Videogame News Thread

[ClockShot]

Uggggh. Capcom had their showcase yesterday and announced Pragmata has been delayed indefinitely.

And they did it in the best way possible. Because it's looking fantastic.

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[drave]

Most capcom titles I've played are worth the wait and they can have my money anytime they want.


Looking at you Monster Hunter (insert any version here).

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* For those interested, Bandai Namco confirmed recent reports and rumors that they will be delisting Soul Calibur V and all of its DLC from PSN and Xbox Marketplace on June 19th.
Link: https://twitter.com/soulcalibur/status/1668075650299879424

* Also for those interested, Nintendo is currently holding a big sale on select first and third party games for the Switch on their eShop from now until June 25th.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1668309694933348368 , https://www.nintendo.com/store/sales-and-deals/

* The FTC recently requested for an injunction to be issued against Microsoft to prevent the company from closing its attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard prior to their anti-trust trial which is set to start this August. Official reason is due to their belief that MS will try to push ahead with finalizing their purchase of AB despite the current legal issues surrounding it. The FTC is currently asking for this injunction to be issued no later than June 15th and for it to remain in affect until the court makes it official decision regarding the legal status of MS' deal with AB.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ftc-requests-injunction-microsoft-activision-purchase-sale/

* Embracer Group recently announced that they will be enterting a restructuring phase soon with layoffs and a number of company owned studios currently expected to take place. Official reason given was "we are now initiating multiple actions to strengthen our cash flow generation and leverage our portfolio of IPs to become a stronger company and setting out on a stable future to build even greater games to the benefit of gamers and fans across the globe.”
Link: https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-comprehensive-restructuring-program-with-immediate-implementation/ , https://www.destructoid.com/embracer-group-restructure-studio-closures-layoffs/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Update to the recent news of the FTC filing for an injunction against Microsoft to put their attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard on hold for this summer as the presiding court ended up granting their request and MS will now not be allowed to finalize their potential purchase until after FTC's lawsuit trial starts this August.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23760192/microsoft-activision-blizzard-tro-granted-ftc-injunction

* Indie studio Motion Twin announced that a new 10-episode animated series based on their Dead Cells game is currently in production by Bobbypills studio and Animation Digital Network. It was announced that this upcoming new animated series is currently planned to be released in 2024.
Link: https://twitter.com/motiontwin/status/1668982072797454338

* Geoff Keighley recently announced that this year's Summer Game Fest broke the record for largest ever event in SGF history and also confirmed that SGF will continue with the next event currently scheduled for June 2024.
Link: https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1668638357608628225

[Emperor Smeat]

Illumination studio is currently denying rumors and reports of them currently working on a new animated film based on Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a smash hit, leading it to become the second highest-grossing animated movie ever. After such success, making a The Legend of Zelda movie would seem like a logical next step.

A recent report claimed that Illumination, the studio behind the Mario movie, is already working with Nintendo to make an adaptation of the Zelda series. The rumor spread like Internet wildfire, but there’s one problem with this story. TheWrap talked with Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri to ask about a Zelda movie, and it looks like Link’s story isn’t on the table for the studio. Meledandri even adds that he has no idea where these rumors are coming from. Outside of blind guesses from fans, that is.

“I mean I can understand how people would surmise all sorts of things because obviously, we’ve had a great experience working together,” said Meledandri. “My relationship with Nintendo now includes being on their board of directors, so I understand how people can surmise these things. But in terms of the specifics, that was just something that I’ve been hearing lots of reports. This is just about what’s next between Nintendo and Illumination.”

Benjamin Renner, a director at Illumination currently working on Migration, also chimed in about the issue. He says that he sees “one report every week” of what their team is working on next, and this one just so happened to be Zelda.

Illumination, the studio behind other hits such as Sing and Despicable Me, has already fast-tracked a Mario sequel. That could prove to be a reason why a Zelda movie might not see the light of day just yet.
Link: https://www.thewrap.com/zelda-animated-movie-illumination-chris-meledandri/ , https://www.destructoid.com/illumination-boss-denies-report-of-zelda-movie/

[drave]

If Link doesn't say "Well excuuuuuuuuuse me princess!" - we riot....

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's news:
* Nintendo announced they will be airing a new Nintendo Direct episode tomorrow starting at 10AM EST. It was also announced that this upcoming episode will be around 40 minutes long and mostly focus on games being released this year for the Switch including Pikmin 4.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1671155958448529408

* EA announced that they will be realigning their studios into two EA-based brands with one being their existing EA Sports brand and the other being a new brand called EA Entertainment.
Electronic Arts has announced a shake-up within the publisher, realigning its internal efforts. EA studios are being split amongst two organizations: the existing EA Sports, and EA Entertainment.

EA Entertainment will look to encompass the publisher’s owned IP, as well as licensed IP production. “We’re building the future of interactive entertainment on a foundation of legendary franchises and innovative new experiences, which represents massive opportunities for growth,” wrote EA CEO Andrew Wilson in today’s announcement.

Laura Miele has been appointed as President of EA Entertainment, Technology & Central Development, working alongside leads like Vince Zampella, Samantha Ryan, and Jeff Karp.

EA Sports, meanwhile, will still head up the company’s sport efforts. Cam Weber is President of EA Sports. Both organizational branches will report to Wilson at the top.

Via IGN, this would put Respawn, DICE, Ripple Effect, Ridgeline Games, Full Circle, Motive Studio, EA Seattle, BioWare, and the Originals label, as well as mobile projects, under Entertainment. Sports would, meanwhile, look after Sports endeavors.
Link: https://www.ea.com/news/empowering-our-creative-leaders-to-drive-growth , https://www.destructoid.com/electronic-arts-internal-shift-studios-sports-entertainment-ea/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* 343 Industries announced that they will no longer release narrative cutscenes for the release of new seasons for Halo Infinite due to them wanting to shift those resources into adding more features and content and improving other aspects of the game.
Link: https://twitter.com/ske7ch/status/1670926893078691841

* A new amended "Players" class-action lawsuit was recently filed against Microsofy claiming that they have evidence that MS' attempted purchase of Activision Bliizard is solely to try to put Sony's Playstation brand out of business. This evidence revolves around an internal email claimed to be proof of an "uncontroverted evidence that Microsoft had the intention to put its main competition, the Sony PlayStation, out of the market." In a statement to Stehpen Totilo, a MS rep stated that this email dates back to 2019 and well before any offer was made to AB for a potential purchase. Totilo speculated that whatever anti-Playstation sentiments MS had at the time likely would be unrelated to their current plans and strategy for their potential AB purchase.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/player-lawsuit-claims-to-have-evidence-microsofts-activision-bid-is-designed-to-eliminate-playstation/ , https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1671304215006773257

* Some notable highlights from today's Nintendo Direct episode:
- A remake of classic SNES RPG game Super Mario RPG is currently in development and is currently planned to be released on November 17th.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5PJx7rlds
- Nintendo confirmed that the rumors of them currently working on a new 2D-based Mario game is true with their official announcement of Super Mario: Wonder for the Switch and a release date of October 20th.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JStAYvbeSHc
- A remake of classic PS1 RPG game Star Ocean 2 was confirmed to be currently in development for the Switch.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/star-ocean-2-remake-seemingly-leaked-on-square-enix-site/
- The upcoming Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1 collection set was confirmed to also include a release for the Switch to go along with the previously announced PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/a-fairly-big-metal-gear-solid-compilation-is-coming-to-switch/
- A new Princess Peach-based game was announced to be currently in development. This will be the first game starring Peach as the main character since Super Princess Peach in 2005.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/princess-peach-will-have-the-lead-role-in-another-title-next-year/

[Lock Jaw]

The Mario RPG remake looks like it might "lose some charm" with its "cutscenes". We shall see. (Not me, because I won't play it)

[road doggy dogg]

Super Mario RPG remake was sadly the highlight of the Direct today. As much as I friggin' love that game, it also still plays really well on the SNES Classic and I don't see any reason to drop $60 (or whatever they inevitably end up charging for it) when I could just as easily play it right now and probably get the same good experience

[Emperor Smeat]

Super Mario RPG and the Metal Gear Solid Vol 1 were the things I was interested the most from today's Nintendo Direct.

I don't have any of the current gen consoles so as long as the performance of the Switch port is good enough, I'm likely getting the MGS collection set.

Also the new Ganondorf amiibo since I'm close to hitting the 50 amiibos goal for my collection and that will definitely be one of them. I'm at 45 right now but technically 44 since the Dark Souls amiibo I have ended up being a bootleg fake one from AliExpress.

https://www.destructoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NintendoDirectJune2023_411.jpg

[Fignuts]

Yeah, dunno about the mario rpg remake. Looks so "plastic". Losing a lot of charm, as lockjaw said.

[drave]

Gonna play the eff out of it.

[Lock Jaw]

Plus it looks like Queen Valentina's boobs didn't jiggle wildly after getting hit. Terrible!

[drave]

Jiggle physics are trademarked to Dead or Alive only!

[Emperor Smeat]

Based on a recent Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board meeting, the earliest that E3 might come back could be 2026 assuming it ever comes back. During the meeting it was stated that E3 was cancelled for both 2024 and 2025.

In a statement to Axios’ Stephen Totilo, an ESA rep stated that they have not made any official decisions yet regarding potential plans for an E3 event next year.

Based on current speculation, if E3 were to return for 2024 it probably would not take place in LA and instead a different city.

With the summer showcases winding down here, we’ve just had another summer without E3. And according to a new source, E3’s potential return still seems very, very shaky.

As spotted on ResetEra, the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board held a regular meeting discussing tourism for the city. Among the slides in this presentation was one about convention sales, with a note mentioning “E3 cancellations for 2024 & 2025.”

A previous report had indicated prospective dates for E3 2024 and 2025, but no actual dates or plans had been announced. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz earlier this year, discussing the cancellation of E3 2023 and any future 2024 plans, ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said the company was committed to “providing an industry platform for marketing and convening”, but did not have any news to share at the time.

