After a woman was hit and killed by a self-driving Uber vehicle in Arizona in 2018, the program was halted. At the time it seemed that all hopes for self-driving cars were crushed, but now Uber has announced that they are re-launching trials, this time in California’s San Francisco. The testing has been ongoing on the east coast, but the west is back in. There are safety features involved, the car isn’t left entirely to its own devices as there is a “backup driver” positioned behind the wheel just in case.
As the numbers of those affected by coronavirus increase in the United States, colleges and universities are scrambling to figure out how to best respond. College campuses are dense populations and as such are at higher risks for outbreaks, so some are enforcing preventative measures. Amherst College, NYU and Ohio State are two that have cancelled all face-to-face classes, using their online resources to maintain education without exposing the students and professors to each other. The current plan is for a reevaluation on March 30th to decide if these measures will be continued or if the virus scare has declined enough to allow safe campus interactions.
Coronavirus (or COVID-19) is a disease that has a lot of people talking. Its spread has quickly taken the world and media by storm and put many plans for a multitude of events, product launches, and more in jeopardy. The gaming industry has been no different. Many gadgets are produced in or around China, and with many factories being completely shut down while the Chinese government tries to contain the virus, the rest of the world will feel the ripple effects.
The next generation of home consoles (the Xbox Series X and PlayStation) are set to launch this holiday season, and even though there’s no current announcement that they will be delayed, there are mounting questions from the community about their production. Aside from that, here is how the Coronavirus is affecting the video game industry.
Delays
While the PS5 and Xbox Series X have yet to be delayed, the TurboGrafx-16 mini has not been so lucky. The retro console remake was due to release March 19th but has since been postponed “until further notice.” Nintendo Switch and Oculus Quest production have taken a hit as well, with both products potentially being harder to find here soon. This is disappointing, especially if you want an Oculus Quest as that item is already challenging to find.
So far, the TuTurboGrafx-16 Is the only console to be affected by Coronavirus, but games have had more cases. The Nintendo Switch port of The Outer Worlds has received a delay to allow the team to work on it more time since their office remained closed for some time, according to publisher Private Division.
We’re delaying @OuterWorlds on Nintendo Switch due to the coronavirus impacting the Virtuos team working on the port, to provide them enough time to finish development. We’ll now be releasing the physical version on cartridge. Once we have a new launch date, we’ll let you know!
The Outer Worlds Switch port might be the only game we know delayed by Coronavirus so far, but PGS: Berlin, the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds esports event scheduled for April, has also received a delay to protect esport fans, players, and staff. As of this writing, this is the only esports event affected by Coronavirus.
One interesting effect of Coronavirus in the world is the reemergence of mobile game Plague Inc. This game has you create sickness and adapt and evolve it to both infect and eradicate the human race before scientists can develop a cure. During the Coronavirus’ climb to social media prominence, this 2012 game made a big comeback. So much so, that developer Ndemic Creations had to remind people that the game did not accurately portray how sicknesses are spread throughout the world. Recently, China banned the game from being sold on Apple’s iOS store.
Conferences
The most affected area in the gaming industry has easily been conferences and events. The biggest scare with Coronavirus is spreading it (or catching it) by traveling, so it makes sense that so many events that would see a large number of people in a condensed area would either need to be delayed or canceled.
The first big event affected was the Game Developers Conference. GDC is usually a time where tons of the industry’s most prominent companies will meet and talk about their craft. It is also a significant time for independent developers to build up attention for their games or potentially strike a publishing deal. However, following Sony, Kojima Productions, and more announcing they would not be attending, the conference was postponed until sometime this summer hopefully.
For the first time in 34 years, the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX, will be canceled. The event usually adheres more to arts and movies, but video games have begun popping up during the event. Companies, including Twitter, Facebook, and Remedy Games, had already pulled out of the event.
Eve Fanfest was canceled after developers CCP announced they realized it was “a necessary step to take.”
TwitchCon Amsterdam was set to take place in May but was canceled to protect any attendees or staff.
Minecraft Festival has been delayed into 2021 to allow planners a better chance to book a fun experience for attendees.
As of this writing, both E3 and Gamescom are expecting to happen on time and as planned, but that could change in the coming months. Both events are said to be monitoring the situation closely.
While E3 has not been postponed or canceled yet, merchandise and event production company Iam8bit resigned from the event with “mixed feelings,” but no reason was given, so this could not be linked to Coronavirus.
It’s with mixed emotions that @iam8bit has decided to resign as Creative Directors of what was to be an evolutionary #E32020 floor experience. We’ve produced hundreds of gaming + community events and it was a dream to be involved with E3. We wish the organizers the best of luck.
