Free-to-play RPG Genshin Impact has mostly been discussed for its likeness to Nintendo’s Zelda: Breath Of The Wild since it released in late September. Since then, players have discovered that the in-game chat censors “Hong Kong” and “Taiwan,” leading to calls to boycott the game.
Here is a clip I just recorded. Just in case if this changes for whatever reason here is recorded proof. The entire word “Kong” has been censored in Genshin Impact. pic.twitter.com/JCWjOEUBaf
As explained by games analyst Daniel Ahmad, who specializes in the Chinese market, Genshin Impact is published by MiHiYo, a developer based in Mainland China. This means it has to comply with a number of strict censorship rules set by China’s national games regulator, including one that prohibits games from containing “anything that threatens China’s national unity.”
People have asked me why this is:
1. MiHoYo is a Mainland China based developer
2. China’s laws and games regulator state that games cannot contain “Anything that threatens China’s national unity”
3. All Chinese games censor phrases such as Taiwan / Hong Kong due to this https://t.co/QZ6PerqiTC
This goes for both games developed in China and games being released in China, which is why a majority of foreign-developed games never get an official Chinese release. According to Niko Partners, only 55 foreign-developed games had been approved for release this year in China, as of August.
While these rules have been in place in China since 2003, its effects are becoming more noticeable globally, as Chinese companies such as Tencent gain more influence in the industry. Similar instances of China-sanctioned censorship seem to have flown under the radar, such as the word “Taiwan” being censored in games of PUBG Mobile–no matter what country you’re playing the game from.
Even Animal Crossing ran into controversy this year after it became a virtual home for the ongoing Hong Kong protests. While the game was never officially for sale in China, and never officially banned, major Chinese grey market retailers suddenly stopped stocking the game after the virtual protests were publicized.
Genshin Impact has also allegedly censored “Kiryu Coco” on Chinese servers, the name of a Japanese Vtuber who ran afoul of the One-China Policy after streaming user analytics for their YouTube account that listed Taiwan as a separate country from China.
The bad news for Genshin Impact fans is that the decision to ban words like “Taiwan” and “Hong Kong” are largely out of MiHiYo’s hands, meaning it’s unlikely to change any time soon.
Throughout the Season of Arrivals in Destiny 2, players have slowly unraveled the secrets of the Darkness, the Tree of Silver Wings, and Savathun. After weeks of participating in the seasonal Contact public event, we’ve finally reached the end of that story–and you can finally complete the Season of Arrivals seal and earn your Forerunner title.
With the October 6 weekly reset, Destiny 2 added both the Festival of the Lost and the final installment of the Means to an End quest that has been available weekly throughout the Season of Arrivals. Every time you complete that quest, you’ve unlocked a Pinnacle gear drop, as well as an entry into the Singular Exegete lore book. For the last few weeks, however, completing the quest hasn’t offered new lore drops, and we’ve seen repeats of past battles. You’d still get your Pinnacle drop, but completing Means to an End hasn’t advanced the story of the Season of Arrivals. That changed this week.
Completing this week’s quest gets you the final entry into Singular Exegete and changes up what you face when you venture to the Ascendant Realm during the quest’s final mission, “Interference.” Usually during that mission, fighting off the Taken on Io sends you to a section of the Ascendant Realm, where you battle the Envoys of Savathun and destroy a huge Shrieker. There have been three different locations to fight through, rotating each week–but this week’s sends you to an Ascendant Throne that looks a lot like the final boss arena in the Crota’s End raid from Destiny 1. There, you face Crota’s exiled brother, Nokris, the final boss of the Strange Terrain Strike.
Defeat Nokris, and you receive the last entry into Singular Exegete, dubbed “Contact,” as well as a secret Triumph called “Clear the Air.” If you’ve completed everything else for this season, including earning the Ruinious Effigy and Traveler’s Chosen Exotics and knocking out the Exodus missions, this should be the last Triumph you need for the Season of Arrivals’ seal, unlocking the “Forerunner” title.