An ESA spokesperson told Axios’ Stephen Totilo that E3 2024 is still to be determined. The quote, via Totilo: “ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the events have been made at this time.”
Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/e3-2024-and-e3-2025-have-been-cancelled.733938/ , https://www.destructoid.com/e3-2024-and-2025-may-be-canceled-according-to-la-tourism-board/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Bethesda reportedly is still around 5 years away from finishing development on their upcoming Elder Scrolls G game, according to video game reporter Stephen Totilo. Totilo reported that Bethesda officials currently are not even sure what platform the game will be released for due to how far out its release is at the moment.
Link: https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1672314548995366935

* In even more potential bad Bethesda news, Bethesda recently announced that the Collector's edition of Starfield game will not include a game disc and instead just a download code for it. In a bit of a head scratcher, the standard edition of the game will include a physical disc though.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/starfield-collectors-edition-will-not-include-an-actual-disc/

* Based on a recent data mine, the current unannounced Metal Gear Solid Collection Vol. 2 is currently rumored to include Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This data mine hack came from a recent update for Vol. 1 that contained text data for a potential Vol. 2
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/metal-gear-solid-master-collection-vol-2-contents-seemingly-leaked/ , https://twitter.com/Nitroid/status/1671647361783721985

[Sepholio]

The first one is about Elder Scrolls 6 being 5+ years out, not Starfield. Had me scratching my head for a second like Starfield just got a 5 year delay lol

[Emperor Smeat]

My bad, mixed up the two games from skim reading today's news too fast from Destructoid.

[ClockShot]

It's becoming the norm with collectors editions. Which is sorta stupid.

Got the God of War: Ragnarok. Had a nice steelbook case, no disc. Just a download code for digital.

[drave]

Feel like the discs are just embedded with the same thing though. Instead of having to put in a code, it just reads it from the disc itself. The disc does some of the install, and it downloads the rest..... last time I bought a disc game anyway.




But for a collectors edition or $$$$$$ any edition, that's shenanigans.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Evo Championship Series announced that signups for competitors for Street Fighter VI for this year's upcoming EVO tournaments broke the records for most ever EVO tournament players in Street Fighter series history and most ever players for a specific EVO game tournament in EVO history. For some comparison, the previous SF record for an EVO tournament was over 5,000 players.
Link: https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1673466628636561408

* According to a report from IGN, Perfect Dark reboot is currently rumored to be at least 2 to 3 years away from a potential release. It was reported that the reason for the game currently being in development hell revolves around issues in 2019 between Microsoft's internal The Initiative studio and a third party studio named Certain Affinity that MS brought in to help with the game's development. This ended up having the opposite effect causing the game's development to slow down and issues with the direction of its development and serious behind-the-scenes issues that lead to a lot of people leaving the project. It was reported that this was the reason why MS ended up having Crystal Dynamics take over the project but causing the game's development to be delayed even more than what MS had originally expected.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/xboxs-perfect-dark-reboot-is-still-years-away , https://www.destructoid.com/perfect-dark-reboot-may-still-be-two-or-three-years-away/

* According to a report from Variety, CBS Eye Animation Productions recently partnered up with Innersloth studio for the production of a new animated television series based on Innersloth's Among Us game.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/among-us-animated-series-cbs-studios-owen-dennis-1235655516/

[Fignuts]

Does anybody actually give a shit about perfect dark? The whole appeal of the original was that it was a spiritual succesor to goldeneye.

Now its just another shooter.

[Lock Jaw]

It also wasn't very good as a Goldeneye successor

[Fignuts]

I think you're going to be in the minority on that one.

[Destor]

Here's a minority take: goldeneye was only good because you hadn't played doom

[Fignuts]

I feel like they're too different to compare.

[Lock Jaw]

I played Doom but was probably too young to appreciate it, but when Goldeneye came around I loved it.

[Lock Jaw]

I think you're going to be in the minority on that one.

Who is the majority to argue with noted video game expert Lock Jaw?

[road doggy dogg]

Goldeneye was great at the time because there weren't many cool/fun couch co-op FPS games at the time

[road doggy dogg]

or rather "local multiplayer"... w/e you wanna call it

[Emperor Smeat]

GoldenEye was special since it proved at the time you could have a PC-like quality FPS game on consoles. It was doing stuff with graphic effects and A.I. that wasn't really seen in console shooters or games before.

It wasn't even the 1st big 3D shooter on the N64 since Turok beat it by a few months but Turok didn't have multiplayer which was GoldenEye's big trump card and why it became a legendary game in the end.

[Sepholio]

Turok was the shiznite. Miss those games. Need a new one so I can shoot losers with a cerebral bore in 4k.

[Emperor Smeat]

Turok was both the first 3D platformer and 3D shooter I ever played. Since I never really one of those type of game a before, it took me a good month just to get used to platform jumping in 3D and beating the first level.

There was one jump around mid-way in the level that I could never land the timing properly and would always fall to my death and running out of lives in the process. Forgot how I managed to figure it out but it was never an issue afterwards.

That game also had a big monster that I told my little cousin whenever he'd be at my house to watch me play or play the game himself was called the giant meatball man which would be the proto-origin to my original Smelly Meatball name on TPWW.

[Sepholio]

lol nice, gonna randomly call you Giant Meatball Man from time to time now.

[Sepholio]

Just remembered how awesome it was to charge up and fire the chronoscepter for the first time haha

[Wehttam]

the two things that made me come back to perfect dark and play a bunch on n64: the farsight and different bots you could enter into multiplayer.

[Emperor Smeat]

Besides modernizing the controls for modern shooters gameplay style, the other really good thing the XBLA remake of Perfect Dark did was to get rid of the lingering blurry screen effect whenever you were punched or made dizzy.

That got really ridiculous at times with the N64 version and think it didn't reset if you died early into a dizzy state.

Although the XBLA remake did have its own questionable design choices with adding in a weird echo sound effect for some of the game's multiplayer maps.

[Savio]

Yeah the dizzy thing was the worst, surprised they left it in the originalIt also wasn't very good as a Goldeneye successor

Yeah this is 100% wrong.

[road doggy dogg]

the two things that made me come back to perfect dark and play a bunch on n64: the farsight and different bots you could enter into multiplayer.

hell yeah all my homies loved MeatSims

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* SEGA reportedly has dropped all of their plans related to blockchain and NFT gaming for the foreseeable future, according to Bloomberg. It was reported that SEGA will no longer be offering their biggest franchises to third party blockchain developers in order to not "devalue" their IPs. It was also reported that they are also currently reassessing its approach to their big-budget online multiplayer-focused "super games" involving Web3 tech that is currently planned to start arriving in 2026.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-06/sega-joins-blockchain-games-pullback-as-crypto-winter-persists , https://www.destructoid.com/sega-hits-the-brakes-on-its-blockchain-plans/

* IO Interactive recently announced that they will be opening a new studio in Brighton, England as a support-level studio for their upcoming Project 007 and Project Fantasy games and help with the development of their Hitman series.
Link: https://ioi.dk/careers/ioi-brighton

* In some somber news, the creative director of Beyond Good & Evil 2, Emile Morel, recently passed away at the age of 40. Prior to his passing, Morel had spent the past 14 years working at Ubisoft and among the notable games he worked on included being the senior designer of Rayman Legends. Morel also had taken over as the creative director of Beyond Good & Evil 2 earlier this year following the departure of several high level directors for the project.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/emile-morel-beyond-good-and-evil-2-creative-director-dies-suddenly-at-40 , https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ubisoft-montpellier_cest-avec-une-profonde-tristesse-que-nous-activity-7082727131201294336-I853/

* Nintendo recently sent an official warning telling people to stop blowing their Nintendo Switches and instead just "suck it out" in regards to issues with dust getting into the cartridge slot of the console. The company also warned to not use a cotton swab either due to how sensitive the terminal reader is for Switch carts and jamming anything in there could seriously damage it. Their solution is to use a vacuum cleaner if you needed to clean out any dirt or dust.
This is a story that hearkens back to the ye olden times of gaming. The official Nintendo customer service Twitter account is now warning people not to blow into their Switch console in any attempt to fix any issues. More specifically, it doesn’t want you to utilize your own spittle in order to clear out any dust that may be lurking in the cartridge slot.

A tweet from the company says the area in which you insert your Switch game “has a terminal” which is used to read the said game. It then goes on to say that one should not clean this area out with a cotton swab, nor should a cartridge that’s damaged be inserted, lest it corrupts the terminal inside the machine. This is accompanied by a simple diagram illustrating this faux pas.

Nintendo then strongly urges people to not blow into the cartridge slot, for similar reasons mentioned above (only with more saliva). Instead, Nintendo advises Switch users to use a vacuum cleaner if there is dust in the slot in order to “suck it out” instead.
Back in the day

For many of us, this practice of blowing into game consoles or their proprietary game cartridges is a tried and true method. It could be detrimental to the terminals, but millions of us were guilty of doing so (and getting away with it).

This pretty much goes back to the NES (and eventually the SNES) days, and is something that has struck plenty of older gamers for decades. Some of us are now adults with jobs and responsibilities, but plenty of us remember taking our game out of the console because it wasn’t working, blowing into the cartridge like some form of gaming mouth-to-mouth, and putting it back into the system. More often than not, it worked. But it really shouldn’t have.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-doesnt-want-you-blowing-into-your-switch-like-its-the-90s/ , https://twitter.com/nintendo_cs/status/1674252599451869184

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* EA confirmed the recent rumors of a new Black Panther game currently in development and a new studio called Cliffhanger Games as its developer. This new studio is located in Seattle, Washington and is lead by former Monolith Productions boss Kevin Stephens.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ea-reveals-black-panther-game-developed-by-new-studio/ , https://www.ea.com/news/meet-cliffhanger-games

* Elias Toufexis, current voice actor of Adam Jensen from the Deus Ex series recently revealed on Twitter that he might not be returning as the voice actor for a potential future Deus Ex game due to him currently being busy with several gaming projects. This new Deus Ex game is currently rumored to be development but in response to a fan question on Twitter, Toufexis stated that he not been contacted at all regarding work for this potential new game.
Link: https://twitter.com/EliasToufexis/status/1677776530758594561 , https://twitter.com/EliasToufexis/status/1677784138999549952 , https://www.destructoid.com/a-new-deus-ex-may-not-see-the-return-of-adam-jensen-voice-actor/

* According to IGN Japan, Sonic series co-creator Yuji Naka was recently given a suspended prison sentence for his conviction of insider trading charges against him related to his time in Square Enix. Naka was recently sentenced to 2.5 years in prison but will have his sentence suspended for four years before it goes into effect. Naka was also given two fines of $14,000 and $1.1 million as part of his sentence.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/sonic-co-creator-yuji-naka-given-suspended-prison-sentence-for-insider-trading

[ClockShot]

God I hope they don't move on from Adam Jensen in the Deus Ex series. But nice to know Elias Toufexis is keeping busy.

I was just thinking about it the other day we're just about due for a new entry.

