Welcome to today’s Daily News, where we bring you up to speed with what’s happening in the gaming industry! In the news today…

Yooka-Laylee Releasing on April 11th , 2017. Wii U Version pulled in place for a Nintendo Switch version.

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Announced today Yooka-Laylee will launch on April 11th 2017 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms, Yooka-Laylee is now available to pre-order at £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99 for non-Kickstarter backers in both digital and physical formats* from all participating stores worldwide. Kickstarter backers will soon have the option to upgrade to a physical version if they choose. The pre-order offer includes an instant unlock to the Yooka-Laylee Toybox  which gives a taste of the platforming mechanics set to appear in the full game in a self-contained, spoiler free sandbox experience.

Playtonic has also provided an update on the Wii U version of Yooka-Laylee, confirming that development is looking to transfer to the upcoming Nintendo Switch platform.

“We’re sad to announce that despite our best efforts and exploring every possible avenue, we have encountered unforseen technical issues that unfortunately mean it will be impossible for us to release Yooka-Laylee on Wii U as initially planned.” Gavin Price, Studio Director, Playtonic Games confirmed.

“We can however confirm today that we are working very closely with Nintendo to look to bring Yooka-Laylee to the upcoming Nintendo Switch. We’re thrilled to be able to explore the opportunity and more details will be shared in early 2017. Of course, any backers who pledged for the Wii U version will be able to move their pledge to any of the versions launching on April 11th or upgrade to theNintendo Switch™ version when we announce further details in 2017. Thanks again for your incredible support.”

Playtonic and Team17 also revealed today a brand-new world for the tail-twirling buddy-duo to explore: Capital Cashino. As with all the five worlds in Yooka-Laylee, this visually striking new world will be fully expandable, providing players with a whole new area to explore and challenges to complete, with an exciting gameplay twist; players must now compete to win casino tokens, and exchange them with the banker for pivotal Pagies!

Check out Capital Cashino in the new world reveal trailer here: https://youtu.be/Bwrixu-0HKo.

Yooka-Laylee is now available to pre-order digitally for Xbox One via the Xbox Store, PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store and for PC, Mac or Linux via both Steam and GOG.

Paragon gains Card Crafting, and a free skin!

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Today, Epic Games brings another update to its PC and PlayStation 4 free-to-play MOBA, Paragon, which is now available in open beta.

In addition to general game updates and bug fixes, this free update the long-awaited Card Crafting functionality! Players can now dismantle unwanted cards to create crafting parts they can use to make cards to complete their in-game collection.

View the dev blog video.

Additionally, Epic Game is offering a free Shadow Ops Twinblast skin to any players who completes 10 PvP or Co-op matches between December 13 and December 14. This new look for Twinblast comes hot on the heels of a massive rework of the Hero that came with last week’s huge, game-changing Monolith update.

For more information on Paragon, head over to www.paragon.com.

Overwatch Christmas Event now live! 2 new gamemodes, Christmas Map Variants and Holiday Cosmetics!

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Blizzard’s first Christmas Event for Overwatch has gone live! Players can now start up Overwatch and receive a free Holiday Loot box filled with new skins for Tobjorn, Zenyatta, Tracer, Mei and more! Included in this update are two new unique game modes – Mei’s Snowball Offensive, where 12 players square up in a 6v6 snow-down! Be wary though, ammo is limited to snow piles, and every shot is a 1-hit-kill! Also included is the Mystery Christmas playlist, where players respawn as a new Hero every time they die! Rest assured, it looks extremely interesting!

Boom.tv Announces World’s First 3D Livestreaming Platform for eSports and $3.5M in Funding

Boom.tv today announced the beta launch of the world’s first 3D livestreaming platform for eSports along with a $3.5M seed round. The platform constructs a true 3D experience from a player’s game stream in real time, enabling fans to experience gameplay of popular eSports titles from any perspective on any PC or mobile device, with support for VR coming soon.

The eSports audience continues to skyrocket, and is predicted to reach 292 million this year. But, until now, this vast audience has been held captive to the camera angle of the player. With Boom.tv, the viewer experience will be far more exciting, social, and interactive.

