News::Professional 'StarCraft 2' players, coach accused of match-fixing

South Korean authorities have arrested nine people, including two professional players and their coach, on charges of fixing professional StarCraft 2 matches, according to translated reports on the Team Liquid forums. The site says PRIME head coach Park Wae-Sik ("Gerrard"), and professional players Choi Byeong-Heon ("YoDA") and Choi Jong-Hyuk ("BBoongBBoong") have been arrested and charged with manipulating the outcomes of five matches throughout 2015. They're suspected of receiving between 5 million and 20 million won ($4,400 and $17,600) for fixing the games. At least three other people have been arrested and charged with match-fixing in the same sting, and two additional people have been indicted but not arrested. One other is at large, the report says. The Korean eSports Association plans to ban Gerrard and YoDA from the organization for life, a statement translated on TeamLiquid reads.

Via: Polygon

Source: TeamLiquid

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News::'Metal Gear' creator Hideo Kojima leaves Konami after 29 years

Hideo Kojima, creator of the wildly successful Metal Gear franchise, has officially left Konami, the studio that defined his career -- though it could be argued that, over 29 years, Kojima instead defined Konami. Confirmation of his departure comes via The New Yorker, which notes that Kojima's final day was October 9th. Kojima's resignation also means that he's no longer with Kojima Productions, the Konami-owned studio that he started in 2005. It's been long-rumored that Kojima would leave Konami after the launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Earlier this year, Konami canceled Silent Hills, a hotly anticipated project from Kojima and horror director Guillermo del Toro, and in July, Kojima's name quietly disappeared from the Metal Gear Solid V box art. We've reached out to Konami for comment on today's report.

Source: The New Yorker

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News::Microsoft built Halo 5's weapons 'from scratch' for Xbox One

Halo 5: Guardians' soundtrack isn't the only aspect of the game's audio that got an overhaul -- the developers at 343 Industries had to reimagine what the Xbox One exclusive's weapons sound like, too. Because of the sheer amount of sounds happening at once during firefights, 343 had to figure out some creative ways to keep the aural calamity in check. It's quite a bit different in scale from 343's last outing, 2012's Halo 4, where there was had a handful of characters on screen simultaneously, as opposed to 40 or 50 in the forthcoming sequel. "We have many more sounds and the mixing is a very challenging situation," 343 Industries audio director Sotaro Tojima said in a recent interview. "We're establishing pretty much all the weapon sounds from scratch again for Xbox One."

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News::The 'Halo 5: Guardians' soundtrack gives fans what they want

When Microsoft's in-house Halo studio 343 Industries took the franchise over from creator Bungie, it made a bold statement by abandoning longtime composer Marty O'Donnell's iconic score for one mostly written by Neil Davidge of the English trip-hop group Massive Attack. Think of it like Disney replacing John Williams' iconic Star Wars score with something by Randy Newman and you're about halfway there. His changes were drastic, eschewing established musical tropes for something simultaneously foreign and familiar, leaving no sacred cows behind. It was a ballsy move, and at the time 343's freshman bravado made a statement about how it would handle the franchise moving forward. But something happened in the three-year gap between then and now: 343 released Halo: The Master Chief Collection to disastrous technical results. How broken that game was (and in some cases still is) had an effect on the development team, and likely killed some of its confidence.

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