[drave]

Initial injunction DENIED - things can move forward for now.




https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23779039/microsoft-activision-blizzard-ftc-trial-win

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Besides Microsoft's victory over the FTC, the UK's Competition and Market’s Authority also agreed to pause their litigation against MS over issues regarding MS' attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard for a new round of negotiations. Despite the loss, the FTC stated they will still continue to fight against MS's attempted purchase of AB.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23791149/microsoft-activision-blizzard-uk-regulators-cma-appeal , https://www.gamesindustry.biz/microsoft-allowed-to-complete-activision-blizzard-acquisition-in-the-us

* SEGA's U.S. employees recently voted to form a union with the next step being official recognition by the National Labor Relations Board. The final tally was 91 votes in favor of unionization to 26 votes against it. This new union will end up being the largest in the video gaming industry and cover Sega of America’s Irvine, California branch. In an interesting note, Sega of America could have potentially avoided this whole thing had they just given their employees a 30% pay raise like Sega of Japan did for their employees earlier this year.
Link: https://twitter.com/takesAEGIS/status/1678481056520101889 , https://www.destructoid.com/sega-of-america-employees-win-union-vote/

* Niantic, developer of Pokemon Go, is currently facing a lawsuit filed by a former female employee accusing the company of purposely underpaying their female employees and creating a toxic "Boys Club" work environment.
According to reports, the lawsuit was filed by an ex-employee who started working at the studio with a starting salary of $70, 000. Even after receiving a promotion, she learned that a male employee with a lower position was being paid more than her. By Spring 2023, her salary was $115, 000 but she was still being paid less than her male colleague. The situation was worsened when Niantic posted the pay range for her job title and level, and she learned that she was being paid $10, 000 less than the bottom range for her job.

It is alleged that when she brought her complaints to Niantic’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Director and Principal People Partner, she was met with hostility toward her “concerns about sexism or sexual bias in the workplace”. The lawsuit also claims that executives stated that she was given lower pay because she had voiced her concerns to colleagues.

It appears that this experience isn’t exclusive to the unnamed ex-employee. A survey was conducted by Wolfpack, which is Niantic’s resource group for women, and it revealed that many female employees believed that Niantic has “a sexist work culture that disadvantages female employees”.

The lawsuit has many aims. It seeks to ensure that sexist complaints from women are taken seriously and acted upon. It also aims to acquire monetary compensation and remedy the Boys Club fostered by Niantic. This involves ending the practices of paying women less than their male counterparts and “creating, encouraging, and maintaining a work environment that exposes its female employees to discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.”
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/7/23787809/niantic-lawsuit-systemic-sexual-bias-pay-disparity , https://www.destructoid.com/new-lawsuit-accuses-pokemon-go-studio-niantic-of-creating-a-boys-club-culture/

[Sepholio]

Well the FTC has super easy grounds for an appeal of the decision (or whatever their next move is if not an appeal here). The judge's son works for Microsoft. Clear conflict of interest. Should have recused herself when that came up in the initial hearings a couple weeks ago but refused to do so.

[Sepholio]

Fwiw, her logic for why her sons employment didn't matter was that he doesn't work in the Xbox division. Seems like a dumb line of thinking though considering if Xbox benefits from the deal that it will make the company more valuable across the board.

[Emperor Smeat]

On the flip side, the judge also pointed out how flawed the FTC was with their handling of their lawsuit by telling them they don't work for Sony over how heavily pro-Sony their arguments were instead of being pro-consumers.

For FTC to be successful with an appeal, they'd need to rethink and rework a lot of their arguments and handling of it.

The CMA's case against MS was a lot more tighter since they were not doing what the FTC was doing when it came to blocking MS's deal and looked at it from a pro-consumer standpoint and not a pro-Sony or others standpoint.

[Sepholio]

FTC has appealed, as expected.

[ClockShot]

Microsoft & Sony have cut a deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation if/after the Activision-Blizzard sale goes through.

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-has-signed-a-binding-agreement-to-keep-call-of-duty-on-playstation-after-its-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard

[Tom Guycott]

Why does it seem like that is actually a loss for Sony?

I mean, really: that was their major argument against Microsoft. If you have the rival company put pen to paper to legally bind something they already promised to begin with, didn't you just shoot yourself in the foot?

Seems more like something is telling them this legal business isn't going to stand up, and they want to guarantee it isn't going to backfire by MS turning petty afterwards... again, a thing Sony would totally do themselves if all this were running in the opposite direction.

[drave]

It'll all be a nothingburger at the end of the day.


You bet your ass after the 10 year agreement is up, they will make COD a "timed exclusive" the way Sony already does CoD and Destiny (at one point, unsure if this is still a thing).


As an Xbox console owner, I cannot play Final Fantasy XVI until after 12/31/23 - but that's okay. I don't understand the fuss tbh.

[Emperor Smeat]

Why does it seem like that is actually a loss for Sony?

I mean, really: that was their major argument against Microsoft. If you have the rival company put pen to paper to legally bind something they already promised to begin with, didn't you just shoot yourself in the foot?

Seems more like something is telling them this legal business isn't going to stand up, and they want to guarantee it isn't going to backfire by MS turning petty afterwards... again, a thing Sony would totally do themselves if all this were running in the opposite direction.

Its because Sony has been way too focus towards Call of Duty and not also towards everything else Activision & Blizzard has for games and IPs since right now CoD is a major cash cow for Sony's PSN.

If CoD ends up having another downturn period or goes to the wayside in the future, it won't hurt MS as much as it will Sony since MS' still gets to dip in AB's IPs catalog and as exclusive releases while Sony doesn't have that same privilege.

The funny thing, the biggest winner out of this whole legal mess and bickering has been Nintendo since they got the CoD series back on their consoles without having to lift a finger and since MS doesn't have any real bad blood with them unlike with Sony, it opens the door to MS being even more friendlier when it comes to the next Smash Bros game and getting a Halo or Crash rep for it.

Nintendo even got an easy win over the FIFA & EA feud since EA already promised to put their new non-FIFA game onto the Switch and not as some sort of lazy "Legacy" edition situation.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* The Last of Us series composer Gustavo Santaolalla recently teased that Naughty Dog is currently working on a new version of The Last of Us: Part 2. In a recent interview with BLENDER, Santaolalla accidentally revealed that this game is currently in development when talking about his cameo character in the original Last of Us Part 2 game.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/gustavo-santaolalla-accidently-leaked-a-new-version-of-the-last-of-us-part-ii.741999/ , https://www.destructoid.com/the-last-of-us-part-2-composer-hints-at-a-new-edition-of-the-game/

* As part of the recent FTC vs. Microsoft court case that was decided in favor of MS, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart had stated in a testimony that MS was predicting about 10 million in sales for Starfield and the upcoming new Indiana Jones games on Playstation platforms before they made the decision for both to be exclusive to Xbox platforms instead. Stuart had also stated that MS made that decision due to them feeling they can recoup those lost sales costs via Game Pass and extra Xbox consoles sold because of those two games.
Link: https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1679307950706372611 , https://www.destructoid.com/starfield-and-indiana-jones-would-shift-10-million-copies-on-playstation-says-microsoft/

* Microsoft recently revealed a new version of their Xbox Game Pass called Xbox Game Pass Core which is meant to be a replacement for their Xbox Live Gold subscription service and is currently scheduled to launch this September. It was also announced that those with active Xbox Live Gold accounts will automatically be changed into Game Pass Core accounts once this new service launches.
And just like that, change is upon us. Microsoft unveiled their new Xbox Game Pass Core today, which will replace Xbox Live Gold in September.

The new service will provide access to more than 25 games, intended to replace the old Games with Gold. Microsoft intends to add new games two to three times per year. Players who received Xbox One games through Games with Gold can still access those games as long as they remain a Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate member. All Xbox 360 titles redeemed through Games with Gold will remain in your library even if you do not subscribe to Game Pass.

Like Xbox Live Gold, the new Game Pass Core will also be required for online multiplayer. There will also be specific deals and discounts exclusive to those subscribed to the service. Game Pass Core will be $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Existing Xbox Live Gold subscriptions will automatically change to Game Pass Core.
Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/07/17/xbox-game-pass-core/ , https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-reveals-xbox-game-pass-core-to-replace-xbox-live-gold/

[Tom Guycott]

It'll all be a nothingburger at the end of the day.


You bet your ass after the 10 year agreement is up, they will make COD a "timed exclusive" the way Sony already does CoD and Destiny (at one point, unsure if this is still a thing).


As an Xbox console owner, I cannot play Final Fantasy XVI until after 12/31/23 - but that's okay. I don't understand the fuss tbh.

Its because Sony has been way too focus towards Call of Duty and not also towards everything else Activision & Blizzard has for games and IPs since right now CoD is a major cash cow for Sony's PSN.

If CoD ends up having another downturn period or goes to the wayside in the future, it won't hurt MS as much as it will Sony since MS' still gets to dip in AB's IPs catalog and as exclusive releases while Sony doesn't have that same privilege.

The funny thing, the biggest winner out of this whole legal mess and bickering has been Nintendo since they got the CoD series back on their consoles without having to lift a finger and since MS doesn't have any real bad blood with them unlike with Sony, it opens the door to MS being even more friendlier when it comes to the next Smash Bros game and getting a Halo or Crash rep for it.

Nintendo even got an easy win over the FIFA & EA feud since EA already promised to put their new non-FIFA game onto the Switch and not as some sort of lazy "Legacy" edition situation.

Look, I get the concern over "timed exclusivity", and that generally you can't much trust executive speak, but the rationale was already given that restricting CoD "would be stupid" because they'd be cutting their own nuts with the profit margin losses that would be suffered by excluding over half the sales on launch day. Even if the game isn't on their console, they still get a massive cut, meaning they still win, so who cares?

And again, it's Sony doing all the bitching: the same place who wilfully tries to gather every actual console exclusive they can, nevermind timed exclusives. Same company doing the majority of cross platform play stonewalling.

Methinks thou doth protest too much.

[Tom Guycott]

As part of the recent FTC vs. Microsoft court case that was decided in favor of MS, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart had stated in a testimony that MS was predicting about 10 million in sales for Starfield and the upcoming new Indiana Jones games on Playstation platforms before they made the decision for both to be exclusive to Xbox platforms instead. Stuart had also stated that MS made that decision due to them feeling they can recoup those lost sales costs via Game Pass and extra Xbox consoles sold because of those two games.




Case in point: this sounds like a "You know what, Sony? Fuck you because of the lawsuit!" move. By trying to prevent a thing, they ensured it would happen elsewhere. Microsoft'd still lose too much potiential revenue by not simultaneously launching the Call of Duty cash cow, but walling off an unproven Bethesda IP and a movie tie-in is acceptable enough level of petty vengeance.

