Black Friday success and drama, alongside some broken records throughout the gaming sphere, characterize this week’s news in the gaming industry. Game Rant has compiled some of the biggest gaming news stories from this past week together into a concise post for fans and enthusiasts to stay up to date on the most important events in the industry per week. Highlighting the most relevant stories, this list is not inherently and totally objective, and will not contain every news story this week. Rather, this is intended for gaming fans who want a quick rundown on the largest/most impactful stories that occurred in the last week in games.
Inthis week’s gaming news, next-gen consoles and other gaming peripherals become hotter commodities as Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales kick the weekend off. Of course, with these sales comes the added drama from next-gen consoles selling out for more nefarious reasons.Destiny 2: Beyond Light’s first Raid race has finally ended with an Bungie’s official ruling this week. G4’s “Gravython” charity reunion also held the announcement for its newest show host, whileThe Last of Us 2sweeps the Golden Joystick Awards in multiple categories. Lastly, another massively successfulAmong Usstream from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez generates thousands for charity. Here’s the biggest news from the gaming industry this week.
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Black Friday 2020 Is In Full Swing
Once everyone finished their bird (or whatever Thanksgiving meal they slaved over), it was time to shop the various gaming deals going on for Black Friday this week. Obviously the next-gen consoles were the main targets for many gaming enthusiasts, but there were also a variety of sales for PC peripherals as well as games themselves. Like recent years, many of these sales will continue through Cyber Monday, as Black Friday rarely is constrained to the day any longer. Here are some highlights:
Many of these deals will still be active throughout the weekend, so for those who missed out on Friday itself, savings may still be available for gifts.
Next-Gen Consoles Continue Selling Out, Partly Thanks to Bots/Scalpers
Black Friday also caps off a big problem with 2020’s next-gen console release: supply is very scarce. Xbox Series X consoles continue to sell out at retailers, though it’s worth notingthe PS5 has been selling out twice as often. Numerous times have Walmart, GameStop, Best Buy, and Amazon restocked and re-initialized product pages, only to have them crash and sell out within seconds of coming back online. For the average consumer it’s a huge bummer, but for console scalpers, it’s been a huge success.
One group in particular managed to buy in bulk around 2500 PS5 consoles on the console’s launch date alone, and the situation has only gotten worse.That group was promptly ripped apart for PS5 scalping, which of course only emboldened them. As it stands right now, PS5 consoles on popular bidding site StockX have their lowest asks already over $1000, and gaming fans are biting the bait.
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Destiny 2: Beyond Light’s Deep Stone Crypt Completed
Over the past weekend,Destiny 2: Beyond Lightfinally launched its first big Raid, the Deep Stone Crypt. Of course, with any new Raid begins the race against time for fireteams to become the “world’s first” completion of the new Raid. While dozens of teams competed against one another, Bungie finally announced the winners of the Raid race: the clan Luminous.
A little over five hours after the raid went live, as recorded by Bungie, Luminous officially cleared the raid first among all of the competing fireteams. Some guardians contested Bungie’s decision, but Bungie stood firm.Bungie’s data team recently restructured its competition rulesto make sure the actual World’s First was decided fairly.
G4TV’s Reunion Announces its Newest Host
Following its unprecedented return, G4TV held its big “Gravython” reunion special and charity event on Tuesday. Familiar cast mates returned around a Thanksgiving table to reminisce about G4 memories, alongsidethe announcement of the network’s newest host Austin Creed.
Announced during the special, the WWE Superstar had previously gone viral in his bout to become a host on the resurrected gaming media network. G4TV is slated to return at some point in 2021, though it’s unclear when or how that might happen.
RELATED:Former G4TV Hosts Describe Reuniting with the Cast as ‘Slipping on an Old Shoe’
The Last of Us 2 Wins Big at the Golden Joystick Awards
During this year’s Golden Joystick Awards, presented by Gamesradar+,The Last of Us 2made an impressive sweep at the awards ceremony. Landing five of the 24 total awards at the show, Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic epic won the award for Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design, Best Audio Design, PlayStation Game of the Year, as well as Ultimate Game of the Year.
Alongside those victories, Naughty Dog also won the award for Studio of the Year as well.The Last of Us 2ended up being a controversial game earlier this year, with opinions largely split between players and media outlets on review scores and the merit of the game. It is also worth pointing out that the game was review-bombed on Metacritic by disgruntled fans as well.
Another Successful AOC Stream Rakes in Thousands for Charity
In an impromptuAmong Usstream on Black Friday, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezraised over $200,000 in funds for ActBlue Charities. Streaming alongside Canadian New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, HasanAbi, Northernlion, Corpse Husband, Alanah Pearce, and many more, the crew performed the usualAmong Usdeception shenanigans for several hours last night. The stream didn’t necessarily reach its previous height of 400,000 peak viewers, the viewer count from Friday still averaged at an impressive 65,000 viewers throughout the stream.
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