In the lore of the Season of Arrivals, we learned that after the destruction of the Hive worm god Xol in Destiny 2’s Warmind expansion, Nokris was courted by Savathun, the Hive queen. Savathun is the devious brother of Oryx, the Taken King, who players defeated in the King’s Fall raid in Destiny 1. Throughout the story of Destiny 2, we’ve been seeing evidence that Savathun has taken over Oryx’s position and power, and throughout the Season of Arrivals, Savathun has been trying to stop Guardians from receiving messages and gifts sent by the spooky black pyramids that represent the Darkness.
Receiving the final message from the Darkness puts you in a room with a bunch of black statues, suggesting the Darkness is trying to seduce all the races in the solar system into worshiping it.
So Nokris was basically Savathun’s agent across the whole battle we’ve been fighting throughout the Season of Arrivals, and once you defeat him, you receive the Darkness’s full message. It’s spooky and cryptic in some key ways. First, when you receive it, you’re sent to a strange place that looks like the inside of the pyramid we saw on the moon during the Shadowkeep expansion. In the center of that room is a small pyramid, surrounded by statues, and the message we receive directs us to Europa to find “an ancient power,” setting up the Beyond Light expansion. A close inspection reveals that each of the four groups of statues represents a different race in the solar system: the Hive, the Fallen, the Cabal, and humanity.
Missing from the groups of statues are the Vex, who we know from the Garden of Salvation raid are already worshipers of the Darkness. The statues imply that the Darkness hopes to bring the other four races in the solar system under its power as well. We know the Hive has been fighting the Darkness, or at least trying to keep us away from it, throughout this season. The Cabal are mostly loyal to Calus, who seems to know a lot more about the Darkness than it’s letting on, but who also is resistant to its call. Where the Fallen stands isn’t as clear–but we know the villain of Beyond Light is Fallen, so it seems at least one faction of that race might be throwing in with the Darkness.
The inclusion of humanity is the most interesting, though. The Season of Arrivals has been all about the temptations of the Darkness. The Umbral Engrams we’ve been gathering for the last few months are all supposed to be “gifts” from the pyramids, offering cool new weapons and armor for our benefit. The Darkness promises more power on Europa, and we know from Bungie’s teases that when we go there, we’ll wield a new Darkness power, called Stasis. So the statues play into the themes we’ve been seeing of temptation away from the Traveler and the Light, and suggest the Darkness thinks it’s possible it could get humanity–and by extension, the Guardian players of Destiny 2–to join it.
That remains an interesting story thread that implies we could eventually have a choice, as players, whether to stay in the Light or embrace the Darkness. Unfortunately, the Singular Exegete lore book doesn’t shed too much more light on the situation. We’ll have to wait for things develop on Europa in Beyond Light to see how the story progresses.
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October 6 marks the Early Access launch day of Baldur’s Gate 3, which follows on from 2000’s beloved Baldur’s Gate II, and the game is off to a strong start. The new sequel, which was developed by Larian Studios (Divinity: Original Sin), is currently the best-selling game on both Steam and GOG. It’s also available now on Stadia.
At the time of writing, the game’s highest concurrent player count on Steam has peaked at just over 70,000–extremely high for a full-priced Early Access game. The game’s surprise release on Mac has likely driven early sales, too.
Similar numbers are not available for the GOG and Stadia, but based on Steam alone it’s fair to say that this has been a strong launch. As of right now, the early Steam user reviews are “very positive,” too.
Larian Studios tweeted out, around the time of launch, that their game seemed to have briefly “broken” Steam with their sales traffic.
It appears we broke steam. Thank you!
— Larian Studios is Gathering Their Party (@larianstudios) October 6, 2020
The game’s Early Access period was originally meant to begin on September 30, but it was pushed back a week for a final layer of polish.
For more on Baldur’s Gate, check out some of our Early Access launch coverage:
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Many Nintendo Switch fans have experienced the sad phenomenon of Joy-Con drift, where the analog stick in the console’s controller starts to veer in one direction, making it difficult or impossible to control games. There’s currently a class action lawsuit against Nintendo in the US over the issue, and now the company is being sued again–this time, by a kid and his mom.