[Sepholio]

Look, I get the concern over "timed exclusivity", and that generally you can't much trust executive speak, but the rationale was already given that restricting CoD "would be stupid" because they'd be cutting their own nuts with the profit margin losses that would be suffered by excluding over half the sales on launch day. Even if the game isn't on their console, they still get a massive cut, meaning they still win, so who cares?[/I]

Ok so using that logic explain why they've made all Bethesda games exclusive? Sony has a larger share of the hardware market, so they are most likely cutting off more than half of their sales. Why would they do that? Why does that rationale suddenly apply to Activision/COD and not to anything else?

[Sepholio]

like they are throwing away a predicted 10 million in sales for Starfield on PS5 for....absolutely zero sales of it on Xbox because it'll be on Gamepass. Why would they throw that money away?

[Sepholio]

And like clockwork a letter from the head of Bethesda to ole spencer and co is expressing a bit of frustration and confusion about why they were stopped from making multiplat games lol

[drave]

Thought that was reported on a month ago in an e-mail chain from 2022? Or is this something totally new?

[Sepholio]

It might be the same thing, not sure. The way the report I saw read was as if it was a new one though.

[Sepholio]

Yea it seems it probably the same one actually. IGN trying to pass it off as new news.

[Sepholio]

Here's another weird IGN report this morning: Microsoft trying to extend the deadline today so that Activision isn't wooed by another buyer. Who else was/is even in the market for them?

[drave]

Extend? I think there was some hubub about the date the legal processes have to finish. I cannot remember all the info, but something like the judgment giving them "exactly" the time needed to close things up legally, but only if there weren't any further issues//delays.


See if I can find that story again.

[drave]

FTC withdrew their case to block the merger.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/us-ftc-official-withdraws-case-against-microsoft-activision-deal-before-internal-agency-judge/ar-AA1e8T4T?OCID=ansmsnnews11

[drave]

Antstream, a decent arcade subscription service, has arrived on XBox.


Here's a complete list of the 1,470 ORIGINAL arcade games they have. Highlights such as:


Bad Dudes
Gauntlet
Double Dragon
Spy Hunter




tons and tons more, I'm sure you can find your own.


https://www.antstream.com/games

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* ESRB recently responded to the online criticisms over a recent application they filed with digital identity firm Yoti to the FTC in regards to a new potential Facial Age Estimation App for phones that would be used to verify that children do not buy age-restricted games. In an email sent to IGN, the ESRB clarified their application for this potential new app stating "First and foremost, this application is not to authorize the use of this technology with children. Full stop. Nor does this software take and store ‘selfies’ of users or attempt to confirm the identity of users. Furthermore, this application makes no mention of using age estimation to prevent children from purchasing and/or downloading restrictively rated video games, nor do we intend to recommend its use in that way." The ESRB also claimed that this would only be used with parental consent and also claimed this is not a facial recognition system since the photos are not stored and does not work the same way as those systems nor would these scans be used for AI training or shared with anyone.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/esrb-facial-age-recognition-tech-response

* CD Projekt RED is currently in the process of laying off around 9% of its total work staff which is around 100 people in total as part of a larger restructuring and change in developmental process for the company.
Link: https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/media/news/cd-projekt-red-organizational-update/ , https://www.destructoid.com/cd-projekt-red-is-laying-off-roughly-nine-percent-of-its-staff/

* VGC and Kotaku reported that their sources stated that Ubisoft recently cancelled all development for a sequel to Immortals Fenix Rising. It was reported that this project had been in early development at Ubisoft Quebec studio before Ubisoft's management pulled the plug on it.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sources-ubisoft-has-cancelled-its-immortals-fenyx-rising-sequel/ , https://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-red-immortals-fenyx-rising-sequel-1850677731

* In a potential interesting Did You Know Gaming type fact, Half-Life 3D artist Gordon Freeman revealed in a recent interview with TheGamer that the inspiration for the notable/iconic old white haired and mustache man scientist in the game was not based on Albert Einstein but instead George Washington. Jones also revealed that the iconic G-Man was based on the Cigarette Man from the X-Files.
For example, there’s been some curiosity over the inspiration for some of Half-Life‘s NPCs, specifically the scientists who aid Freeman. One that typically sticks out is the older physicist with the mustache and white, “mad scientist” hairstyle.

Naturally, many people assumed this Half-Life character was based off Albert Einstein. They’re both somewhat into science, after all, so it made sense. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

In a report from TheGamer, it turns out that the labcoat-wearing NPC with the white ‘do was not inspired by the world’s most famous scientist.

According to Chuck Jones, the 3D artist who designed Gordon Freeman, this particular character was actually based off George Washington. “The one you mentioned that looked like Einstein? I think I got the inspiration from George Washington (weird haircut)—not sure why,” Jones told TheGamer.

Additionally, G-Man—the mysterious government agent who follows the player throughout the facility—was inspired by the Cigarette Man from X-Files. The show was at its most popular back in the ’90s, so it’s not surprising that it would come under Valve and Half-Life‘s radar.
https://www.destructoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/half-life-einstein.jpeg?resize=640%2C360
Link: https://www.thegamer.com/half-life-chuck-jones-interview-einstein-scientist-president-george-washington/ , https://www.destructoid.com/one-of-half-lifes-most-famous-scientists-isnt-based-on-einstein-after-all/

[ClockShot]

Oh man. Just keeps getting worse for Ubisoft.

[Emperor Smeat]

According to a report from the VGC, Nintendo is currently expected to release the successor for the Switch in the second half of 2024.

Several of Nintendo's key partners and studios reportedly already have dev kits for this new console that will retain the hybrid console & portable model like the Switch and will also feature a LCD screen instead of an OLED screen to help keep costs down.

Also similar to the Switch, this new console will also contain a cartridge slot but it is currently not known if this means the new console will be backwards compatible with the Switch.

It looks like the follow-up to the Nintendo Switch is almost here. According to a new report from VGC, the successor to the Switch is likely to release in the second half of 2024.

In the report, several key partners to Nintendo have claimed to have received development kits for the new console. Development kits for consoles are typically sent out well before the retail release so developers learn the new hardware and ensure some titles are ready to launch on the new platform.

The sources went on to share some alleged details on the new system. Like the Nintendo Switch, the next-gen console will have portable mode. Furthermore, the console will launch with an LCD screen rather than an OLED screen to reduce costs.

Those worried about the digital revolution need not worry as, allegedly, the new console will also accept physical games via a cartridge slot.

No word on backward compatibility support

Unfortunately, there has been no indication if the new console will have backward compatibility support with the Nintendo Switch. With over 100 million Switch units sold, backward compatibility support is going to be a huge deal. Nintendo will look to convert as many Switch owners as it can, and backward compatibility will certainly make that easier. However, adding a chip to enable such compatibility can further increase the cost of the system, which Nintendo may be trying to avoid in order to keep the price down.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sources-nintendo-switch-2-targets-2024-with-next-gen-console/ , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-switch-successor-reportedly-planned-for-2024/

[OssMan]

I know they don't want to make it backwards compatible so that people will have to buy their games again, but I feel like plenty of people just won't buy it if they can't play the games they own on it.

[ClockShot]

What bothers me is that they came out with the OLED Switch.

One would think that's a step in the right direction with the next Nintendo console coming along.

Instead, they're going the LCD route. So, why even bother creating an OLED switch in the first place?

[Emperor Smeat]

In a recent investor's meeting, Square Enix stated that the recently released Final Fantasy XVI game has not met their high-end sales expectations.

Main reason is due to the huge sums of money they spent developing the game that they had expected would have been very quickly recouped. Some of the blame was also put on their year-to-year net sales decline in their MMOs division and also the PS5 since they were expecting a higher PS5 userbase by now and game sales from that platform when they made the decision to release the game only for that console.

There was also some confusion regarding some translation-related issues from Bloomberg over what Square Enix's President Takashi Kiryu had stated with some people and gaming websites being under the assumption that the game failed to hit SE's general sales expectations for it.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-07/square-enix-drops-15-after-final-fantasy-and-mobile-setback , https://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-16-failed-to-meet-square-enixs-expectations/

[ClockShot]

It's a good game. There was some chatter going around that some DLC might get cooked up since there was a few things that went unresolved.

[Emperor Smeat]

Microsoft recently slashed the length of their $1 deal for a trial of their Game Pass service from being one month long to now just being 2 weeks long.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Microsoft has nerfed its $1 Game Pass trial again.<br><br>It's now for just 14 days instead of a full month. <br><br>The change happened sometime in the last week. <a href="https://t.co/oAfQrRRBBH">https://t.co/oAfQrRRBBH</a> <a href="https://t.co/g2MmVypThH">pic.twitter.com/g2MmVypThH</a></p>&mdash; AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) <a href="https://twitter.com/ethangach/status/1688888019141500929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[drave]

meh... not news

[Emperor Smeat]

Guess the forum didn't save the edit I made to that news post right after since its missing the stuff about the speculation that MS only did that trial slash due to Starfield being released soon and them not wanting to give away the game for practically $1 or have people plow through as much of the game as possible in a month for a $1 either.

Now onto Today's News:
* Nintendo recently released a plushie toy of Wiglett for sale at their official Pokemon Center Stores and that Pokemon ended up looking a lot more like a dick than before. For those wondering, the plushie is 10.25 inches long which is 2x above average dong size.
Link: https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-wiglett-plushy-suspicious/

* The Associated Press reported that the writer of the Metro 2023 novel series, Dmitry Glukhovsky, was recently sentenced by a Moscow court to 8 years in prison for criticizing the Russian Army's actions and alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Making matters worse for Glukhovsky was that the Russian government had labeled him as a "foreign agent" last year due to his criticisms of President Vladmir Putin and the Kremlin. Glukhovsky was convicted under a law that was passed last year that made it a crime to spread "fake news" about the Russian military, which basically included any criticisms of it during its on-going invasion of Ukraine.
Link: https://apnews.com/article/russia-crackdown-navalny-court-dmitry-glukhovsky-4d35046224f7f0f2cba076bb1544fe4a , https://www.destructoid.com/metro-2033-author-russia-ruling-prison-discrediting-news/

* THQ Nordic confirmed reports of a game based on the TNMT The Last Ronin comic series currently being in development and released the debut trailer for the game as part of today's THQ Nordic Digital Showcase stream. The game was announced to be arriving for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S but no other details were given.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nx2ixJFWXcg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* The Japanese Cabinet Office recently announced that the country generated a 2.8% increase in GDP for the past fiscal quarter (April to June) compared to the previous fiscal quarter. The government also stated that they currently believe that the massive sales of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Capcom’s Street Fighter V, and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI were the main contributors for this growth. In regards to Tears of the Kingdom, MyNintendo reported that a lot of people on social media had mentioned that they took a holiday day off from work on the day of the game's release to play it.
Link: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/08/16/japan-huge-sales-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-could-be-what-upheld-japans-gdp-increase/

* Famous film director Guillermo del Toro recently reached out to Konami on Twitter to gauge their interest in a potential revival of horror game P.T. following last week being the 9 year anniversary of the game's development being canceled.
Link: https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1690528967802167296

[Emperor Smeat]

Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet will be stepping down as the voice actor of Mario but will still work as an ambassador for the company.

