Every year, unsuspecting internet users get pranked when April 1st rolls around, and gamers aren't excluded. This year, Anthem fans trolled their own for the day, converting the Anthem subreddit into a Division 2 forum instead for April Fools' Day.
Comparisons between Anthem and The Division 2 have been rampant since the games were still in development, and things haven't changed much since they launched. While The Division 2 launched to primarily good reviews and has been seen as a general improvement over its predecessor, Anthem has had a much bumpier release experience. Perhaps as a result of these constant comparisons, the moderation team at Reddit's Anthem forum chose to tease their subscribers by swapping out the banner image for The Division 2 as an April Fools' Day joke.
Anthem's moderator team managed to pull a fast one on its audience, as several subscribers expressed confusion and even concern that the subreddit might have been hacked. After the joke came to light, The Division 2's subreddit also got in on the fun, responding in kind by changing their banner, title, and adding an amusing description to indicate that it is now an Anthem subreddit instead.
Of course, subreddit jokes are only some of the shenanigans that gamers and game developers are getting up to this year. Pokemon GO is celebrating with its users being photobombed by Ash Ketchum. Google is also rarely left out of April Fools', and has launched a version of the classic Snake game within Google Maps.
Outside of game jokes, Corsair took the opportunity to poke fun at the PC gaming industry's current state, as the PC gaming market fractures between Steam, Epic Games, Origin, and others. Corsair jokingly announced its own launcher for game launchers, which would allow players to unite all their games and friends across those game platforms into just one platform.
Not everyone is on on the April Fools' fun, though. Microsoft banned April Fools' pranks in a memo, stating that there were to be no outward-facing pranks for the holiday tied directly to the publisher and developer.
With April 1st only just getting started, gamers should keep their eyes open and their wits about them for pranks coming through the rest of the day.
Source: Reddit