Month: November 2020

Epic Games is adding a new subscription service to Fortnite, the company announced on Tuesday. The service will be called Fortnite Crew, and it will be a one-stop shop for players to get all kinds of cosmetics every month.

Fortnite Crew will cost players $11.99 a month, and will include the full battle pass for whatever the current season is, which usually costs $9.50 on its own. The subscription service will also grant players 1,000 V-Bucks every free v bucks generator month, a $10 value, as well as an exclusive monthly cosmetics bundle. These items will remain exclusive to the subscription — Epic said it will never sell or give them away to non-Crew members.

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In terms of value, the subscription really comes down to how much Fortniteyou’re playing, and whether or not you want more cosmetics for the game. As far as value goes, the V-Bucks nearly pay for the whole subscription, and can get you a reasonably priced skin in the store. This means that the exclusive bundles are almost also bonus, as well as the battle pass, which sticks around for a full season (usually around three months).

Fortnite Crew will launch on Dec. 2, the start of Chapter 2 season 5. Players that subscribe to the service when it launches will get the exclusive Galaxia Outfit and Style, as well as the Cosmic Llamac

The feature will begin to roll out to Houseparty app users on iOS and android, and will be compatible at launch when playing Fortnite on PC, PS5, and PS4 (Epic and Houseparty have said should any more platforms be supported, they will announce so in the future). Houseparty, which already lets friends video chat within the app, just needs to be connected to your Epic Games account – and doing so will earn players the Rainbow Fog Wrap. Once linked, players can follow the following steps, to easily enable video chat to pop up alongside their Fortnite gameplay:

• Open Houseparty on iOS or Android and connect to Fortnite through Settings or the TV icon
• Join your friends like you normally would or invite them to join you
• Fire up Fortnite on a PC or PlayStation
• Continue talking to your friends while you play

You’ll just need to find a comfortable position to prop your phone up to frame your face, but Houseparty uses facial recognition software available on iOS and Android to keep v bucks generator track of and recognize when a face is being captured via the camera. Once you’ve connected and enabled the Houseparty chat, your friends in your Houseparty party will be able to appear on screen to the left of your Fortnite gameplay in a new overlay. (The gameplay will adjust to properly accommodate the new look.) While Houseparty supports larger groups, only four friends at a time will appear on screen next to your Fortnite gameplay, with those who recently spoke being prioritized.

Players will have a Fornite-themed virtual background behind their face, with some options to choose from at the start. Only your friends on Houseparty, or the friends of anyone in your Houseparty room, will be able to join the video chat. Houseparty users can also lock a room to prevent more people from joining. Other players in a Fortnite game will not see any of your Houseparty video chat.

IGN was walked through a demonstration of Houseparty’s Fortnite integration over Zoom, and even with the video conferencing lag, the process was near-instantaneous at each step. Members who joined the Houseparty chat after it was enabled and integrated into a Fortnite game appeared on the game screen in just a few moments, properly tracked the faces of those speaking and prevented any real-life backgrounds from appearing, and demonstrated no noticeable vocal lag. Parties will be both present on your phone and in-game, but for those who use any similar functionality with Houseparty or other apps, the new feature is clearly meant to eliminate the need for those playing to keep looking away from their screen.

Players can begin checking out the Fortnite/Houseparty integration as the feature becomes available later today.

Fortnite is currently in the midst of a Marvel-themed season, with Marvel characters and locations being introduced into the battle royale. And next-gen players have been able to play upgraded versions of the game, as PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Fortnite were available at launch of these new systems.

popular name among gamers in the past few months. The streamer currently plays Call of Duty: Warzone live on Twitch. There are thousands of people that tune in to his streams, making him one of the most popular streamers. However, those fortnite v bucks generator who have been watching Nick for a while now know that he got his first break as a content creator for 100 Thieves while playing Fortnite.

Since joining 100 Thieves, Nick has only seen success. After creating content for 100T for a while, Nick joined the FaZe Clan. Nick started playing Call of Duty Warzone like most of his colleagues, including TimTheTatman and DrLupo. Many fans have since then been asking about his return to Fortnite.

Nick finally has some good news for them.

Bro I miss playing Fortnite. Some of the best times I’ve ever had, gaming. Considering throwin’ it back in the rotation.

— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) November 14, 2020

Nick’s Fortnite Achievements

Nick reached the pinnacle of his gaming career as a Fortnite player. He was the winner of the first edition of Fortnite Fridays with his duo partner, SypherPK. He also set a record for the highest squad kills in a Fortnite game, when he and his squad got 54 kills in a single game. Although others broke the record shortly afterwards, this incident was important to bolster Nick’s success.

In 2019, while Nick was still streaming Fortnite, Forbes reported that he grossed $6 million. Fans hailed Nick as a Fortnite great as he played with a controller while most competitive players were using a mouse and keyboard.

Nick’s decision makes sense with Warzone’s issue of cheaters. Infinity Ward has still not been able to find a fix for the same. Therefore, many players are jumping ship and finding other games to play. Nick decided to add Fortnite to the list of games he plays live as he takes a break from Warzone.

With more than 150 million users, Roblox is the No. 1 video game site for kids and teens. JDRF One World is part of a campaign from the game-focused charity JDRF Game2Give, organized in 2019 by prominent game developers who have children with type 1 diabetes. The effort is aimed at raising awareness and supporting work to find a cure for the disease, which strikes one in 400 children.

To visit JDRF One World, you need to set up a free Roblox account on your computer, phone, or tablet. Since the pandemic has nixed all in-person charity events, JDRF Game2Give has organized game bundles and charity streams. (It also has other campaigns in the pipeline.)

The game executives behind this project include former Telltale Games CEO Dan Connors, former Kongregate chief business officer Josh Larson, and Tilt Five COO Hans ten Cate. Larson is the director of JDRF Game2Give. I interviewed him and Connors about their experience having children with type 1 diabetes, and you’ll find their stories below.

“Gaming has stretched across so many platforms,” Larson said in an interview with GamesBeat. “With COVID-19, gaming has been this avenue for people to connect. And connecting people that have the shared interests of gaming and also a personal connection to type 1 diabetes is really powerful. I am really impressed and proud of the games industry, as it has stepped up this year.”

One of the group’s goals is to educate people about the difficulties of dealing with the disease. More than 1.6 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, and 38 million adults and children worldwide. Although people can make lifestyle changes to help manage the disease, there is no cure at this time.

Inside the world of Roblox
CEO inside Roblox
Above: JDRF CEO Aaron Kowalski inside Roblox

Image Credit: Roblox
The launch is timed for the start of National Diabetes Awareness Month, and Roblox’s huge reach can help bring attention to the cause.

“We are inspired by how JDRF is reimagining its One Walk inside the Roblox metaverse, bringing people from around the world together to support such a worthy cause,” Roblox VP Tami Bhaumik said in an email to GamesBeat. “We’ve been humbled by how the Roblox platform can support those in need and will continue to look for ways to provide an opportunity for the community to come together to give back.”

JDRF kicked off the project with developer MelonDev about six weeks ago. There’s a JDRF One Walk experience that lets you walk inside the virtual world. The robux generator 2020 developers also created a bunch of minigames, including a maze, a race, trivia about diabetes, a parkour course, tug-of-war, and a scavenger hunt. Each minigame can be played with one to five players.

Prizes include JDRF shirts, hats, capes, glasses, and the Rufus bear. The mascot bear is also given out to kids who have been newly diagnosed. The group spends nearly $200 million a year on diabetes research and has challenged its community to walk 1.6 million miles and raise $50 million to find a cure. Other games, including World Golf Tour, have also helped fund research.

JDRF CEO Aaron Kowalski will be on hand inside the Roblox world to greet people. Both Connors and Larson said advances in continuous glucose monitors, like the Dexcom G6, have made life easier. I tried that glucose monitor, which is a critical piece of equipment for those with diabetes, so I could see the impact my diet has on my blood sugar. I found it deeply informative.

While I appreciated what I learned from the monitor, people with diabetes rely on it for life-or-death decisions in the day-to-day management of their health. With diabetes, the body loses its ability to produce insulin, a hormone normally produced by the pancreas to remove sugar from a person’s blood. Untreated, type 1 diabetes can result in organ damage, coma, or even death.

The newest glucose monitors, which check the sugar level in your blood at any given moment, can be attached to your body and aren’t as cumbersome as they used to be. They can be connected to insulin pumps, with apps that monitor your blood sugar level, and deliver life-saving insulin if needed. Without this kind of technology, calculating how much insulin to inject into a patient’s body has been a guessing game that involves hourly monitoring.

With the automated connection between the glucose monitors and insulin pumps, parents of children with type 1 diabetes can sleep through the night, Connors said, which is a game-changer for families.