No official reason for the decision was given. Prior to the announcement, Martinet had been the iconic voice of Mario since 1994.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look. <a href="https://t.co/U1ASicOuTO">pic.twitter.com/U1ASicOuTO</a></p>&mdash; Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) <a href="https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1693624002982314108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Sepholio]

MS has waived it's "feature parity" requirement for Series X/S in regards to Baldur's Gate 3. Game will arrive later this year with split screen co-op on X, and without it on S.

Hope this leads to them reversing this policy in it's entirety.

[drave]

It'll probably depend on how well BG3 does on X/S - which I have zero doubt it will be a wild success.


Then, they can have "data" that shows players will still buy stuff if they want it, regardless of the parity "requirements" they set forth. I get why they did it, but surely they had to see something like this coming....

[Sepholio]

I mean if some of the stuff I've read about how 3/4 of the Series install base is the S model, it may be a hard sell to get them to remove the parity requirement. They'd be punishing most of their users after specifically saying that this wasn't going to be an issue.

It's crazy how far behind in sales they are in general. PS5 has already sold like 70% of the total sales of the Xbox One generation. It's sold over 50% of Xbox One, Series S and Series X COMBINED. That's just wild.

[drave]

Brand recognition and a MUCH better PR team I think.

I'm not loyal to one camp or the other, but my experience on Xbox, since 360 has outperformed Playstation at every level, for me. They've always been "ahead" a bit in terms of the "behind the scenes" stuff (game streaming, disc-less systems, etc.). Initially, they were shit on for it, and deservedly so.

If I had the expendable cash, I'd have a PS5 too. There are a few titles I'd like to play, but shelling out the $$$ to do that isn't worth it.

[Sepholio]

I'm in the other camp. I've had every system from both other than the OG Xbox, and Playstation has killed them every generation, with the only close one being the 360. But the reality is that now there is absolutely zero reason for me to own a Series X, even though I got one anyways, because I have a PC. There is nothing on the X that I cant access elsewhere and run better.

In terms of pure hardware comparisons, PS3 killed 360 across the board. Superior power and performance and a blu-ray player. Not to mention the god awful prevalence of the RRoD. Xbox One was more powerful than PS4, but the advantage translated to jack shit because PS4 ended up with games that looked and played better than anything on Xbox One even with the lesser power they had to do it. Xbox Series X is again more powerful, and again, what do they have to show for it? Nothing. The only real win for Xbox imo is their online service/gamepass. It is clearly the better service and has been, and they should be proud of that. But I don't need their console to access that so what's the point?

I keep getting these Xboxes and in the end they collect more dust than any other electronic device in my house. I have 3 kids and between them they might touch the Series X once every month or 2. They have no interest in it, even with gamepass. Every one of them would take a playstation or a switch over the Xbox every single time. And I'm just over here playing anything Xbox releases on my PC with superior performance to the console versions. If they continue with the requirement that all their games release on Windows as well into the next gen then I've already bought my last xbox console. I'm not going to buy another 4-500 dollar paperweight.

[Sepholio]

You know why the 360 was the close one? Because it actually had games. Something that's apparently been forgotten about over the last 2 generations.

[drave]

Mmhmm, none of that stuff is lost on me at all. Younger me would 100p go get one right damn now, but nah.

The situation with your Xboxes is the same in our home, but with their Switches. They wanted one sooooooo bad, we got them their own customized ones, and they are not used at all.

We could have sold them, and they would have never even known :|

[Fignuts]

I think the backlash from the DDRM bullshit scared away a lot of studios, and xbox has never fully recovered from it.

[Emperor Smeat]

Plus Don Mattrick being the worst boss in Xbox division history.

MS lost soo much momentum when they started to pivot away on what made the Xbox 360 a mega success in favor of Kinect. Add in their mishandling of Rare and losing Call of Duty exclusivity and that gave Sony the boost they needed for the surge in PS3 sales during the latter half of that gen and start of the PS4 era.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Epic Games recently made a major change to the way their Epic Games Store operates for developers and publishers. This new change involves Epic now offering developers 100% of revenues generated for their games on EGS in return for signing a six-month exclusivity deal for their games on PC. After those six months, the deal will then revert back to the current split of 88% for developers and the rest for Epic for game sales on their store. The deal also only covers games that have not been already released on other digital storefronts on PC.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/epic-games-store-is-offering-developers-100-of-revenue-for-six-months-of-exclusivity/

* Kotaku reported that a man was recently arrested over theft charges that may or may not be related to him being a notorious leaker of footage of Starfield ahead of its release. The charges may or may not also be released to how this person was able to get his hands on multiple copies of Starfield ahead of its release and had tried to sell them at online store Mercari to prove his authenticity as the leaker. Besides gameplay videos, this person also posted videos of themself commenting about Bethsesda's legal efforts to shut down his videos and him holding copies of the game to prove he had them available for sale.
Link: https://kotaku.com/starfield-leak-felony-constellation-edition-play-early-1850773855 , https://www.destructoid.com/starfield-leaker-arrested-video/

* Bioware announced that they recently laid off around 50 employees as part of their current restructuring plans to make them a "more agile and more focused studio." It was also announced that those laid off will be given the ability to find other jobs internally in the studio and at other EA-owned studios if possible.
Link: https://blog.bioware.com/2023/08/23/an-update-on-the-state-of-bioware/

* As part of Microsoft's efforts to appease the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) government body, MS had restructured their deal with Activision Blizziard in regards to cloud gaming. This new revision will now see Ubisoft running AB games from their own cloud-based service and in return will get a one-time payment from Ubisoft to compensate MS for the cloud streaming rights to AB games. The idea being that this would limit MS's ability to monopolize cloud stream gaming to alleviate this being the biggest fearand obstruction that the CMA had over purchase attempt of AB.
Link: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2023/08/21/microsoft-activision-restructure-acquisition/ , https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-activision-blizzard-restructures-cloud-deal-cma-concerns/

[drave]

* As part of Microsoft's efforts to appease the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) government body, MS had restructured their deal with Activision Blizziard in regards to cloud gaming. This new revision will now see Ubisoft running AB games from their own cloud-based service and in return will get a one-time payment from Ubisoft to compensate MS for the cloud streaming rights to AB games. The idea being that this would limit MS's ability to monopolize cloud stream gaming to alleviate this being the biggest fear and obstruction that the CMA had over purchase attempt of AB.


Lol, yet again the government sorely lacking in understanding of technology and "the cloud". Also feel like this is a play to get more eyes on Ubisoft +. IMO Ubisoft + is just another ploy to get someone like Microsoft to buy up their service, just like EA Access. Looks like it is slowly transforming into just that.


MS: Yo, can you just host this stuff for a while so people don't freak out?
Ubi: Sure.


After the agreement:


MS: Yo, you did great. We're gonna buy your shit and add it to Gamepass like EA.
Ubi: squeeeeeeeeeee



Microsoft's cloud gaming platform is very solid though. I don't think cloud gaming is "there" yet, but it will be in the next generation or two, easily.

[ClockShot]

Sony jacking up the price of PlayStation plus across all tiers.

Renew before September 6th or your wallet is gonna take a hit.

[drave]

Daaaaaamn... a 30ish% increase with no additional offerings??




That's fucked.

[Emperor Smeat]

Volition Games, developer of the Saints Row and Red Faction series, recently announced on LinkedIn that they are shutting down.

Official reason due to their parent company Embracer Group's current restructuring process since this past June that they had confirmed would include some of their studios being shut down as a result.

Volition Games is shutting down. The studio behind games like Saints Row, Summoner, Red Faction, and more is being shuttered by parent company Embracer Group.

In a statement shared on LinkedIn, the studio announced the news. This past June, Embracer announced its restructuring plan, in which it confirmed there would be studio closures.

“As part of that program, [Embracer] evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately,” reads Volition’s statement.

Volition also confirms that it’s working with the team to provide job assistance and “help smooth the transition” for Volition members. “We thank our customers and fans around the world for all the love and support over the years,” the studio says. “You will always be in our hearts" ...

Volition hit some rocky waters with its 2022 version of Saints Row, which garnered some mixed reception. It, like many other studios, was vacuumed up by Embracer Group. It’s a disheartening thing to see, especially as the news slowly broke this morning from employees laid off and out of work amidst the studio’s closure.

Embracer’s restructuring is set to happen in phases through to March 2024, and will “include, but not be limited to, closing or divestments of some studios and the termination or pausing of some ongoing game development projects,” Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said at the time.

For reference, the Embracer Group also has Gearbox, Crystal Dynamics, THQ Nordic, Plaion, Asmodee, and Saber under its umbrella.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/embracer-group-is-closing-down-volition-games/ , https://www.linkedin.com/posts/volition_an-update-from-volition-activity-7103051392797351936-hkgT/

[Fignuts]

Embracer group quickly turning into the new EA.

[Emperor Smeat]

Jeff Grubb mentioned on today's Giantbomb Bombcast that Embracer's whole strategy when it came to gobbling up a ton of studios and IPs pretty much revolved around them getting a huge sack of money from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

That would have then set them for life since the idea being that would have led to additional investments from others into the company to flush them with a ton of money.

Problem is they started spending a ton of money they didn't have over that assumption and when the Saudi deal fell apart, that caused other investors to also pull out and screwed their finances to such a point that Grubb thinks they won't be lasting that much longer as a big publisher or even as a company.

