Pokemon Go Japanese Launch Delayed Because of a McDonald’s Email
Pokemon Go's scheduled Japanese launch today has reportedly been delayed after a McDonalds email leak.
As we reported yesterday, the Japanese launch was rumoured to be taking place today, July 20, with the game's first sponsored Gym locations coming in the form of 3,000 Japanese branches of McDonald's.
However, the leaked internal McDonald's email that formed the basis of that rumour is now seemingly the same reason the launch will not go ahead as planned.
According to Tech Crunch (which originally published the email, and is now presumably enemy no. 1 for millions of budding Pokemon trainers), that news went viral, and Niantic has now decided that the potential wave of new users would lead to server crashes.
8 Pokemon Go Changes We Really Want
Pokemon Go took everyone by storm when it released earlier this month for iPhone and Android. While we've been having just as much fun as anyone with Niantic's free-to-play, AR-driven Pokemon MMO, there are plenty of things we'd love to see added to make the experience even better.
Here are the Pokemon Go changes we want the most, in no particular order.
Pokemon Go doles out a small dose of XP every time you capture a Pokemon on the street, so it’s easy to end up with lots of doubles and triples in your collection (and more Zubats than you can shake a stick at) if you’re trying to level up. Transferring these extra Pokemon to Professor Willow earns you Pokemon Candy, an important currency used to power up and evolve Pokemon into bigger, stronger forms — another important activity if you want to take down a gym.
Major Twitch Streamer Banned Following CS:GO Gambling Accusations
James "PhantomL0rd" Varga has had his Twitch channel closed down as part of the recent Counter Strike: Global Offensive gambling controversy.
According to Eurogamer, Varga faces accusations he rigged CS:GO rolls on a website called CSGO Shuffle. Over the weekend, YouTuber Richard Lewis uncovered Skype logs which suggest Varga part-owns the website, and was fed information by the co-owner while he was betting.
It's a similar story to the recent scandal involving YouTubers ProSyndicate and TmarTn. These two have not been formally accused of cheating, and are continuing to make videos on their respective channels unhindered.
Microsoft Imagines Its Own Games as Pokemon Go Clones
The Donphan in room is simply too large to ignore, and now even Nintendo's rivals are getting in on the Pokemon Go phenomenon.
Case in point: Xbox UK today tweeted an image re-imagining its own games - Forza, Crackdown and Halo - as Pokemon Go clones (on Pokemon Go-lacking Windows Phones no less).
The notional Forza Go, Crackdown Go and Halo Go.
Star Wars Rebels: Season 3’s Big Clone Wars Connection
There was a lot to absorb in the big Star Wars Rebels: Season 3 trailer released this past weekend, between the reveal of Grand Admiral Thrawn making his introduction into canon, Wedge Antilles showing up as an Imperial cadet and Sabine holding the Darksaber. But one other notable moment came when we saw the Rebels crew fighting… a bunch of Battle Droids?
Star Wars Rebels co-creator/executive producer Dave Filoni worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars alongside George Lucas for years before the current animated series and when I spoke to him about the Battle Droids at Star Wars Celebration in London, where the trailer debuted, he noted, “There's several funny things about the Battle Droids. They first is they’re actually way better than the ones I had in Clone Wars."
Life Is Strange Episode 1, “Chrysalis” Now Free
Square Enix has made the first episode of teen-themed time travel adventure, Life Is Strange - titled "Chrysalis" - free indefinitely.
The offer applies across all available formats (that's *deep breath* PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Mac and PC) and begins tomorrow, July 21.
“Although our team set out to create an award-winning narrative we still cannot believe the response we’ve had from players of Life is Strange” said CEO of developer Dontnod, Oskar Guilbert in a statement. “We’re really glad that Square Enix have decided to give the first episode away for free so more players can begin their journey and see why people have fallen in love with the game for themselves”.
More Destiny: Rise of Iron DLC Gear Teased With New Pictures
Bungie has given us a sneak peek at the Warlock set for the upcoming Rise of Iron DLC for Destiny.
Last week we were given a few images of the new Hunter gear, and yesterday Bungie revealed the Warlock gear which will be "fit for an Iron Lord."
In #RiseofIron, your Guardian will earn brand new gear fit for an Iron Lord.
The next adventure begins 9/20. pic.twitter.com/WXgeIlVgEI
Animal Crossing: New Leaf Getting Amiibo Support
Nintendo is finally bringing Amiibo support to its main Animal Crossing game—Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
The free update will come in November, according to Kotaku's translation from the Japanese Animal Crossing website. Animal Crossing Amiibo figures will unlock new content in New Leaf; and it looks like Amiibos from other games will be supported, too. Images on the Animal Crossing website show a collection of items from Nintendo's Splatoon.
via Animal Crossing's Japanese website
Blizzard Teases What’s Next For Hearthstone
Details about the next Hearthstone instalment will be revealed via a live stream on July 28, 2016, and it seems to be a new Adventure.
Via an invitation circulated earlier today, Blizzard invites us to a "once-in-a-lifetime event that will be full of magic and celebration". Crucially, it promises an "unforgettable adventure" - seemingly pointing to a outing for Hearthstone's single-player mode.
Rumours are already circulating, with some hoping the feather motif may refer to Medivh, the last Guardian of Tirisfal, who resided in World of Warcraft's Karazhan location. Could the new Adventure be set in Karazhan, and the "old friend" mentioned be former tower steward Moroes?
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Pokémon GO Killing Your Battery?
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