatch Pose
Blizzard recently pulled a controversial victory pose of Overwatch character Tracer after members of the community found the pose to be overly sexualized. The “over the shoulder” pose in question seemed to stir up a lot of discussion on the Overwatch forums about whether it fits the character or not, with many comparisons made against Tracer and Overwatch’s femme fatale, Widowmaker. Kotaku reported the incident, citing the initial complaints and Blizzard’s statements following the decision. Overwatch is one of Blizzard’s most highly anticipated games and will be launching on May 24 of this year.
Twitch Takes Up Vainglory
Mobile games are no longer just for “casuals.” Twitch recently announced a new three-year partnership with Super Evil Megacorp, the developers of the mobile-MOBA Vainglory. The partners will co-produce a series of tournaments, supported by Twitch’s esports infrastructure and broadcasting capabilities. The Wall Street Journal reported on the new multi-million dollar initiative, mentioning that fans watched 150 million minutes of “Vainglory” on Twitch last year. Twitch eSport director Nick Allen was quoted saying, “The eSports industry has been dominated by PC and console titles, but Vainglory is ushering in a new mobile games movement.”