Wired is reporting that a North California complaint, filed by one Luz Sanchez and her son, centers on Joy-Con drift. Sanchez bought her then 8-year-old son a Nintendo Switch in December 2018, and he experienced issues with the Joy-Con controllers within a month of purchase. New controllers were bought within a year, as the problem progressed until the Joy-Cons were essentially inoperable; seven months later, the second set of controllers started to experience the same issue.
Sanchez has filed the lawsuit alongside her son, who is listed as a minor in all documentation. The plantiffs are seeking over $5 million in damages from this lawsuit. In their suite, Sanchez’s lawyers have argued that Nintendo “has had a financial motive to conceal the defect, as it did not want to stop selling the Products, and/or would need to expend a significant amount of money to cure the defect.”
In July 2019, Nintendo started offering free repairs for Joy-Cons with drift issues, even when they were outside of warranty. However, COVID-19 led to Nintendo service centers temporarily shutting, which has complicated matters (especially with Joy-Cons being difficult to find in stores as game and console sales have skyrocketed).
This year, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa apologized for the issue, noting an ongoing lawsuit. “We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would it like to refrain from responding about any specific actions,” he said.
If you’re looking for a Joy-Con alternative for your Switch in handheld mode, consider the Hori Split Pad Pro.
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The free trial period will open up all of Overwatch’s game modes and heroes to active NSO subscribers, giving players the chance to experience the full version of Overwatch without having the buy the game. It will run from October 13-20, and players can download the free trial right now from the eShop.
Overwatch will take up a minimum of 12 GB of storage space on the Nintendo Switch. For players who participate in the free trial but don’t own the game, any progress made will carry over should they buy the Legendary Edition of Overwatch. Players will just need to ensure they are playing on the same NSO account. Overwatch: Legendary Edition costs $40 and contains five Legendary hero skins, five Epic hero skins, and five Origin hero skins, as well as a three-month NSO membership redemption code.
In other Overwatch news, Blizzard Entertainment is still working on Overwatch 2. The last time the company talked about the sequel was when the 32nd hero Echo launched earlier this year. The company said Echo was the last character until Overwatch 2 drops, though a release date for the sequel remains unknown. BlizzCon returns in February 2021, so it’s likely Blizzard will discuss Overwatch 2 then. In either case, Overwatch 2 multiplayer content will carry over to Overwatch.
Daniel Craig has offered up some frank advice to the next actor who chooses to take on the iconic role of James Bond in the blockbuster film franchise.
Speaking on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, the actor, who is officially bowing out as 007 after his fifth outing in No Time To Die, had an important piece of advice to pass onto whoever suits up in the tuxedo next. “Don’t f**k it up,” Craig said in his short, but to the point, recommendation. “It’s a beautiful, amazing thing. Leave it better than when you found it.”
Craig also addressed his decision to move on from the franchise, as he said that he had already given everything that he could to the character, who he’s portrayed on-screen since 2006’s Casino Royale. He reprised the role in 2008’s Quantum of Solace, 2012’s Skyfall and 2015’s Spectre, all of which have collectively grossed more than $3.1 billion at the worldwide box office.
“I’ve given it everything I can,” he said. “I’m so glad that I came back and did this last one. We had lots of loose threads we hadn’t tied up. The story just didn’t feel complete… I needed a break, I truly admit it. I just needed to get my head away from it for a while and once I had, we started talking about storylines and things that we could do, and where we could take it.”
On his next assignment, Bond’s peaceful retirement from active service will be interrupted when his CIA friend Felix Leiter tracks him down in Jamaica, seeking help to rescue a kidnapped scientist. The mission will set Bond onto the “trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.” It has already been speculated that Rami Malek’s supervillain is a rebooted version of Dr. No.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a little while longer to find out, as the release date for the 25th Bond film has been pushed back for the second time due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. No Time To Die will now be released in April 2021, a year after it was originally set to hit the big screen, in order for it to be watched by a worldwide theatrical audience.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
The Dishonored & Prey The Arkane Collection rating mentions four games, which are most likely Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and Prey. The Wolfenstein Alt History Collection blurb also mentions four games, which are most likely Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Given that the Xbox Series hasn’t announced any VR support just yet, it’s reasonable to assume Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot has been skipped.