As stated above, the biggest concern with Coronavirus is spreading or catching it while traveling. The following are steps game companies taking to prevent that from happening.
Destiny 2 developer Bungie has told all employees to work remotely until they feel the office is safe to open again. The Season of the Worth on March 10th and Trials of Osiris on March 13th are expected to release on time still.
Both Twitter and Facebook have canceled any non-essential travel for employees.
Microsoft has encouraged any employees in the Seattle and San Francisco area to work from home. Also, any other employees who potentially could have been in contact with someone who has Coronavirus or might be ill themselves should work remotely.
What is next?
As with any illnesses, we kind of has to wait and see what else happens with the gaming industry with Coronavirus. Expect more events to either be canceled or postponed. E3 might be planning to occur on time, but California has declared a state of emergency. If it comes down to it, the event could be postponed or canceled without the ESA’s say on the matter. Gamescom happens later in the year, so it might depend on how the situation looks this spring and summer before we know what is happening there.
As for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, all eyes will be focused on that situation. Console productions mainly happen in China. According to Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at video game market research firm Niko Partners, nearly 90% of consoles imported to the United States were made there. With factories shutting down across the country and no end in sight as of yet, it is tough to know what the console releases will look like. Do they sell with short supply? Do they delay into 2021? It is impossible to know until we know more about the situation or find some resolution.
Regardless, Coronavirus has made a significant impact on the gaming industry, and there may be more to come.
More and more Ride-share drivers are stopping their usual driving hours as the threat of the coronavirus increases. Drivers are reportedly wiping down their cars with disinfectant between riders and wearing masks and gloves during rides. More and more report that they aren’t taking rides from airports, and that they are considering stopping taking routes altogether. This is, of course, a decrease in income for them, which is concerning to some. Including Senator Warner (D-VA). Per Senator Warner, “[An] option would be to pay workers their regular average pay independent of whether they are able to meet their average hours worked during this time.”
You may have heard of singulair, also known as montelukast. It is one of the most common allergy medications given to children, but it can be used in adults as well. The FDA has just added a new black box label to the popular allergy drug for “mental health issues.” Per the official statement, “The incidence of neuro-psychiatric events associated with montelukast is unknown, but some reports are serious, and many patients and health care professionals are not fully aware of these risks.” There will be more studies done to determine the actual incidence, but for now, be aware of this new development.
Health officials in Victoria, Australia are attempting to contact about 70 patients in Melbourne. Their doctor flew from San Francisco to Australia with a runny nose and cold symptoms. He continued to treat patients throughout the week, but was diagnosed with the coronavirus the following weekend. There are concerns that he contracted the virus on the flight from the USA, and others on this flight are asked to come forward and be tested. All of the office staff and the patients who have been contacted have placed themselves in at home quarantine.
After the trial in New York City, Harvey Weinstein was set to go to jail immediately. This did not occur, as he was rushed to the hospital for heart palpitations and chest pain. He reportedly underwent heart surgery and stayed in the hospital for a week. He is now on his way to an infirmary unit in the notorious Rikers Island prison in New York City. Per a source at the prison, the infirmary is more like a regular prison unit than a hospital. Weinstein is set to be tried in Los Angeles later this year.
As the Milwaukee Brewers and star outfielder Christian Yelich are completing a long-term contract extension that will likely keep him with the club for at least the prime years of his career and a few years beyond that, the trade that brought him to Milwaukee in the first place is looking better and better.
Yelich’s former team, the Miami Marlins, were in the middle of their housecleaning under the new ownership of Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter when they traded him, Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna, all for prospects.
At the time, there was a debate as to which of the two biggest stars – Yelich and Stanton – would yield more on the trade market. Both are tremendous talents. However, with the team-friendly contract he’d signed with the Marlins and his general durability, Yelich was clearly a superior option even if he was costlier in terms of prospects. With Stanton, the only thing a team needed to be willing to do was to take that $325 million pallet of anvils through 2027. Prior to the new contract with the Brewers, Yelich was guaranteed $49.57 million through 2021 with a $15 million club option and $1.25 million buyout for 2022.
With Yelich blossoming from an excellent player into an outright superstar with consecutive seasons in which he won the Most Valuable Player in 2018 and was the runner-up in 2019, the Brewers chose to lock him up.
The trade itself does not appear to be costly now given what Yelich has provided them, but the Brewers surrendered a chunk of their system to complete the deal. To Miami, they sent three top-100 prospects in Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz and Monte Harrison along with an alluring arm in Jordan Yamamoto. Brinson is running out of chances to prove he can hit big league pitching, but Diaz looks like a future star. Harrison could end up replacing Brinson as the Marlins’ center fielder of the future.
