Developer Epic Games continues to change Fortnite week-by-week, and the new update, version 9.30, introduces more new elements to the free-to-play battle royale phenomenon. Update 9.30 is live now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android, adding a new item, removing weapons, and making a notable change to shotguns. Read on for the full patch notes and a rundown on its biggest additions and changes.

This week’s new item is the Chug Splash, a throwable that allows you to heal other players. “Upon impact, the item splashes liquid in a small area,” Epic’s official blog post states. “All players within the splash radius will be instantly granted 20 health/shield.”

If you’re injured, you’ll receive 20 health, while those with full health will be given 20 shield. “Chug Splash can heal allies, enemies, and can extend the duration of the ‘knocked’ state for knocked players.” Chug Splashes are available in rare variants only from floor loot, chests, vending machines, supply drops, and llamas. They drop in stacks of two, up to a maximum of six.

Three limited-time modes enter the battle royale fray this week. Sniper Shootout Duos sees teams of two fight off with sniper rifles only, while Trios is classic battle royale with three-person squads, and Solid Gold Squads increases the abundance of legendary weapons.

Elsewhere, explosive availability has been drastically reduced: Epic has vaulted (removed) the Boom Bow, Dual Pistols, and Dynamite. The developer didn’t offer much in the way of explanation for the change, merely stating, “These vaults are primarily targeted at adjusting the availability of explosives, putting them more in line with where we think they should be.”

Shotguns have also been tweaked. The Combat Shotgun’s long-range damage has been reduced, and there is no longer a delay when switching to shotgun weapons–unless you have multiple shotguns in your inventory. Take a look at the full list of Fortnite: Battle Royale patch notes below, via Epic.

In other Fortnite news, it was revealed last week how the game was nearly canceled. It has, however, gone on to be extremely successful, with Epic recently being given a BAFTA special award.

Fortnite Update 9.30 Patch Notes

Weapons And Items

• Chug Splash
  • On impact, this thrown item splashes liquid in a small area. All players within the splash radius will be instantly granted 20 Health/Shield.
    • Grants health unless you are full health, in which case it will grant Shield.
    • Chug Splash can heal allies, enemies, and can extend the duration of the ‘knocked’ state for knocked players.
  • Rare variant.
  • Drops in stacks of 2.
  • Max stack size: 6.
  • Can be found from Floor Loot, Chests, Vending Machines, Supply Drops, and Llamas.
• Shotgun Swap Delay Removed
  • Shotgun cooldowns now only apply when the player is carrying multiple shotguns, regardless of Shotgun type.
    • This is a Quality of Life change to prevent the swap delay system from interfering with players who do not have multiple shotguns in their inventory. As with all changes, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this and make adjustments if necessary.
• Reduced the Combat Shotgun’s long-range effectiveness
  • Reduced damage at medium distances by 10%
    • 2.44 tiles to 4.88 tiles
  • Reduced damage at long distances by 20%
    • 4.88 tiles to 9.76 tiles
  • The Combat Shotgun’s accuracy uniquely enables players to hit shots from longer distances compared to other shotguns. However, the damage at those longer ranges was a little higher than desired.
• Vaulted
  • Boom Bow
  • Dual Pistols
  • Dynamite
  • These Vaults are primarily targeted at adjusting the availability of explosives, putting them more in line with where we think they should be.
• Removed the ability to ride Proximity Grenade Launcher projectiles
  • Due to the faster speed of this projectile, it was causing problems with level streaming. You can still ride rockets launched from Rocket Launchers.
• Added short delay to start damaging players from Storm Flip on entry, to mimic normal Storm gameplay
• Added Storm Flip to Audio Visualizer when it is activated
• Toys no longer will show up in the elimination feed on Starter Island

Bug Fixes And Adjustments

• Players could shoot immediately after using a Rift to Go.
• Supply Drones would sometimes spawn underground in areas with water.
• Adjusted the area of around the Reboot Van that players cannot build to prevent the placement of floors and traps under the Van.
• The Proximity Grenade Launcher was auto reloading while aiming down sights.
  • This is fix makes it consistent with Snipers and will reload once unscoping or after next attempt to fire.
• Adjusted the timing for the effects of consumables to help situations where players would switch away from the consumable before it finished activating.
• Reboot Cards will no longer fall to the ground. They will remain where they spawn.
• Reboot Cards were remaining available on the map even after the timer had expired.
• Campfires could block explosion damage at specific angles.
• The Shadow Bomb double jump ability could be activated while under the effect of a Boogie Bomb.
• Boogie Bomb effects would continue playing on players while they were skydiving.
• Empty Shadow Bombs could not be discarded correctly if eliminated while the effect was active while in respawn game modes.
• Players that had a Rift to Go used on them at the same time they were being rebooted would sometimes not be put into the skydiving state.
• Storm Flip would deal incorrect damage if two were overlapped on each other.
• Storm Flip was able to stop a Supply Drop from falling
• Weapons were showing while using emotes while on a Driftboard

