Proven News Wrap-Up: 6/22

News, and subsequently news stories, can be very fluid. With all the hustle and bustle of everyday life, sometimes stories will slip through the cracks. Well, the Proven News Wrap-Up is here to fix all that! Below are what we have determined to be the top stories for the week of 6/22. Although they are numbered, they are not ranked in any particular order.

1) State of Decay 2 Tops May NPD

For all of the criticism it received in regard to bugginess and certain gameplay elements, State of Decay found itself at the top of the May NPD list. Behind it, Sony exclusives God of War and Detroit: Become slotted in at two and three. It is impressive to see Detroit be that high up, especially with its release near the end of the month. Another slot of note, Grand Theft Auto V continues to make the top twenty, slotting in at six. Check out the full top twenty list below:

1. State of Decay 2
2. God of War
3. Detroit: Become Human
4. Far Cry 5
5. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze*
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition*
8. Rainbow Six: Siege
9. Mario Kart 8*
10. NBA 2K18
11. MLB 18: The Show
12. Call of Duty: WWII
13. Super Mario Odyssey*
14. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
15. FIFA 18
16. Overwatch
17. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection
18. Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
19. Assassin’s Creed: Origins
20. Monster Hunter: World

2) Sony’s Cross-Play/Progression Stance

It has been a week since the end of E3 and Sony still hasn’t come out and directly addressed why they are preventing people from logging into their Epic Games account on other consoles(specifically Switch) so they can continue to progress on the same account. If they thought that not addressing would make the controversy of cross-play go away, it has only done the opposite. Now, not only are gamers still demanding access to their Epic accounts, Microsoft and Nintendo are getting some pokes in with a new Minecraft ad promoting cross-play across their consoles.

At some point, Sony is going to have to either cave and allow cross-play or yet again only address why they are so against the idea.

3) WHO Classifies Gaming as an Addiction

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization officially declared that gaming could be classified as an addiction. It is being grouped in with impulse control related addictions such as gambling, eating, and exercising. While there are three criteria along with a minimum of twenty hours a week, there is already pushback against this decision. Earlier this week, the Entertainment Software Association and its partners issued the following the statement after gaming was officially declared an addiction:

“Video games across all kinds of genres, devices and platforms are enjoyed safely and sensibly by more than 2 billion people worldwide, with the educational, therapeutic, and recreational value of games being well-founded and widely recognized. We are therefore concerned to see ‘gaming disorder’ still contained in the latest version of the WHO’s ICD-11 despite significant opposition from the medical and scientific community. The evidence for its inclusion remains highly contested and inconclusive. We hope that the WHO will reconsider the mounting evidence put before them before proposing inclusion of ‘gaming disorder’ in the final version of ICD-11 to be endorsed next year. We understand that our industry and supporters around the world will continue raising their voices in opposition to this move and urge the WHO to avoid taking steps that would have unjustified implications for national health systems across the world.”

Only time will tell what impacts this decision will have on the gaming world. There are a lot of scenarios and factors to keep track of, so it will be interesting to see how this story unfolds.

4) PlayStation Brings Back Greatest Hits

Its always good to give gamers access to more games and that is what PlayStation Hits. Games such as Bloodborne, Infamous Second Son, The Last of Us Remastered, and many other PlayStation 4 classics will be available for purchase for $19.99 USD. With the list of games including some of the best PS4 games, combined with a good price point, hopefully, it will give gamers the opportunity go back and play games that they may have missed earlier in the consoles generation.