Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Nintendo recap. Although it’s a holiday weekend, there have been some interesting developments in the Switch world. First, it was announced that Fortnite maker Epic Games would pay around half a billion dollars to settle legal complaints raised by the FTC regarding child privacy and accidental purchases. I will go into detail on this and explain who is eligible for refunds.
In other news, the highly anticipated shade of Sports Story has fallen on the eShop along with several other indie titles. Finally, we had some exciting news for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that got us excited for the game’s release. I’ll end by discussing the best Switch games released this year that you might have missed. Let’s go.
Fortnite maker Epic Games to pay $520 million to settle FTC complaint
We learned this week that Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, has agreed to pay $520 million to settle complaints filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). (Thank you VGC). It is not just one but actually two colonies. One addresses the fact that Epic violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information in Fortnite from minors under the age of 13 without parental or guardian consent. .
The second settlement involves Epic issuing $245 million in refunds to customers for inducing minors to make in-game purchases on unwanted items. The FTC said: “Fortnite’s counter-intuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button layout has led to players incurring unwanted charges by pressing a single button…for example, players could be charged for trying to exit the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while trying to preview an item.
For anyone who has played Fortnite over the past few years, it’s easy to see where these complaints are coming from. Making accidental in-game purchases was all too easy, and the process to undo those purchases wasn’t exactly straightforward. Not to mention, the fact that there was no system in place that required parents or cardholders to consent to purchases was ridiculous. So it’s good to see changes coming to the game and refunds for players.
Another part of the lawsuit centers around the fact that minors were exposed to harassment, bullying, and mature discussions via Fortnite’s voice chat. As part of the settlement, Fortnite voice chat will be dropped by default going forward. Being exposed to indecent or mature conversations is unavoidable on any online game with voice chat, so really when a game’s target audience is children, it’s best to remove voice chat or require that players activate it themselves.
Who is eligible for a Fortnite refund?
According to the official webpage regarding the lawsuit, the FTC plans to make Fortnite Refunds (opens in a new tab) available to those in the United States who meet these criteria:
- Parents whose children made an unauthorized credit card purchase from the Epic Games Store between January 2017 and November 2018
- Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency (V-Bucks) for unwanted in-game items (such as cosmetics, Llamas, or Battle Passes) between January 2017 and September 2022
- Fortnite players whose accounts were locked between January 2017 and September 2022 after disputing unauthorized charges with their credit card companies.
How can I get a Fortnite refund?
The refund program has not yet been implemented, but the FTC will provide additional information on the refund request process once it is established.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gets an ESRB rating
I have good news for everyone who is eagerly awaiting the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (commonly referred to as Breath of the Wild 2). The game has now officially received an ESRB rating! It is rated E10+ (just like that breath of the wild was) for fantasy violence and mildly suggestive themes.
Before you sarcastically twirl your fingers in the air and say “Yipee,” let me explain why this is so important. Typically, when a game is rated ESRB, it means it’s almost done. In other words, the chances of Tears of the Kingdom having to be delayed again are much lower at this point. So we will likely see the game release on its scheduled release date of May 12, 2023.
Of course, there’s always the possibility of it being released early as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has been. However, it is better not to foresee this. I expect Nintendo to produce a limited edition Nintendo Switch OLED with a Zelda theme and if so, the Japanese game company will need to plan and release the hardware and Tears of the Kingdom around the same time, so predetermined launch dates may need to be met for this raison.
Nintendo’s Holiday Indie Event
Nintendo’s latest Indie World Showcase from November revealed that the highly anticipated Sports Story will be coming to Switch in December. Despite this, there had been no news of the game’s exact release as we neared the end of the year. Then this week Nintendo hosted something called Inside the Maison des Indes holiday event (opens in a new tab) on its website and eShop, which was basically a five-day countdown dropping indie games for Switch every day. It all culminated on Friday with Sports Story being the icing on the cake that capped it all off.
This is the sequel to the popular Golf Story by Sidebar Games which was released in 2017. Only now the sequel includes a lot more sports than the previous one, as well as RPG style dungeons and locations to explore. Although it focuses on increasing your ranking in various sports, this game is not just for those who love athletics.
I have already purchased the game and have been playing it for a few hours. It’s incredibly fun and there’s so much you can do. Think of it more like an RPG with sports rather than a sports game. You really should check it out if you haven’t already. It was worth the wait.
All games from Nintendo’s Holiday Indie event
There are a few fun new titles here besides Sports Story that are worth checking out.
- Soft Knights
- Mortal Shell: Complete Edition
- Roman Sands Re:Build
- puperazzi
- The captain
- The Puguin
- The Gecko Gods
- Risk of return rain
- sound
- Navigate forward
- tin hearts
- Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator
- melatonin
- Hyper Gunsport
- afterimage
- smile for me
- sports history
The best Switch games of 2022 to play this weekend
Since this is a holiday weekend, I am highlighting some of the very best switch games From 2022 you might have missed rather than the latest released games.
Happy holidays to everyone !
It’s one of the last weeks of 2022, which means it’s a good time to reflect on what happened this year. We’ve had so many awesome Nintendo Switch game releases over the past 12 months and many of them have walked away as winners of The Game Awards 2022. Whether you’re a longtime Switch owner, just have a new Switch or you’ve upgraded to another model, then you really should check out one of the games you might not have played yet.
Till next time.
– Rebecca Lance
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