Hey Pixelkiners! Two awesome game industry veterans are teaming up on a new Star Wars game. Amy Hennig, who worked on the Uncharted series, and Jade Raymond who produced the first Assassin’s Creed game, are working together on a Star Wars game about which we know nothing. Except that it’s probably going to be awesome.
The BBC is giving away a million micro:bit computers to inspire kids to do innovate computing work. The BBC micro:bit is only 4 by 5 centimeters and can connect to everything from plant pots to cellphones. The Head of BBC Learning likened it to giving kids paintbrushes, even if they’ve never had an art class. Kids can get creative with the micro:bit, and that could inspire some very cool things.
SEGA has issued an apology for all the ways they’ve hurt us, but especially for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. This game wounded my coworker Courtney beyond repair, and she talks about it on episode 13 of our podcast, Gaming With The Moms. Read more about Sega’s apology on Pixelkin, and find that episode of the podcast here.
If you are one of the very special people in this world who is good at Just Dance, Ubisoft and the Electronic Sports World Cup are sponsoring a second Just Dance competition this year. It’s open to anyone over the age of 16, and qualifiers start on July 19. The finalists get to go to Paris so frankly that’s motive enough for me to enter. Learn the details at Pixelkin.org.
Marvel Games producer Mike Jones has said that Marvel is going to be making more console games, which is honestly…not a huge surprise. Courtney and I talked about it on the pilot episode of our new talk segment, The Issue. We bandy theories about what Marvel’s new console games will look like, and talk about their new Telltale game as well. Check out that episode here.
Speaking of Marvel, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is coming up with over 100 new superhero characters, including some that have only been in the comics so far. It’ll also include Sam Wilson as Captain America and Black Widow.
Comcast is entering the game-streaming world with Xfinity Games, powered by EA. It’s available only to customers who have the X1 Entertainment system. So far there are 23 games available for streaming, and they all use tablets or phones as the controller. No added hardware to buy. It’s pretty clear that this is a move to keep Comcast’s television bundles attractive, since this year Internet subscribers have surpassed television subscribers for the first time. Read my full analysis about Comcast’s game streaming linked here.
The D23 fan expo is happening August 14–16. If you attend, you have a chance to get your hands on Disney Infinity 3.0 characters before the release of the game. These include characters from Star Wars and Disney Pixar’s Inside Out. Tickets are $74 per day, but the expo looks kind of…awesome. Also they have an augmented-reality Toy Box for visitors to play in where they can interact with Disney characters. Learn more about it here.
Finally, we’d like to pay our respects to Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, who passed away last weekend. Iwata was well-respected, always gentle and kind, and he is missed by the many people who knew him or knew his work. Thank you, Mr. Iwata, for everything.
