Daily Gaming News: August 28, 2020

Epic’s App Store account is now gone

Apple fired the latest salvo in the war with Epic Games: today, the company terminated Epic’s App Store account – the one that includes Fortnite and NOT Unreal Engine – in a statement where Apple blamed the Fortnite developer for “repeatedly submit[ting] Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the App Store”.

You could say this action was completely preventable by Epic, since the recent court ruling recommended that the company comply with App Store policies and remove the code that allowed players to bypass the App store and pay Epic directly (and get a discount). Epic didn’t do that, and now they have to sit and take the L (for now).

There’s a lottery for a chance to be one of the first to pre-order the PlayStation 5

No, you can’t actually pre-order the PS5 yet. However, you can enter Sony’s pre-registration/lottery – I’m not sure what else to call it – for a shot to be one of the first to do so.

There are two caveats: first, I’d expect most of these invites to be reserved for Sony’s best customers (and maybe some random peons as well), and second, pre-orders are first-come, first-serve so you better be quick once you get an invite. 

Facebook’s Horizon is an attempt to make a first-party VRChat

RoadtoVR has a solid preview of Facebook’s Horizon, a “first-party social VR experience.” And at this point, you might be asking out loud, is this the start of Oasis, the massive VR platform featured in Ready Player One (aka not real)? Sorry to burst your bubble, but Horizon right now isn’t a VR world, but rather a series of rooms that can hold, at most, eight people.

While some of it is pretty similar to say, VRChat, Horizon’s killer feature is the inclusion of collaborative development tools that not only let you create your own rooms, objects, and mini-games, but also allow friends to join in the process. That’s Facebook, always bringing people together. Heh.

TWELVE MINUTES’ star cast includes James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe

Looks like Annapurna Interactive’s gone from 22 minute time loops to 12 minutes. The publisher of Outer Wilds announced TWELVE MINUTES, a new time loop-based game by indie dev Luis Antonio, at yesterday’s Opening Night Live. What’s interesting is not the time loop elements, but the star-studded cast that includes James McAvoy (X-Men, Wanted), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars), and Willem Dafoe (The Boondock Saints, John Wick).

You can wishlist the game on Steam, or check out the (better) trailer than the one that was shown at ONL.

Control Ultimate Edition is headed to GOG

Critically-acclaimed, third-person shooter Control is arriving at GOG on September 10 [Good Old Games is CD PROJEKT’s online games store].

The Ultimate edition includes the base game, two DLC expansions and some extra features (“Photo Mode”).

If you don’t want to wait (or don’t want to shop at GOG), you can grab the game on sale at Green Man Gaming for $27.19 (Steam key).