Grubb also mentioned that they've had some really good to great selling games over the past couple years but the money coming in was nowhere close to digging themselves out of that deep money pit devastating the company.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's news:
* Nintendo released an official video featuring Shigeru Miyamoto and now former Mario voice actor Charles Martinet discussing the new mystery voice actor for Mario going forward and Martinet clarifying what Nintendo meant by moving him to a Mario Ambassador role in the company.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1699784766932029753

* In a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology, Xbox boss Phil Spencer gave a mostly no answer in regards to if Bethesda's upcoming Elder Scrolls 6 game will be Xbox exclusive or if it will be multi-platform. Spencer stated that this would be a "case-by-case basis" for any decision and future games made by Bethesda would be "available in many different places" although he only specifically mentioned Xbox, PC, and cloud services.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergTechnology , https://www.destructoid.com/phil-spencer-asked-about-elder-scrolls-6-exclusivity-gives-vague-response/

* Eurogamer reported that their sources stated that Nintendo showed off tech demos for the successor of their Switch behind closed doors to developers at this past August's Gamescom 2023 convention in Cologne, Germany. In regards to a potential release date, it was also reported that those spoken to stated that Nintendo is still leaning towards a second half 2024 date for the Switch 2's launch.
It sounds like a new successor to the Switch could be approaching. New reports out of Gamescom 2023 say Nintendo showed off Switch 2 tech demos to developers behind closed doors.

Eurogamer reports these presentations took place to show off the technical specs of a potential Switch successor, or “Switch 2” as we’ll call it. In its own reporting of the news, VGC corroborates with its sources.

Per Eurogamer, the developer presentations were shown tech demos. One included a souped-up The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. VGC’s source also claims Nintendo showcased Epic’s The Matrix Awakens tech demo for Unreal Engine 5, reportedly utilizing Nvidia DLSS upscaling.

Nintendo has not formally announced any plan for a new Switch successor. Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser recently spoke to IGN, saying he’s “stopped counting years” when it comes to the Switch’s ongoing life cycle. And Nintendo did not comment on Eurogamer’s report.

Even with the radio silence, though, Switch 2 rumors are brewing. A previous report pointed towards a launch in the second half of 2024. Eurogamer says this lines up with what it previously heard, though Nintendo may be keen to launch sooner.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-demoed-switch-2-to-developers-at-gamescom , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-reportedly-demoed-switch-2-for-developers-at-gamescom-2023/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* According to Reuters, Embracer Group is currently considering selling off Gearbox Entertainment as part of the company's current restructuring process. It was reported that Embracer is pushing forward with the idea after getting some interest from several third party groups for Gearbox.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/swedens-embracer-weighs-options-borderlands-maker-gearbox-entertainment-sources-2023-09-11/

* Nintendo is currently rumored again to be working with Universal Studios on the production of a live action Legend of Zelda film.
Link: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/09/10/leaker-claims-live-action-zelda-movie-in-production-between-nintendo-universal/

* Based on a recent patent filing, Nintendo is currently rumored to be working on new joystick tech that would resolve stick drift issues. This new tech doesn't rely on existing tech that had led to stick drift becoming a growing issue in gaming since at least the Xbox One/PS4 era. Its currently not known if this new tech would be featured in Nintendo's Switch 2 console or for a future console instead. It is also currently rumored that this new patent might not be related to resolving stick drift and instead would be for something similar to adaptive triggers like with the PS5's DualSense controller.

A new Nintendo controller patent appears to include magnetic analogue sticks, which some have suggested raises hopes the company’s next generation console won’t suffer the drift issues that have plagued the Switch.

Video game accessibility consultant Laura Kate Dale linked to the patent in a post on X, saying that if this patent relates to the controller for the rumoured Switch 2 console, “this should end analogue stick drift issues next-gen.”

Nintendo filed the patent with the United States Patent Office in May, but was only published on September 7. It describes the inner workings of an analog stick that uses a magnetic field to communicate movement, aka a Hall Effect joystick.

This is different to the tech seen inside a Switch’s Joy-Con, which uses plastic circuit boards that can show significant wear on the joystick slider contact points. Joy-Con “drift” is perhaps the biggest fault-related issue with the Nintendo Switch. In 2022, a report from UK consumer group Which claimed that, even after just a few months of use, the Joy-Con's plastic circuit boards show significant wear on the joystick slider contact points. This causes Joy-Con drift, an issue Nintendo hasn't been able to fully address in the console's six years on the market.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-controller-patent-raises-hopes-switch-2-will-avoid-drift-issues

[ClockShot]

Gearbox wouldn't be a bad addition to either Sony or Microsoft's studios.

But Embracer is probably asking for a ton of cash.

[Fignuts]

I haven't bought a first party controller in years due to the stick drift issues. The cheap wired ones get it too, but at least I'm only paying 20-30 to replace it instead of 60-70.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Both Nintendo and Sony will be holding a new Nintendo Direct and State of Play episodes tomorrow. In regards to Nintendo, their upcoming episode will be focusing on Switch games releasing this winter and will be around 40 minutes in length. In regards to Sony, their upcoming episode will be focusing on previously announced games for PS5 and PSVR2
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfYfuAOKTxA , https://blog.playstation.com/2023/09/13/state-of-play-returns-tomorrow-with-a-focus-on-upcoming-indie-and-third-party-releases/

* Unity Technologies is currently dealing with serious online backlash following their recent announcement of upcoming changes to their fees system for developers who use their Unity engine for games. The source of the backlash revolves around a planned new change to their pricing system that will now charge a fee to developers and digital store and game streaming providers on a per game install past a certain threshold and Unity initially confirming that this would mean developers could be charged multiple times for the same game download purchase and even demos if a game was installed and uninstalled multiple times. Adding to the backlash was Unity stating that this new pricing system would be retroactive for game downloads and not just for those post January 2024 and removing several features from Unity and Unity subs for developers. Following the backlash, Unity recently backtracked some of their planned changes with demo downloads to no longer be counted towards fees as long as they are attached to a paid full game and removing the ability for developers to be charged multiple times from a single game download.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/unity-runtime-fees-announcement-draws-heat-news/ , https://www.axios.com/2023/09/13/unity-runtime-fee-policy-marc-whitten

* In an official statement to Bloomberg, an EA rep stated that longtime game director Stig Asmussen recently left the company and the official reason due to him wanting to go in a new direction for his career. During his time in EA, Asmussen was the game director for several notable games including the Star Wars Jedi series.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/star-wars-jedi-director-stig-asmussen-is-leaving-ea/ , https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-13/electronic-arts-executive-behind-star-wars-hits-leaves-company

[Fignuts]

lol unity's ceo is the former ceo of EA. So no shocker that he's pulling something like this. Thing is, this isn't going to just anger small developers. Bigtime players like Disney and Microsoft would have to pay the install costs for their products too. So I can see them backtracking this pretty quickly.

[Destor]

I am stunned by it. Someone with good business savy should see hpw suicidal this is. They dont have the marketshare for this maneuver. Lets say a microsoft in 10 years via gamepass has successfully driven its competitors out of market. Then this move makes sense. Or even if they had 90% of the market. Maybe. But theyre a distant no2 to unreal and their customer base has a large percentage thats start ups. Its baffling.

[road doggy dogg]

this might've been the most "meh" Nintendo Direct in a while. nothing really caught my interest at all

[road doggy dogg]

also yeah fuck Unity, that's going to backfire so huge on them

[Destor]

this might've been the most "meh" Nintendo Direct in a while. nothing really caught my interest at allTTYD = 10000% best direct ever

[Fignuts]

I am stunned by it. Someone with good business savy should see hpw suicidal this is. They dont have the marketshare for this maneuver. Lets say a microsoft in 10 years via gamepass has successfully driven its competitors out of market. Then this move makes sense. Or even if they had 90% of the market. Maybe. But theyre a distant no2 to unreal and their customer base has a large percentage thats start ups. Its baffling.

You're talking about a guy who is so arrogant, he thought he'd eventually be able to charge players to reload in battlefield.

[Destor]

oh they def would

[Emperor Smeat]

According to Bloomberg, Unity Technologies shut down two of their offices for at least the rest of this week following them receiving death threats as part of the backlash over their recent controversial announcement about the upcoming changes to the fees system for their Unity Engine.

Unity also cancelled a planned Town Hall type meeting that was meant to address these upcoming changes and negative backlash over it as a result of these death threats.

In regards to the fallout over Unity's recent announcement, Facepunch Studios recently announced that they will no longer be using the Unity Engine to develop their games over their issues with Unity's changes to how they charge developers to use their engine.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-14/video-game-company-unity-closes-offices-following-death-threat?leadSource=uverify%20wall#xj4y7vzkg , https://www.destructoid.com/rust-developer-says-rust-2-wont-be-a-unity-game/

[road doggy dogg]

TTYD = 10000% best direct ever

I'm sorry but that announcement was overshadowed by Trombone Champ

[Emperor Smeat]

Unity recently announced that not only do they apologize to developers and others who have been furious over their planned changes for the fees system for their Unity Engine, they will also be making another official announcement regarding it within the next couple of days.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…</p>&mdash; Unity (@unity) <a href="https://twitter.com/unity/status/1703547752205218265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Indie developer Tom Francis, developer of Gunpoint, Heat Signature, and Tactical Breach Wizards, recently weighed in on the situation and revealed how some of the anger directed towards Unity revolves around Unity doing these changes without telling developers that their terms of service were now potentially voided. According to Francis, if you develop a game using an older version of their engine, Unity had officially stated that you are only bound by those older terms and not any newer terms. When Unity announced their new fees changes and quickly backtracked on part of it, the reason for the fury was due to them making the new changes retroactive and developers getting caught off guard over the abrupt new costs and post-launch fees added to their game development that were not there when they planned and set aside funds for a project.

A former gaming industry writer himself, Francis has decided not to mince any words in his recent blog post: “I just wanna spell out exactly what my issue is,” he said. Five years into the production of Tactical Breach Wizards, his first Unity project, Francis and his team have had to invest both time and money into learning the engine. The decision to work with Unity, said Francis, was based on the understanding that it wouldn’t take any share of the game’s post-release income. An understanding that is, as it turns out, no longer valid.

The gist of Francis’ argument rests on Unity’s own (out-of-date) Terms of Service: “When you obtain a version of Unity, and don’t upgrade your project, we think you should be able to stick to that version of the TOS.”

Indeed, Francis’ team uses Unity 2019.3: “In the last 4 years, the only additional value Unity have provided us is bug fixes to that version. But that’s OK! I’m happy to pay a large fee up front to avoid having our income skimmed forever,” Francis wrote. “It wasn’t on my radar that the most reputable indie engine might be silently laying the groundwork for a moustache-twirling betrayal.”

As access to Unity is a subscription, rather than a single-purchase product, Francis himself admits that he’s bound to have accepted an updated TOS with the previously outlined addendum removed from the mix. Dropping Unity isn’t an option: “By this point,” said Francis, “we’re trapped in [Unity’s] platform to the tune of 5 years’ work.”

