The Overwatch Ellie controversy was a bizarre mess. With Overwatch esports team Second Wind failing to do adequate background checks prior to signing the Contenders NA’s first female player, it transpired that the individual behind the account wasn’t who they said they were. The end result was a huge community backlash, a bunch of erroneous reports, and a massive headache for Blizzard’s PR team. This is one of many topics covered in this week’s GameRevolution Radio, our official bi-weekly podcast dedicated to all the goings-on in the video game industry.
In this week’s episode, Paul Tamburro, Jason Faulkner, Mack Ashworth, and Bradley Russell discuss the fallout to the Ellie controversy, addressing GR’s report on the scandal and how the situation was handled from a journalistic standpoint. With much made about the reports stemming from the controversy — including GR’s take on the matter — watch the podcast to hear the editorial team’s thoughts on why this particular situation was mishandled.
Elsewhere in the podcast, GR discusses the recent rumors circulating the PS5 and next Xbox. What will these consoles offer? Will they really be the final “traditional” consoles before everyone moves onto the cloud? And is the world ready for a digital-only future?
The news that Rockstar is hiring for its latest game also inspired discussion surrounding what the Red Dead Redemption 2 developer has up its sleeve, while the team also addresses The Last of Us 2‘s recently revealed multiplayer details. This includes breaking down the game’s inevitable microtransactions, because it’s 2019 so of course it’ll have microtransactions.
Those who stick around until the end will also be treated to the first installment of Explained in 60 Seconds, in which Bradley struggles to encapsulate the madness of the Kingdom Hearts series into just one minute. He doesn’t quite manage to do it in 60 seconds, but he does talk about Winnie the Pooh a lot.
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