Game Playing Increase, Minecraft and GDC Talks

Steam and Nintendo make bank over self-quarantine from the Coronavirus

Over the weekend Steam hit it’s all time concurrent user peak which was over 20 million users online all at once with nearly 6 and half million people actively playing a game. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive being the most popular as well as other favourites like Dota 2 and PUBG. Nintendo Switch have been selling a high amount of a game called Ring Fit Adventure which is a fitness game that is hugely popular in China. Nintendo have seen a huge spike in sales of this game which sell for over $250 however Ring Fit Adventure isn’t the only game to see a spike in sales in China Plague.inc has also gained some traction thanks to the Coronavirus. In Italy Telecom Italia is showing up to a 70% increase in online games like Fortnite and Call of Duty. It would appear that gaming traffic is up everywhere.

Even though game playing is on the increase, game developing is not. Due to self-quarantine there maybe further delays with many companies and businesses opting to send staff home to work remotely there still can be issues in terms of meeting deadlines. Cyberpunk 2077 has reassured its fans that the virus will not delay the game any further however E3 2020 and other major showcasing events have been cancelled. We may see further delays, but fingers crossed that it all goes well for the developers out there.

Minecraft has a library which is now a safe haven for censored journalism

This uncensored library houses articles that are normally blocked in countries where there is no freedom of press, however if you can get your hands-on Minecraft you can access what’s being blocked. If you own Minecraft just open the game, load The Uncensored Library Server and you can read through books which feature articles blocked from social media and news outlets. Other news relating to Minecraft due to school being closed in Japan a group of students decided to host their graduation ceremony in Minecraft. These elementary students met up in-game to hang out and graduate as their Minecraft avatars, they spent all day building a seriously impressive graduation hall with the help of a YouTuber who assisted with organising the event.

GDC started streaming their talks this week starting from March 16th until the 20th

There will also be The Independent Games Festival awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards streaming if you’d like to look at the full schedule and know how to watch these incredible talks click here; Schedule & Live Stream.