“This is why I am not remotely mollified by reassurances that the current profit-skimming terms won’t sting me in particular too badly. That’s not the f*ckin’ headline! The headline is that you (surprisingly) can and (staggeringly) will change how much of our revenue you wish to take at any time after we’ve already committed,” explained Francis.

“My thing is, if you offer me Unity 2019 at $150 a month, it’s a scumbag move to wait til I’m too far invested to switch, then change it to a per-install deal even if I keep using the old version,” Francis concluded. As per Unity’s latest statement to Axios, there are several caveats to the engine’s intended monetization scheme, but it’s not hard to see that the Unity brand may have been permanently marred for years to come. Francis, from the looks of it, doesn’t intend to leverage Unity after Tactical Breach Wizards launches, and it’s likely that he’s not alone in this line of thinking.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/indie-developer-explains-the-nitty-gritty-of-unitys-trappings/ , https://www.pentadact.com/category/games-writing/

[Emperor Smeat]

According to recently leaked documents from FTC's recent lawsuit case against Micorsoft, Microsoft had held internal talks as recent as 2020 regarding potential plans to buy Nintendo, Valve, and Warner Bros' gaming division in the future.

This was revealed in a leaked internal email from 2020 involving Xbox boss Phil Spencer outlining his plans for MS to potentially buy those two companies and acquire Warner Bros gaming division. In the documents, MS Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela responded back to Spencer being on board with the idea and saying "They of course have to be willing to sell… and they have to see us as a top company to sell to."

As part of these plans, MS would have used an outside investor that Spencer is close friends with who would purchase more ownership stock of Nintendo to open the door to MS to eventually purchase Nintendo.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/629011347387973669/1153551549457514526/IMG_1232.png

Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/phil-spencer-in-2020-getting-acquiring-nintendo-would-be-a-career-moment-for-me-nintendos-future-exists-off-of-their-own-hardware.765935/ , https://www.destructoid.com/leaked-court-documents-show-xbox-aspired-to-acquire-nintendo-valve/

[drave]

Cyberpunk 2.0 patch is live.




Brings a TON of fundamental changes, including all skill/perk trees, AI updates, police overhaul and more.


I have Phantom Liberty on pre-order. This is going to be nuts.

[M-A-G]

* Nintendo is currently rumored again to be working with Universal Studios on the production of a live action Legend of Zelda film.
Link: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/09/10/leaker-claims-live-action-zelda-movie-in-production-between-nintendo-universal/



I'm not saying it's impossible with the Legend of Zelda franchise, but out of the entire Nintendo brand IPs, Metroid is the one at the top of the list that lends itself best to a cinematic adaptation.

[drave]

Feel like Zelda would be better adapted in a series. There's sooooo much lore and world building there. Compressing it into an even 2 hour movie (considered "long" by today's standards) feels like it would be a rush, like the new Mario movie was.

[M-A-G]

I could see a Lord of the Rings-style epic for it. Maybe three movies could do it or a 10-episode streaming series.

[ClockShot]

Ubisoft got Tom Clancy's The Division 3 in the works.

[drave]

They announced that months ago my dude.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* According to reports, Beamdog studio and Crystal Dynamics were recently hit with a wave of layoffs as part of Embracer's current restructuring following the collapse of their planned Saudi investment deal. In regards to Beamdog, around 26 people were laid off while in regards to Crystal Dynamics, around 10 people were laid off. Besides the layoffs at those two studios, others affected by Embracer's serious financial issues in recent week included Volition being shut down and Gearbox being put up for sale.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/embracer-group-beamdog-layoffs-restructuring-industry/ , https://www.destructoid.com/crystal-dynamics-cuts-staff-as-embracer-group-studio-layoffs-continue/

* EA recently announced that they have shifted over Criterion Games to a new role as a support studio for DICE's Battlefield series. This shift is part of EA's decision to move the studio under their EA Entertainment division. In regards to the future of the Need For Speed series and others games developed by Criterion, EA announced that the majority of Criterion's staff will now be solely dedicated to working on the Battlefield series.
Link: https://www.ea.com/news/criterion-games-joins-ea-entertainment , https://www.destructoid.com/criterion-shifts-over-to-ea-entertainment-to-assist-on-battlefield/

* In a recent open letter, Unity Technologies announced that they have officially backtracked on parts of their new upcoming and controversial fees system for games developed on their Unity Engine.
In an open letter to its community, Unity has revealed its reworked free structure and controversial runtime fee changes. Under the new structure, the Unity Personal edition will remain free and incur no runtime fee. The new cap before the fee starts has been increased from $100,000 to $200,000, and no game with under $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee. Interestingly, the new Runtime Fee will only apply to the next version of Unity that is shipping in 2024. Already shipped and current in-development projects will not be subject to the fee unless they upgrade to the 2024 version of Unity. In the post, Marc Whitten, leader of the Unity Create team apologized for what has transpired in recent weeks.

"I want to start with this: I am sorry.

We should have spoken with more of you and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new Runtime Fee policy. Our goal with this policy is to ensure we can continue to support you today and tomorrow, and keep deeply investing in our game engine.

You are what makes Unity great, and we know we need to listen, and work hard to earn your trust. We have heard your concerns, and we are making changes in the policy we announced to address them.

Marc Whitten, Unity Create Lead"

Developers using Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise that are subject to the runtime fee will also have the option of opting for a revenue share instead. Under that plan, a 2.5% revenue share or a “calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month” would apply. Whichever amount is less will be the amount that is billed.
Link: https://blog.unity.com/news/open-letter-on-runtime-fee , https://www.destructoid.com/unity-walking-back-parts-of-its-controversial-runtime-fee/

[drave]

I dunno what that means for BF.... but they can't get much worse than how shit was implemented for consoles. 128 player matches are just too much. And you only get that with crossplay... and M & KB players can beam a flea off your nip from a map away while eating cheetos and watching porn.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Platinum Games co-founder Hideki Kamiya announced earlier today on Twitter that he will be leaving the company on October 12th. Official reason is due to him wanting to go in a new direction for his career. Platinum Games confirmed that Kamiyua is leaving and thanked him for his work in the company.
Link: https://twitter.com/PG_kamiya/status/1706202627531489367 , https://twitter.com/platinumgames/status/1706201875564130785

* For those interested, Konami recently announced frame rate specs for all of Metal Gear Solid games in their upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. In regards to the original Metal Gear Solid game, this will run at a consistent 30 frames-per-second for all release platforms and also at a 1920×1080 resolution with the only exception being Switch's portable mode which will run at 1280×720 instead. In regards to MGS2 and MGS3 Snake Eater, those games will run at consistent 1920×1080, 60 fps for all release platforms except the Switch which will be 1280×720, 30 fps for handheld mode and 1920×1080, 30 fps for docked mode.
Link: https://www.konami.com/mg/mc/us/en/

* In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Capcom COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto stated that the company would turn down an offer from Micorsoft if they were ever approached for a potential purchase. Tsujimoto also stated that Capcom would rather want to be an equal partner when it comes to their working relationships. Tsujimoto stated "“I would gracefully decline the [acquisition] offer because I believe it would be better if we were equal partners.”
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-09-25/capcom-targets-smartphone-gamers

[Emperor Smeat]

According to reports, Sony was hit with another major hacking attack recently. A new hacking group reportedly is claiming on the Dark Web that they managed to successfully hacking into all of Sony's systems and stole around 6,000 documents with all those documents currently available for sale. They also claimed that Sony refused to pay them to get it back which is why all of it is being sold off by them.

There’s a new gang on the dark web that claims it’s breached all of Sony’s systems in a ransomware attack.

According to a September 25 article from Australian cybersecurity publication Cyber Security Connect, the PlayStation maker was cracked open by Ransomed.vc, a new outfit of hackers that’s only been operating since September—though the publication suggests the gang has connections to previous dark web forums and groups. Cyber Security Connect reports that the hack allegedly unearthed screenshots of Sony’s internal log-in page, an internal PowerPoint presentation outlining test bench details, several Java files, and a document tree of the entire leak housing 6,000 files.

“We have successfully [compromised] all of [Sony’s] systems,” Ransomed.vc proclaimed. “We won’t ransom them! We will sell the data. Due to Sony not wanting to pay. DATA IS FOR SALE. WE ARE SELLING IT.”

Within those 6,000 files are supposedly a bevy of documentation, including unknown “build log files,” a swath of Java resources, and HTML data. Many of the files are reportedly in Japanese. While Ransomed.vc hasn’t listed a price for the data, the group left contact details for Sony to get in touch and listed a “post date” of September 28, which might be when Ransomed.vc will just post it all.

Interestingly, Ransomed.vc seems to be a ransomware operator and a ransomware-as-a-service organization. That means that alongside these large-scale hacks of major corporations, Ransomed.vc (which VGC claims operates out of Russia and Ukraine) also reportedly works with the EU’s general data protection and regulation (GDPR) and other data privacy laws to report vulnerabilities in company systems and violations in the laws. According to Cyber Security Connect, the group is leveraging laws to reportedly bully victims into submission.

Sony has not publicly commented on the breach or the nature of Ransomed.vc’s impact on the company just yet. Kotaku reached out to Sony for a statement.

This isn’t the first time Sony has been hacked. Back in 2011, the company’s PlayStation Network suffered a massive breach that saw some 77 million registered accounts compromised and online features totally inoperable. It was so bad that Sony not only had to explain to Congress what happened but also began giving away games and money a few years later as compensation.
Link: https://kotaku.com/sony-playstation-hack-breach-ransomware-ransomed-vc-1850870993 , https://www.cybersecurityconnect.com.au/commercial/9600-ransomed-vc-group-claims-hack-on-all-of-sony-systems

[drave]

God man, ransomware is so fucking easy to defeat. That's literally a small sliver of my job - to ensure if we get hit with something like that, we're in a recoverable spot.


That's probably why sony doesn't give a single F. Random java libraries and html code are also very stupid. If they operate as a modern company, shit is containerized and one blob of code won't do shit.


Not gonna drone(pool) on about this boring type of infrastructure shit.

[Emperor Smeat]

According to reports, members of the SAG-AFTRA recently voted in favor of approving a potential video game strike within the near future.

According to the SAG-AFTRA, the reason for the vote was due to recent negotiations with several gaming companies being unsuccessful in regards to the terms for the Interactive Media Agreement meant to help their members in the gaming industry.