“Improved broadcast technology was the tentpole around which professional sports mushroomed,” said Sumit Gupta, Boom.tv CEO. “Our mission is to put 3D technology in the hands of millions of gamers and revolutionize the way eSports content is produced and consumed.”

Boom.tv’s first application lets streamers engage with their fans and revolutionizes the viewing experience by enabling instant replays and multiple viewing angles. Players simply run the Boom.tv app while streaming gameplay and patent-pending technology renders the gamestream in 3D, delivering a better, higher-fidelity spectating experience in real time. There is no prior integration from game developers required. The app, available in beta starting today, also allows streamers to create one-click highlight montages and easily share them to social media, opening up the potential for new sponsorship opportunities.

Boom.tv will soon release an update to the app that will allow streamers to broadcast in virtual reality, delivering an immersive experience that simulates actually being in the game. With this update, viewers will be able experience the game stream in full VR using the headset of their choice.

Boom.tv’s 3D livestreaming platform is currently available for eSports titles CS:GO and LOL. Interested streamers are encouraged to sign up for the beta at http://www.boom.tv/signup

Guild Wars 2 PvP Leagues Get Even Better with the Beginning of Season 5!!

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PvP Leagues in Guild Wars 2 have received some major changes with the release of Season 5, which is now live. The main focus for season 5 is to provide players with a more competitive environment: accurately indicating skill level which will allow for more evenly matched competition against other players and giving more consistent rewards across the skill spectrum.

Some of the key highlights of Season 5 changes and additions include:

  • PvP Leagues Rework: Leagues have been reworked in order to facilitate better matchmaking, to give a more accurate indication of an individual’s skill level, and to be more rewarding.
  • Better Matches: Matchmaking will no longer factor in pips when creating matches, and will instead focus more heavily on your matchmaking rating. This will increase the pool of eligible players that you can play against, thereby improving match quality and reducing queue times.
  • Measuring Skill: Skill rating is a new visible value that represents a player’s skill level for a ranked season. Pips will no longer factor into skill rating or prestige.
  • Rewards: League pips will now be used exclusively as a mechanism for earning rewards. You will earn varying amounts of reward pips for wins and losses.
  • Personal Score & Top Stats: Personal score has been removed from structured PvP games and stats have been condensed to a more meaningful “Top Stat” system:
  • Overtime: Overtime has been added to conquest. When both teams have the same score at the time limit or both teams reach 500 points simultaneously, the game will enter overtime. Overtime ends when one team score becomes higher than the other or after 5 minutes have elapsed. In the case of a timeout, the winning team is chosen randomly.

A more detailed list of changes in Season 5 of PvP Leagues can be found in the official announcement which you can read here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-changes-for-pvp-league-season-5/

Infinity Wars: Reborn finally exits Beta Phase!!

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Infinity Wars: Reborn, a digital trading card game with more than 800 fully-animated cards, has exited Beta for PC and Mac and launched after first appearing on Steam more than two years ago.

The official release marks the debut of campaigns for the zombie and monk factions, titled Sleepers of the Avarrach and Descendants of the Dragon. These two PvE campaigns build on the game’s rich lore and provide new players with experience in these factions before joining the fight in PvP. Besting the foes lurking in each faction’s challenging PvE missions will yield 40-card starter decks as a reward. In addition to the release of these two campaigns, Infinity Wars has also reskinned its UI, which compliments the game’s newest set of 100 cards, Rebellion.

Infinity Wars: Reborn is the world’s first fully-animated trading card game, bringing life into a genre known for still images. Simultaneous-turn battles enable players and enemies to attack and defend against each other at the same time. The inclusion of an undo button allows even the most detrimental misplay to be reversed.

Infinity Wars’ Commander System determines which cards can join a deck and guarantees players’ access to their favorite cards throughout the match. Cards are arranged on 3D battlefields divided into offensive and defensive sections, where players must balance protecting their fortress with penetrating enemy lines.

Trailer – https://youtu.be/74RbvE64-gY

That’s about it folks!
Ciao!