Gameplay

• Made the “Hold to Swap” feature an option. This defaults as OFF.
  • With the option OFF, pickup is now back on the initial button press instead of button release. This should result in more responsive pickup behavior.
• Made the Fortbyte Pressure Plate Puzzle NW of The Block easier to complete.
  • Once unlocked the Fortbyte will be available for up to 15 seconds.
  • Parking all vehicles on the pedestals will trigger them, except the Hoverboard.
• Slipstreams now fade out the visual effects and play audio cues to warn that they are shutting off before the collision and forces are disabled, to give players more advance warning.
• Added Storm Flip color switch effects, depending on Storm intersection points.

Bug Fixes And Adjustments

• Skydiving from the bus toward a slipstream was not auto-deploying gliders at the correct height.
• Storm Surge was not activating in Phase 8
• Player health could be improperly rounded when receiving damage.
• The health bar for structures could disappear when hitting a wall and swapping to build mode.
• Lava was dealing damage to players too quickly.

Performance

• Rendering optimizations on player built walls to help end-game situations with thousands of building pieces.
• Added general optimizations for audio visual indicators.

Bug Fixes and Adjustments

• Resolved an issue causing poor performance in the lobby on Mac when in a large party.

Audio

• Improvements to Grenade Launcher and Grenade fuse sounds
  • Added a close-range fuse loop that is attenuated based on damage radius.
  • Sound ramps up as the projectile get close to exploding. If you hear this you’re going to take damage unless you block the explosion.
• Lowered the volume of vehicles in a Slipstream that doesn’t have a driver/passenger.
• Increase the range for the enemy 1×1 pickaxe impact sound from 1 tile to 1.5 tiles

Bug Fixes And Adjustments

• Fixed an issue with audio device hot-swapping when switching between outputs.
• One-shot sounds could re-trigger when walking into audio range.
  • This was most noticeable with harvesting, explosion, and gunshot sounds.
• The Victory Royale sound no longer gets affected by the slow-motion effect when a match is won.
• The Combat Shotgun had the wrong fire sounds on mobile/Switch.
• The Baller suction sounds were playing 2d if someone piloted a baller that you’d previously dismounted.
• Sounds for consumables would not play if approaching a player while they were already using them
• Footstep audio for the “Take the Elf” emote wasn’t playing.

UI

• Hiding the vehicle health bar that appears above a vehicle if you are the player operating it to avoid two vehicle health bars from being displayed.
  • The vehicle health bar that appears above a players health and shield will remain in the HUD.

Bug Fixes And Adjustments

• The direction-to-safety vector lines were not appearing properly on the map when in game modes where respawn was enabled.

Replay

Bug Fixes And Adjustments

• Scrubbing a replay could cause the unique font color on Golden points of interest to disappear.

Mobile

• Increased the size of the auto-pickup radius for items

Bug Fixes And Adjustments

• Graphical Improvements:
  • Lava textures were not appearing properly in the Floor of Lava Limited Time Mode on Android.
  • Resolved HLOD issues that were occurring at Loot Lake on Mobile.
  • Fixed the Quinjet Glider deploy animation on the Google Pixel 2.
  • The collar of the Instinct Outfit was clipping into the hood.
  • The Fiend Wrap and Turbulent Wraps were not displaying properly on certain Mobile devices.
  • The icon for the Wonder Outfit was displaying as pixels.
• The FPS counter was not being properly displayed in-game when enabled.
• While the map was opened, pressing anywhere outside of it was making that press count as if it was the joystick.
• The Cycle Weapons HUD Layouts weren’t visible after jumping from the Battle Bus
• Fixed an issue where the “Require Access to Contacts” prompts was appearing for Mobile players.
• Sound effects and music were not playing properly on the Moto Z2Force and HTC U11 devices.
• Reloading a Shotgun was being impeded when Tap Anywhere was active.
• Using a bluetooth controller was assigning players to the incorrect matchmaking bucket.
• Player character models weren’t appearing after returning to the Lobby from the Item Shop.
• The Controller UI was appearing on screens even when a controller wasn’t connected.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-patch-notes-todays-update-930-chug-splash/1100-6467857/

With major players like Microsoft, Sony, and Google invested in game-streaming technologies, it could be the next big evolution for gaming. Now, a Nintendo executive has commented on the possibility of the Mario company getting involved.