The Wolfenstein collection mentions in-game purchases, but don’t be alarmed, it’s almost certainly referring to the existing microtransactions in the co-op game Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which allow players to purchase cosmetic skins.
These next-gen collections would make a lot of sense in the wake of Microsoft’s recent $7.5 Billion acquisition of Zenimax Media, bringing Bethesda Softworks and its studios under its wing – previously, Microsoft said Bethesda Games would be released on non-Microsoft platforms on a “case-by-case” basis. Here are the 5 biggest takeaways from Xbox’s Bethesda acquisition.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Jim Ryan, has said that he believes more PlayStation 5 consoles will be sold in its first fiscal year than the amount of PS4s sold in the same period.
Talking to Korean site Naver (via Gamesindustry.biz), Ryan predicted that PS5 will “sell more in its first fiscal year than [we] sold in the first fiscal year at the time of [the] PS4 launch.”
For reference, between its launch in November 2013 and the end of the fiscal year in April 2014, the PS4 sold more than seven million units. That means that Sony is forecasting more than seven million PS5 sales before next April, despite the current pandemic economy.
Previously there had been rumours that the pandemic had disrupted supply to the point that only four million consoles would be able to be produced this fiscal year, but with Sony seemingly confident about selling over seven million, it appears that rumour holds no water. Another report had suggested that the high price point of the console would affect demand, but Sony appears to not be worried about that.
In other PS5 news, this will be the first time the console uses X as the default button for select worldwide, meaning Japanese players will be forced away from the classic Circle-to-select mapping. A recent hands-on with press in Japan also revealed more images of the monolithic console in the wild.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Activision has confirmed that five modes will be available to play in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Open Beta.
Those modes are Team Deathmatch, Domination, VIP Escort, Kill Confirmed, and Combined Arms. This is a similar mix to the modes seen in last month’s alpha, just with VIP Escort replacing Domination. Combined Arms, the mixed vehicular/infantry 12v12 mode, will likely be Domination though, should it use the same set up as the alpha.
This beta is open to all PS4 players between Saturday, October 10 and Monday, October 12. Players who have pre-ordered on PS4 can get in a little earlier, though. If that’s you, then the gates open on Thursday, October 8.
If you’ve pre-ordered on a different format, then you’ll be able to get into the beta from Thursday, October 15. This opens up to all players, regardless of format, between Saturday, October 17 and Monday, October 19. The beta is crossplay enabled, so by this second weekend of the beta Xbox, PlayStation, and PC users can all play together.
Black Ops Cold War releases on November 13, on current and next-gen consoles as well as PC. Check out our Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War preorder guide to see what comes with each of the editions. As for what’s in the actual game, expect campaign, multiplayer, and the popular zombies mode, which was recently revealed.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Ahead of its release for Xbox One, PS4, Google Stadia, and PC on October 29, we had the chance to play a preview build of Watch Dogs: Legion. The upcoming open-world game is just the first of three massive Ubisoft games scheduled to release later this year–Legion will be followed by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in November and Immortals Fenyx Rising in December.
The video above is Michael Higham’s three-hour play session trimmed down to 20 minutes of action. After going into the preview expecting to see more of the tongue-in-cheek humor and rambunctious hacking hijinks that have dominated most of the marketing material for Legion, Michael was a little surprised to find a rather serious story. As you can see in the gameplay, Legion will occasionally dip into more morbid and horrifying material, like human trafficking or broken artificial intelligence.
Legion, the third game in the Watch Dogs franchise, takes the series to London, although it’s one that has been overtaken by a paramilitary organization. The game will feature music by British rapper Stormzy and the original Watch Dogs’ protagonist, Aiden Pearce, is scheduled to be featured in Legion in a post-launch DLC expansion.
If you’re looking forward to playing Watch Dogs: Legion on Xbox Series X/S or PlayStation 5, don’t worry about having to pay for the game a second time. If you buy Legion for Xbox One or PS4, you can upgrade to the Series X/S or PS5 versions of the game for free when both next-gen consoles launch in November.