Yelich boosted his production from an .800 OPS in five years in Miami to 1.046 and the previously mentioned hardware in his two years in Milwaukee. He has justified the cost and then some. Certainly, he was helped by moving from a home ballpark with friendlier dimensions in Miller Park vs. the cavernous Marlins Park.
The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves were two known suitors for Yelich at the time he was traded to Milwaukee. There were others. The Yankees ended up with Stanton and undoubtedly regret it. They have no one to blame other than themselves. They had the prospects to get Yelich had they taken that route, but they allowed themselves to essentially be forced into taking Stanton because there was a marketing ploy to combine Stanton and Aaron Judge in the same lineup.
Yelich might not have had the glamour of Stanton, but he was and is a more useful player. Stanton steered the deal to pinstripes when he refused trades to both the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants, basically telling Jeter it was the Yankees or nothing. At the time, Jeter was mocked for supposedly helping the Yankees; that a diabolical plan to turn the Yankees back into a dynastic powerhouse including him taking over the Marlins and sending them Stanton for nothing. In retrospect, he got unintentional(?) vengeance against Brian Cashman for his contentious final free agent contract negotiation with the Yankees in which the GM told Jeter to leave if he didn’t like the offer.
The Marlins did quite well in both trades. For Stanton, they received two good prospects in Jorge Guzman and Jose Devers, some veteran production in Starlin Castro, and cleared that horrendous contract.
The Yankees did not need Stanton. Yelich has been ahead of Stanton in every conceivable context. This is not hindsight given the comparisons of the players’ two seasons after leaving Miami. It was known at the time that Yelich was the true prize and that has proven to be so. Even as he signs a long-term contract extension for $215 million, it’s $110 million less than the full freight of Stanton’s deal.
The argument could be made that the Brewers were under no pressure to give him a contract extension now. Still, owner Mark Attanasio is generous with his players, treats them well and wants to win despite mid-market constraints. The uncertainty of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations and how it will impact just about everything involved with the game is not a small concern. An understated factor could be that the Brewers would prefer to add Yelich to their organization’s Mount Rushmore with Robin Yount and Paul Molitor instead of current team home run leader Ryan Braun, whose reputation is still suffering from his PED suspension and his series of lies about it. Braun’s contract is up at the end of 2020 with a mutual option for 2021. Though Braun is still a Brewer, it’s Yelich’s team now.
The Brewers made certain Yelich is theirs basically for the rest of his career by going beyond the team-friendly contract and tearing up the club option for 2022. It all started with that trade. It was expensive, but it was worth it.
Per an internal email, and now a public statement, the Los Angeles Airport has disclosed that one of their contracted medical screeners has tested positive for the coronavirus. He last worked on February 21st, and is currently under self-imposed home quarantine. His immediate family is under observation as well. He has mild symptoms and has not needed any external medical care. He became symptomatic one week after the day he last worked and was diagnosed the following weekend.
The first leaked photos of Robert Pattinson in full Batman regalia for his role as the title character in Matt Reeves’ The Batmansparked the inevitable geekdom dissection and debate as to the potential for the film. Since Pattinson is set to play the youngest Bruce Wayne/Batman in one of his earliest cases ever portrayed on film, excitement at the relatively “new” take on Batman is combining with reticence at the possibility that the film will be another DC Comics film screw-up like Suicide Squad, Justice League and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The films have been hit and mostly miss. For every Wonder Woman – a film that had the combination of a workable story and the charm of Gal Gadot – there are five films that simply did not work.
DC has partially shunned the idea of copying Marvel and having the stories interwoven and interlinked. Marvel’s successful strategy in creating the Marvel Universe leads to people who would ordinarily not go see every one of the films to go see them because they do not want to miss the nuggets that will be hidden in the background and in the post-credits scenes.
DC has failed miserably since the stories were not sufficiently engaging for people to care. It was delving into Zack Snyder’s ego and what he wanted to see rather than pleasing the customer. There is room for both.
DC’s mistakes are many in their attempts to tell these rich tales. Trusting Snyder, whose real skill is in cinematography, to oversee the entire franchise was a massive blunder that has made the DC Universe essentially unfixable, hence the critical smash and monster hit Joker. Separate from the DC Universe and ushering in a different and darker vision that resonated with audiences better than the obscure symbolism, smugness and rushed product that the Snyder films were, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix were freed from the shackles of Snyder and the producers who clearly wanted a sellable product rather than letting the tale tell itself organically and reaching a climax as Marvel did with Avengers Endgame. For Marvel, getting there took more than a decade and even casual comic book aficionados would say it was worth it.
