In this week’s gaming news breakdown, Microsoft gives viewers a glimpse into the lineup of games that will be available for the Xbox Series X, Fortnite celebrates itself with a digital concert, and YouTube makes an official streaming deal with notorious streamer PewDiePie.
Inside Xbox event gives viewers a first-look at the lineup of titles coming to the Xbox Series X
In its first Inside Xbox digital event, Microsoft unveiled 13 games that will be available for the upcoming Xbox Series X console. GamesRadar+ claims the focus of this week’s event was gameplay, with Microsoft showing “a mix of cross-gen releases, upcoming big-hitters, and all-new announcements” that accentuate the console’s hardware capabilities. The lineup of games shown include Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Madden NFL 21, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, and more. IGN claims Ebb Software’s survival horror title Scorn was the “biggest surprise” of the show, however, as it has been three years since the alpha demo of the game was released for a limited time on Steam. The full list of games shown in this week’s event can be found on Digital Trends and Screen Rant.
Fortnite reaches record number of active players, celebrates with special digital concert
Epic Games recently announced that Fortnite, the battle royale turned cultural phenomenon, reached more than 350 million registered players with over 3.2 billion hours spent playing in April alone. The Verge says Fortnite is now comparable to Minecraft as one of the “most popular” and “most downloaded” games ever made. VentureBeat takes it a step further, explaining that Fortnite is not just a game, but rather one of the “largest social platforms on the planet.” To celebrate, Epic Games is throwing an in-game “Party Royale” on Friday, reports CNET and Engadget, where players can enjoy musical performances by Steve Aoki, Dillon Francis, and deadmau5 – all without the usual combat mechanics Fortnite is known for.
PewDiePie signs exclusive streaming deal with YouTube
YouTube landed one of its largest exclusive streaming deals after announcing Felix Kjellberg, better known as “PewDiePie,” will be streaming exclusively on the platform. The news sparked mixed reactions online, reports CNET and INSIDER, as Kjellberg is known for his checkered past. Forbes explains that PewDiePie has said anti-Semitic comments, hate speech, and insensitive jokes multiple times, causing Disney to completely sever ties and various marketers to pull their advertisements from his channel. Despite the controversies, signing PewDiePie is a “no brainer,” says VICE, since his follower count of 104 million makes him one of the most popular individually operated channels of all time. VICE summarizes the situation by explaining, “YouTube can’t not use its most powerful creator if it wants a chance in hell in competing with the already-dominant Twitch, and Kjellberg can’t walk away from a YouTube channel with more than 100 million subscribers, and whatever YouTube is paying him for this exclusivity deal.”