Weekly News Wrap-Up: January 30th Edition

Hey all and welcome to another weekend which means that it is again time to wrap up another week of gaming news. This week had a mixture of headlines, with one story involving GameStop, the stock market, and the White House. What in the world happened there? As always, feel free to give your thoughts in the comment section below. Let’s get to it.

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GAMESTOP STOCK JUMPS HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS WITHIN THREE DAYS?!

Okay, this is crazy. So GameStop stock began this week began under $100 per share and then at one point on Thursday, reached a high of $469 per share. The GameStop stock has fluctuated throughout the week, with The Hill reporting that Reddit group WallStreetBets was behind the video game company’s stock surge. Apparently, some people wanted to shake some things up in the market. And they did. This has gotten the attention of the U.S. government, which is now monitoring the current situation.

I’m not even going to pretend like I know everything that is going on here because I’m not a financial person, nor do I have experience with the stock market and how it fully works. But this is extraordinary when you think about it. Let me know what you all think of this. I’m including more links to news articles on the topic below:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamestop-stock-explained-robinhood-short-squeezes-and-reddit/1100-6486676/

https://www.ign.com/articles/gamestop-investors-share-why-they-went-big-on-the-gme-stock-squeeze

https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/01/28/founder-of-wallstreetbets-discusses-why-the-group-unleashed-chaos-on-gamestop-and-why-hes-really-exiled-from-reddit/?sh=15d06707211c

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/wall-street-david-goliath-story-goliaths-fall-75514180

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JEANETTE MAUS, ACTRESS IN UPCOMING RESIDENT EVIL GAME, DEAD AT 39

I am truly saddened to have learned about the death of Resident Evil Village actress Jeanette Maus. To go through something so grueling and torturous as an eight-month battle with colon cancer while still showing up to work and performing each day is beyond commendable. It reminds me of Chadwick Boseman, who was still portraying Black Panther as he was fighting cancer. Damn, she was only 39 years old. Younger than me. This really sucks and my prayers go out to her family and friends during this time.

A lot of times we don’t ever really see the people who give life to the characters that we encounter in our games. But those voices and inspirations come from somewhere. I remember watching the video of voice actress Briana White when she cried as she watched Aerith (whom she played) come to life in Final Fantasy VII Remake. These people put their heart and soul into their work and I’m sorry Maus won’t be around to see her efforts come to fruition. Damn.

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THE VOICE OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IS ABOUT TO CHANGE

It had been speculation earlier in the week, but the above Twitter post on Thursday confirmed that Roger Craig Smith, the voice actor of Sonic the Hedgehog, will be moving on from his work with the iconic SEGA character. According to GamesRadar, no further details have been given as to Smith’s departure. Smith is credited with bringing Sonic’s voice to life in his 10 years of work with the character.

I have not played any Sonic video games since the SEGA console system days so I am not familiar with Smith’s work. Ten years as the voice of a character is something very nice to hang your hat on as a voice actor though. Smith should be proud of the work he did and I know there are better opportunities ahead for a person of his caliber. SEGA best choose their next voice actor wisely.

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CONTROL ULTIMATE EDITION ON PS PLUS BABY!!

Oh heck yeah! Playstation Plus got it more than right this month. I’m talking mainly about Control Ultimate Edition being made available to PS Plus subscribers for free in February. This will be going on my PS4 Pro the very first day it is available, which is this coming Tuesday. If you have a PS5 and a PS Plus subscription, you will also be able to play it on that platform as well. And I’m not forgetting that PS4 owners will also get Concrete Genie and PS5 owners will also have Destruction AllStars available for download. It’s just that the base game Control is spectacular all by itself, but the Ultimate Edition includes all of the DLC.

I’m a fan of the Remedy universe. Quantum Break was a fantastic game to play, I watched gameplay videos on Alan Wake, and what I played of Control on PC was outstanding. Their games have tremendous visuals, great plots, and some type of scientific freakiness that keeps you hooked. This is a great month to be a PS Plus subscriber.

For those of you who are Xbox Live Gold subscribers, the five games available this month are Gears of War 5, Resident Evil, Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition, Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, and Lost Planet 2. That’s a nice selection of games.

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EPIC GAMES STORE HAD MONSTER 2020

Some of the numbers presented in the Epic Games Store Year-in-Review are just ridiculous. In 2020, the company gave away 103 games with a total of more than 749 million free games being claimed throughout the year by users. The platform had more than 160 million customers and 700 million was spent by PC players in the Epic Games Store in 2020. It was an epic (pun intended) year for Epic Games.

When it comes to free games, Epic Games is hands down the most benevolent company on the planet. They give away so many free games, I sometimes feel guilty and will buy a game on Epic Games instead of another platform. I’ve never seen anybody or any company give free games away like this. It’s insanity. If you haven’t signed up for a FREE Epic Games Store account, please do so. They are still giving away weekly free games even now.

-TVGA
admin@videogamersadvocate.com