Any superhero film lives on the border of “this is ridiculous” and losing the audience.
The success of Joker will inevitably tilt the direction of subsequent DC films toward an even darker direction of searing intensity. Reeves’ The Batman does not necessarily need to be that dark, but it can take certain aspects of what worked in Joker and use it to the film’s advantage.
The symbols present in Joker – Bernie Goetz, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, Pagliacci – were not so offensively obvious that one would think Phillips was treating the audience like it needed the explanation spoon fed to it, but they were not in need of a set of CliffsNotes when walking out of the theater as they did with Snyder’s work.
Adam West’s campy, family-friendly portrayal worked for what it was because no one was expecting him to save Gotham City from a madman looking to set the entire place on fire for the fire itself.
The Michael Keaton Batman worked despite initial vitriol at the casting choice because the character most remembered was West and no one had seen the dark, brooding hero, the dismal Gotham, or a bad guy so charismatic as was Jack Nicholson’s Joker.
Batman and Robin was pure idiocy. Had Joel Schumacher been trying to make a movie that terrible, he couldn’t have done it. It’s not just the worst superhero movie ever made, but it’s in competition for the worst films ever made, period.
Christopher Nolan’s version of the character was not a good vs. evil morality play. It showed the perspective of the opposing characters and the consequences of their actions. Heath Ledger’s Joker did not want money. He was trying to prove a point. Aaron Eckhardt’s Harvey Dent sought to be the white knight who worked within the confines of the law with the help of Batman, who worked outside those confines with the tacit participation of the Gotham City Police Department, its commissioner, and the DA’s office.
Affleck’s Batman was unfairly criticized because of the scripts, yet Affleck was effective in the role as a world weary and older Wayne/Batman who wondered if he had any impact at all and if that impact was a net positive. He just kept doing it because he didn’t know what else to do with himself, eventually confronting an existential threat in Superman that he feared could destroy the planet. By then, the stories were so far gone that there was no bringing them back to something intelligible. Batman v Superman was a mishmash of stuff thrown in, seemingly at the last moment or at the behest of some producer who had no innate knowledge nor concern about the characters.
After Joker, the easy response is to go heavy on the brooding symbolism, but Pattinson’s Batman needs more nuance. Whereas Affleck’s Batman had been at it for two decades and realized what he was doing was not only fruitless but might have been making things worse, if Reeves is adhering to the conventional Batman wisdom, Pattinson’s Batman is seeking to right wrongs and prevent others by enduring what he, despite his life of wealth and privilege, has faced as the son of two murdered parents, shot in a robbery before his very eyes.
The moral ambiguity in any Batman film is self-evident, but worsens as he ages. Initially, right and wrong is relatively clear. It takes time before Batman can be cast as something other than a do-gooder, but as what he is: a legitimately deranged psychopath who just happens to be confronting so-called evil with a code never to kill. This is not something that can be accomplished when he has just begun his journey. His association with the GCPD and especially Commissioner Jim Gordon and Dent is one of expediency to achieve their ends.
Pattinson is far enough removed from his days as a ludicrous and reluctant teen heartthrob from the Twilight series and its intrinsically mockable vampire character that he can pull off the Batman role. Few ridiculed it better than the brief and still-missed Beavis and Butt-head reboot.
Still, the costumes do look to be tilting in the direction of a Joker-style concept rather than other interpretations.
A key problem that The Batman faces is straddling the line of credulity that every superhero film must navigate. If, as the rumors and casting suggests, the storyline is taking massive chunks from the 1996-97 comic miniseries The Long Halloween, Reeves has an even thinner line to tread than the usual neo-realism with a heavy dose of disbelief suspension.
Complete with some tired and lazy storytelling techniques like faked deaths, inexplicable disguises, multiple perpetrators in the puzzling denouement, the style was superior to the substance in a basically enjoyable storyline. Presumably, Reeves wants to do better than that and will use portions of the comic series while discarding others to suit the narrative.
The characterizations and how the actors perform in the roles is and will always be secondary to the story. If the script is convoluted and nonsensical as was Batman v Superman or is worse than a Saturday morning cartoon like Batman and Robin, then it’s not going to work.
If they’re heading in the direction of having Batman’s career as a crime fighting zealot with deep psychosis as he traverses a complex case early in his career while he still believes he is a force for good, then they’re on the right track. Trying to cram everything into one film with no reason for doing so will be a repeat of the disastrous versions which spawned the spin to Joker to begin with. The reinvigorated interest will be extinguished immediately by making the same mistakes other filmmakers made in the past.