Nintendo of America executive Charlie Scibetta told TechCrunch at E3 2019 that streaming is “certainly interesting technology.” He added that Nintendo is monitoring the technology, going on to say that for now at least Nintendo is focusing on physical game sales and sales through the Nintendo eShop.

“Streaming is certainly interesting technology,” he explained. “Nintendo is keeping a close eye on it and we’re evaluating it. We don’t have anything to announce right now in terms of adopting that technology. For us, it’s still physical and it’s digital downloads through our eShop.”

Another executive, marketing boss Doug Bowser (yes, that is his real name), told The Hollywood Reporter that “it’s always interesting to see what others are doing in the space” as it relates to streaming.

“We’re always interested in how various new technologies can enable different ways to play games,” he said.

While Nintendo might not have a streaming service of its own, the company does operate a subscription service in the form of the Nintendo Switch Online membership program.

And though Nintendo doesn’t offer a game-streaming service on Switch, other companies do. Capcom offers Resident Evil 7 as a streaming game on Switch in Japan, while Ubisoft does the same with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in the country.

The public beta for Microsoft’s xCloud game-streaming service launches in October, while Google Stadia is slated for release in November. in other news, Microsoft and Sony recently announced an agreement for new cloud-gaming technologies.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-is-evaluating-streaming-technology/1100-6467855/

Cyberpunk 2077 features The Matrix actor Keanu Reeves in a major role. The character he plays, Johnny Silverhand, was in a rock band called Samurai. But will Reeves sing in the game? He wants to, but the game’s developer, CD Projekt Red, apparently has other ideas.

“No, they don’t want me to sing,” Reeves told IGN.

CD Projekt Red recruited an unnamed rock band to do the music, Reeves said, “so they’re going to be doing that.” Still, Reeves says he may be able to have some influence on the music.

“We have a bit of time, so maybe we’ll see what happens,” he said. “Maybe the lead singer of the band will let me have some kind of influence in there. We’ll see.”

It’s a bit of a bummer that Reeves apparently won’t sing in Cyberpunk 2077. He’s got the chops to pull it off, after all, so maybe something will happen down the line.

Silverhand appears as a hologram in your character’s head. He’s a key character who is second only to the player character, V, in terms of spoken dialogue. “He’s the No. 2 character in terms of lines of spoken text across the entire game,” CD Projekt Red founder Marcin Iwinski said.

“You will see a lot of Keanu and hear even more of Keanu,” Iwinski said.

Cyberpunk 2077 now has a release date: April 16, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Look out for more Cyberpunk news as E3 goes on, including how the team got Keanu Reeves involved in the first place, and our preview of the new gameplay CD Projekt Red demoed at the show, as well as a look at its story.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sorry-keanu-reeves-doesnt-sing-in-cyberpunk-2077/1100-6467853/

Just before the release of Rockstar’s open-world action game Red Dead Redemption 2, reports emerged about the working conditions at the studios that developed the game. This naturally led to a discussion about unions, which are largely non-existent in the video game world. Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two, has now weighed in on the subject of unions. He told GI.biz that it’s “hard to imagine” why his developers would want to unionize, but if they do, management would work on a collective bargaining agreement with them.

Before making his point about unions in the games industry specifically, Zelnick offered a higher-level view of why he believes unions exist in the first place.

“Unions tend to develop when labor relations are not typically non-existent,” Zelnick said. “And typically unions have been most beneficial when there were more workers than there were jobs. And where the jobs were low-paying jobs. We have fewer workers than we have jobs, and they’re high-paying jobs.”

“Right now, Take-Two has 500 open positions. There are 220,000 or so people employed in the US video game business. They make about $100,000 on average, maybe more. It’s hard to imagine what would motivate that crew to unionize,” Zelnick added. “But we’re a compliant company and will serve the law. If our colleagues want to engage in collective bargaining, then we will.”

Unions are common in other popular media industries such as TV and film, but the video game business is largely unionized. Unionization efforts in the video game industry appear to be ramping up of late, with groups like Game Workers Unite appearing at recent industry events like E3 and the Game Developers Conference to spread the message.

The practice of “crunch,” or working overly long hours to finish a development milestone in gaming, is often connected to unionization efforts and measures to improve the work-life balance of developers. Recently, GameSpot spoke with the developers of Ubisoft’s The Division 2, and they told us what is being done to minimize crunch and promote a healthy work-life balance.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/what-take-twos-ceo-thinks-about-unions/1100-6467851/