Boy, weâve had quite the eventful first week of 2016. The Oculus Rift finally went up for pre-order, and will reportedly cost a whopping $600 once it releases, Platinum Gamesâ Scalebound was delayed, there was a rumor that the next Assassinâs Creed game wouldnât release until 2017 and would be set in Egypt, and Activision Blizzard acquired Major League Gaming. By the looks of todayâs news, it doesnât look like it will be slowing down any time soon. In todayâs Gaming Daily, Mojang is working to remove a Minecraft 2 scam game from iTunes, the first 52 Pocket Mortys have been revealed, Psychonauts 2 hit its funding goal, Palmer Luckey apologized for Oculus Rift pricing, and Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 to have open beta this month.
Fraudulent Minecraft 2 Game Making the rounds on iTunes
No, Mojang didnât secretly release a sequel to Minecraft, but there is a Minecraft 2 game currently available on iTunes, and it isnât what you think. The scam game is called Minecraft Pocket Edition 2 and it somehow costs $7. The kicker is that the title reached the no. 4 spot on the charts, but has since fallen.
According to the folks at Eurogamer âMinecraft: Pocket Edition 2 is a terrible top-down swipe game in which zombies attack Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.” The writer explains how they bought it and only played for a few minutes before it ended up crashing their iPhone. In addition to the deceptive title, the gameâs description says it was developed by Scott Cawthorn–which is obviously an off spelling of Five Nights at Freddyâs creator Scott Cawthon–and that youâll be able to explore randomly generated worlds and âbuild amazing things.â
As expected, Mojang is already busy working on removing the game. In an interview with Eurogamer, Owen Hill stated, âIt’s great that Minecraft has inspired people to create amazing things, but when a product attempts to dupe our community or exploit their enthusiasm for the game, it’s our responsibility to step in. Our dedicated enforcement team are extremely busy!”
So, although a sequel to Minecraft isnât out of the question, this clearly isnât it.
HT: Eurogamer
The first 52 Pocket Mortys have been revealed.
If you were excited about Adult Swim Gamesâ Rick and Morty announcement from earlier this week, youâre going to be pumped for this next bit of news. Earlier today, the folks behind the game revealed the first 52 Pocket Mortys exclusively to IGN, and weâre already obsessed. Of the ones shown off, weâre pretty partial to the trio of cat Mortys. Itâs definitely shaping up to be game of the year material. Heh.
HT: Nerdist
Psychonauts 2 is officially funded.
Well, that was fast! Not long after launching a funding campaign on Fig, Double Fine hit the web today with the exciting news that Psychonauts 2 officially hit its $3 million funding goal. At the time of writing, the total amount donated is over $3.4 million, with over 20,000 backers behind the project.
To celebrate the good news, Double Fine released the above video to thank everyone who invested in it. With the campaign still running until next Tuesday, the studio promises to release more videos and updates to keep fans informed.
HT: Double Fine
Palmer Luckey apologizes for Oculus Rift pricing.
As we mentioned in the intro paragraph, the Oculus Rift was made available for pre-order yesterday. Though exciting, the company was getting a lot of flack for the hefty price-tag, especially since Oculus founder Palmer Luckey previously gave fans a much lower estimate, stating that it was âroughly in the $350 ballpark.â Luckey addressed the concern during a Reddit AMA yesterday, and apologized for the price. He said that he âhandled the messaging poorly,â and that his original estimate was âill-prepared.â For more on his remarks, head to our full post (linked below).
Also, donât forget to check out Malik Forteâs piece on why he thinks PlayStation VR is in position to outpace Oculus.
HT: Nerdist
Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 to have open beta this month.
Oh, boy. Popcap made the exciting announcement earlier today that players will be able to get their hands on Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2âs beta later this month! The beta is set to kick off on January 14 and will run until January 18 on both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the game earlier last year, and am happy to confirm that itâs a ton of fun.
The beta will include select access to Backyard Battleground–which is described as an âinteractive environment that connects you to every map and modeâ–and will allow players to participate in massive 24-player multiplayer matches on two new maps: Moon Base Z, and Seeds of Time. On top of that, the four modes: Team Vanquish, Vanquish Confirmed, Gnome Bomb, and Suburbination will be playable on the Z-tech Factory and Frosty Creek maps.
Additionally, fans will get a taste of some of the games new classes: Kernal Corn, Rose, Citron, Imp & Z-Mech (my favorite), Super Brainz, and Captain Deadbeard. For more information on the beta, and how to join, check out the gameâs official page.
HT: Popcap
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That’s it for today’s Gaming Daily. Keep Nerdist tabbed for upcoming gaming news, reviews and features!