Yesterday Activision announced that Call of Duty will be returning to its World War II roots. The uninspired title of the game, Call of Duty: WWII will have a worldwide trailer reveal on April 26 th at 10AM PDT. Fans of the series have criticized the game for taking the game too far into the future. Wall running, jet boosting and exo suits were fun for a while but quickly players realized it was taking away from the fundamental FPS principals that originally made it a success. Games like Counter-Strike have remained grounded in fundamental FPS design without the need for including wall running, boosting or any other gimmick. It has maintained and grown its fan base since its original release in 1999. The people developing the new Call of Duty have a lot to prove.      Another game series adding competition for Call of Duty is Battlefield . The series broke away from the future/modern theme last year with the critically acclaimed release of Battlefield 1 . ...

Last week, Nintendo announced that they would be discontinuing the NES Classic. If you didn’t know, the NES Classic is a miniaturized version of the original NES that comes complete with 30 games. The system was so popular that stores have been unable to keep their shelves stocked. Nintendo may be unable to keep up with production, which might indicate why they are discontinuing it. However, I believe there are other reasons at play.  Theories abound as to why Nintendo discontinued the NES Classic. I wrote a piece outlining my belief that Nintendo increased market demand to maximize profits when shortages were first reported last year. While I cannot prove this, the news of the discontinuation seems to provide additional evidence. Another idea is that Nintendo realized they could make much more money selling the old NES games individually through the Switch and Nintendo Store, rather than 30 at once in the Classic. This is possible, but I think they will be missing out o...