Square Enix shakeups and esports Olympics | Kaser Focus
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It’s March already? Where did the time go? (Oh right, it went into Forspoken andOctopath Traveler II and Fire Emblem Engage and Dead Space, etc etc.) It’s been an odd week here — I’m trying to keep up with the percolating Microsoft/Sony/Activision Blizzard drama. But now the FTC’s making Sony pony up its records of exclusivity, and the European regulators appear to be backing off. At this point, it all gives me a headache.
I’m not sure what’s going on at Square Enix. First it reabsorbs Luminous following the tepid response to Forspoken, and now CEO Yosuke Matsuda is stepping down. Square Enix has an interesting few years, from its sale of the Eidos scraps to Embracer and its focus on NFTs and blockchain technology. Also, this is not exactly related, but Yuji Naka this week admitted to insider trading while working for Square Enix years ago. It’s nothing but unhappy news for the company this week.
In another bizarre news story, it seems the Olympics has finally deigned to acknowledge esports and will hold an official series starting this month. Well, sort of — instead of adding popular esports titles to its lineup, such as League of Legends or Dota 2, the International Olympic Committee added some more niche titles. Gran Turismo, Just Dance and even virtual chess are understandable additions, but I’m left scratching my head at Tennis Clash, Virtual Taekwondo and Tic Tac Bow. Firstly, in what universe is a mobile title better for virtual tennis than Wii Sports? Second, why do so many of these esports have to be virtual (and probably worse) versions of Olympic sports that already exist?
On the personal side of things, I can
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