Editor’s note: Due to an unexpected site outage last week Friday, our usual weekly episode of the africast could not be published. We are instead publishing today and hope you enjoy listening to it. Our apologies for the interruption in service.
It has been a big week in the world of tech with many announcements and, maybe most importantly, the end of E3 2021.
Before that let’s talk news starting with 5G and, a surprise to no one in South Africa, the country is very much lagging behind the rest of the world. This is according to the Ericsson Mobility Report which shows our country and continent left in the dust when compared to places like Asia and America.
Next up is The Handmaid’s Tale which features one of the strangest product placements of all time as Zoom gets a share of screen time in the ending of the popular show. Product placement is common nowadays but this is truly bizarre given the nature of the show and the fact that the antagonist is the one using Zoom.
Finally for news is Oculus which, surprise surprise, is now adding adverts to VR games. This isn’t for free games trying to make some money for the developers, mind you, but for paid titles. We’ve already seen adverts in full price games which have been received poorly by the community, and we can only imagine this is worse inside of VR.
Now for E3 2021, a show that many people were let down by, but we found just fine. It seems that, at least this year, you had to hunt and peck for the good stuff instead of it being a constant barrage of anticipated titles.
We walk you through our choices for most anticipated titles as well as discuss the precarious nature that the entire industry is in because of the power of Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service has cast a massive shadow over the traditional way of buying and paying games and we keep returning to the question of how PlayStation will be able to measure up.
With most of our top picked games available on Game Pass – usually on day one – the value proposition from Microsoft seems to get better every day.
Mentioned in this africast:
- The latest Ericsson Mobility Report shows Africa is being left behind in terms of 5G
- The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 finale contains a weird product placement
- Adverts are coming to paid Oculus VR games
- Forza Horizon 5
- Metal Slug Tactics
- Diablo II: Resurrected
- Atomic Heart
- Age of Empires IV
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl
- Redfall
