July was the month that everything went a little bit… strange. Thinking back on it, nothing really felt all that out of the ordinary, but there was a lot of change, both on a smaller and larger scale.
For one thing, July was the month that Pokémon Go was unleashed upon the world. Millions of people downloaded the game in the first wave of countries, and started wandering the streets blind to their surrounding as they gazed at their smartphone screens. It got to the point that police officers were shutting roads in Perth to let the herds roam freely, and people were racing into Central Park to catch rare Pokémon.
Investors saw this and doubled Nintendo’s market value in short order, only to then realise that Nintendo have no direct control over Pokémon, but are part owners through The Pokémon Company. The stocks fell.
Nintendo also announced a new games console, albeit one that was not the then codenamed Nintendo NX. The Nintendo Classic Mini is a little NES-like box, stocked with thirty of the console’s classic games for £50.
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens topped the UK charts, as Lego game are wont to do during the quieter parts of the release calendar, but it was Battlefield 4 that had ruled the PlayStation Store charts, thanks to EA cutting the price to just £4 during June.
Adam Boyes announced he was leaving Sony to become the CEO of Iron Galaxy and return to game development. Perhaps he’d had enough after seeing a bike accessory being made by a third party for PlayStation VR?
After an impassioned E3 speech, Ubisoft fought for their independence and encouraged their employees to buy stocks with a discounted rate, Dontnod announced a multiplayer shooter, Evolve went free and unsurprisingly jumped from 157 players to 35,000 in a day, and Splash Damage was bought buy a chicken supplier.
No Man’s Sky went gold just days after a world quite literally ended and the servers for the original PlanetSide were turned off. It’s unclear if these two points were related.
A number of games failed to impress during July, including 7 Days to Die, Lost Sea, The Assembly, Ghostbusters and Carmageddon: Max Damage. The were a few gems though: Inside was an incredible follow up to Limbo, Monster Hunter Generations was a nice new entry for fans of the series, Zombie Night Terror cleverly mixed Lemmings with zombies, I Am Setsuna was a lovely JRPG and Quadrilateral Cowboy had me feeling like a badass hacker.
The UK staggered through the fallout from voting to leave the EU. We should take a moment to truly appreciate the quite incredible betrayal and manner in which Michael Gove dismantled Boris Johnson’s prospective run to the premiership, leaving the path wide open Theresa May became the new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the UK. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn was embroiled in a party leadership contest of his own, Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of UKIP, and the Pound fell to its lowest point since 2009.
At least there were some minor positives to be found in sport, as Chris Froome won the Tour de France for the third time, Wales reached the semi-finals of the Euros, while chuckling at the ignominy of England getting knocked out at the end of last month, and Andy Murray reclaimed the Wimbledon title.
Also, it was really, really hot at times in July, reaching 35ºC on the 19th in the South East of England. Here’s Mister Duncan to explain how hot July has been, what a heatwave is and whether or not “the Brexit” made it happen:
Tuffcub
Best. Weather. EVER.