These terms revolve around three main issues involving enacting protections against exploitative usage of AI that would harm their members jobs, increase in wages to compensate with the rising costs of living due to current inflation issues, and better safety protocols for stunt performers and voice actors.

Hollywood has been brought to a near screeching halt due to the SAG-AFTRA strike which concerns many pressing issues in the entertainment industry, including payment for streaming residuals and worries regarding the ethical use of AI.

As reported on September 25, 98.32% of SAG-AFTRA members approved a video game strike. This does not mean that a strike has been called, though it does give SAG-AFTRA greater bargaining power during the next round of negotiations which will take place from September 26 to 28.

According to SAG-AFTRA, since 2022 it has been in negotiations with several gaming studios that had signed the Interactive Media Agreement. SAG-AFTRA claims the negotiations have been unsuccessful and “companies have refused to offer acceptable terms on some of the issues most critical to our members, including wages that keep up with inflation, protections around exploitative uses of artificial intelligence, and basic safety precautions.”

Gaming, film, and television have some overlap as they all rely on writers and performers. Hence, the three industries do occasionally find themselves with shared goals. This is explained by chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez who states that because of the “exploitative uses of AI and lagging wages, those who work in video games are facing many of the same issues as those who work in film and television.”

If negotiations aren’t fruitful, we could face an industry-wide strike that would slow down the development of video games. These studios are part of the negotiations: Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Epic Games, Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc. The three main issues SAG-AFTRA is discussing are:


AI protections around consent, control, transparency and compensation.
Wage increases that reflect compensation erosion due to inflation.
Safety for on-camera performers and vocal stress protections for voice artists.


We aren’t facing a strike just yet, as there are a few more days of negotiations left. However, with the approval, there is authorization to call a strike at any time. The growing encroachment of AI on the entertainment industry cannot be ignored, and the outcome of these discussions will determine whether this technology’s impact is positive or destructive.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/video-game-strike-approved-by-sag-aftra/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported and later confirmed by Sony that Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan will be stepping down from the company and retiring in March of 2024. It was stated that Sony Group President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki will be taking over as the new SIE President and CEO next year. Prior to the announcement, Ryan has been with Sony since 1994 and has been the head of SIE since 2019.
Link: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1707149244996505858 , https://sonyinteractive.com/en/press-releases/2023/new-management-structure-of-sony-interactive-entertainment-2/

* Epic Games reportedly recently laid off around 830 employees, roughly 16% of their total workforce, according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. Epic later confirmed that the report was true and stated that the official reason was due to slimmer margins from its shared revenue. The company also announced that they will be divesting from Bandcamp and SuperAwesome with around 250 of the 830 total layoffs being from those two companies. In an internal email sent by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney to Epic's employees, Sweeney blamed them spending way more money than they were bringing in and implied declining revenues from Fortnite as the causes for the layoffs decision.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-28/epic-games-is-cutting-about-900-jobs-or-16-of-staff , https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic , https://www.destructoid.com/epic-games-cuts-830-jobs-employee-layoffs/

* Speaking of Fortnite, Epic also recently announced that the game's V-Bucks system will be getting a price hike starting this October. Game Mess & GiantBomb's Jeff Grubb stated in today's Game Mess Morning show that this new price hike is directly related to the recent layoffs at Epic and their Fortinite money train no longer being on a constant upward swing bringing in the big bucks it used to do and starting to plateau instead.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/epic-is-raising-fortnite-v-bucks-prices/ , https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/game-mess-mornings-09-28-23/2970-22554

* SEGA Sammy recently announced that they have cancelled development for several projects including Hyenas from Creative Assembly, developer of Alien Isolation.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/hyenas-the-sci-fi-fps-from-alien-isolation-dev-has-been-cancelled/

[road doggy dogg]

lol, massive layoffs and a price hike on top of it. GFY Epic

[Emperor Smeat]

Turns out Mediatonic, Fall Guys developer, got hit the hardest by Epic recently layoffs to the point of being decimated according to reports.

Initial reports were the gutting be a total one with the entire staff being laid off and the studio currently exists in name only but Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported that his sources stated that it was a very serious one but the studio still has some employees remaining and will not be shutting down.

[drave]

lol, massive layoffs and a price hike on top of it. GFY Epic




Right. WTF is this horse shit mentality? Let's fuck up some people's livelihoods and then pass that on to our customers.:fu::fu::fu:

[Fignuts]

Jesus, that's ugly

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News
* Epic Games was recently involved in a new scandal regarding allegations of failing to pay royalties to the creator of the Hatoful Boyfriend following Epic purchasing the developer of it Mediatonic in 2021. The game's creator Hato Moa recently went on Twitter and revealed that he has not received any royalty check despite Epic continuing to earn sales off the game. Following Moa going public with his allegations, Epic responded to him on Twitter and stated that they would look into resolving he issue.
Link: https://twitter.com/moa810/status/1707541071205724413 , https://twitter.com/EpicPublishing/status/1707805501277253790 , https://www.destructoid.com/epic-is-looking-into-missing-royalties-for-hatoful-boyfriend-creator/

* According to Kotaku, Naughty Dog was recently hit with a wave layoffs with around 25 employees currently believed to have been let go from the company. It was also reportedly that the developer is also currently dealing with serious issues related to the development of the multiplayer spin-off game for their The Last of Us series and it is currently on an "on ice" status following Sony diverting money away from the project.
Link: https://kotaku.com/naughty-dog-ps5-playstation-sony-last-us-part-3-layoffs-1850893794

* To continue the trend of today's bad news theme, Team 17 is currently rumored to be getting hit with a "significant" amount of layoffs following the recent departure of the company's CEO, according to Eurogamer.
Team17, the publisher of works such as Blasphemous 2, Gord, and Moving Out 2 has entered “a period of consultation,” meaning the company will seek to identify potential redundancies in the organization.

Eurogamer first reported that “significant job losses” at Team17 are expected, with the majority impacting the internal QA, and that company CEO Michael Pattison is leaving. Team17 confirmed that it’s “amicably parted ways” with Pattison in a statement via VG247 ...

Employees were reportedly made aware of potential layoffs in a letter following an emergency town hall. In the letter, the company reportedly praised employees for the company’s significant growth in the first half of 2023 ...

This past March, Team17 experienced layoffs impacting its art and design teams, via Eurogamer. If this current consultation period results in layoffs, this will be the second round this calendar year. In the report by VG247, an unnamed source claims Team17’s marketing department looks to be shrinking by a range of “20-30%,” in addition to the loss of around 50 QA department roles reported by Eurogamer.

Filling the vacant CEO role will reportedly be Ann Hurley, the commercial operations director for Team17. Pattison joined Team17 in 2021 after serving for over eight years at PlayStation.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/significant-job-losses-likely-at-worms-publisher-team17-sources , https://www.destructoid.com/team-17-layoffs-ceo-departs-company-publisher-studio/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* According to French media outlet Libération, five former Ubisoft executives were recently arrested in France following a criminal investigation into allegations of them committing sexual assault and harassment during their time in the company. Among those arrested were former Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoët, and former Editorial VP Tommy François.
Five former Ubisoft executives have been arrested following an investigation into sexual assault and harassment at the company. As French publication Libération reports, three of the arrests were made yesterday, and two were made today.

It is not known yet whether the arrested individuals have been charged, and if so for what. However, it is reported that the arrests come following an investigation of complaints by the Solidaires Informatique union and two victims. According to one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Maude Beckers, the case encompasses more than individual behavior and also concerns “systemic sexual violence.”

Thus far, only two arrested individuals have been named. The first is former Ubisoft chief creative officer Serge Hascoët, and the other is former editorial vice president Tommy François. Both individuals left Ubisoft in 2020.

Over the years, reports emerged painting a pattern of sexual harassment at Ubisoft. When these allegations began making headlines, Ubisoft claimed it would launch an investigation and take the appropriate disciplinary actions. Since then, many higher-ups have stepped down or been terminated from the company, including those former execs and others. The allegations were enough to also trigger a legal investigation.

In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft said: “”Ubisoft has no knowledge of what has been shared and therefore can’t comment.”
Link: https://www.liberation.fr/culture/jeux-video/affaire-ubisoft-cinq-gardes-a-vue-dans-le-cadre-dune-enquete-pour-agressions-et-harcelements-sexuels-20231004_HS6Z3IPLHNGKZEPBZEM3W5WHRU/ , https://www.destructoid.com/former-ubisoft-execs-arrested-following-sexual-harassment-investigation/

* According to reports, Twitch was recently hit with a new wave of layoffs on Tuesday. It was reported that this new wave was significantly smaller than the prior wave of layoffs that were 400 in total for Twitch out of 9,000 from Amazon.
Link: https://twitter.com/zachbussey/status/1709215502881484865 , https://www.gamesindustry.biz/twitch-makes-another-round-of-layoffs , https://www.destructoid.com/twitch-reportedly-hit-with-more-layoffs/

* Nintendo announced earlier today that they will be shutting down all online server support for the 3DS and Wii U in April of 2024.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1709418623566020975

[Fignuts]

I really despise the phrasing "(insert company) was hit by a wave of layoffs" . Makes the company itself sound like the poor victim instead of the ones doing the laying off, while making record profits.

No shade towards you, smeat. I know you're just posting this stuff as its reported.

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah it is an odd way of phrasing things depending on the situation.

Like with WWE in wrestling or Epic Games in gaming, both of their recent wave of layoffs were a lot more on the scummy side since those were not financially-related in the sense of neither company hurting for money.

Then you have something like Team17's recent layoffs where that phrase would fit better since it was an internal decision and not from some parent company and their financial situation and future being a lot bleaker.

Then you have something more of the middle with Embracer Group where it is a case of them being both scummy and being in a serious financial pickle with both being of their own making.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Telltale Games, the new one and not the original one, recently joined the growing pile of game companies and studios to undergo sizable layoffs. In a statement to Destructoid, a Telltale Games rep stated that the official reason was due to "current market conditions" affecting the company but declined to state how many people were laid off. It was also stated that despite the layoffs, all of their projects are still currently in production.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/telltale-games-layoffs-studio-the-wolf-among-us-2-news/

* Sony recently announced that around 6,000 current and former employees had their personal data stolen and expose to hackers from a hacking attack on the company on May 28th. It was stated that company officials only discovered what had happened on June 2nd and the current belief is no customer or business partners related data was access during this attack. It is currently not known if this attack was related to the hacking attack that was being claimed by a group called Ransomed.vc last month. This past May's attack was stated by Sony to have been triggered by a vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer platform that also affected a lot of other companies and US government agencies.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/sony-confirms-over-6000-current-and-former-employees-have-been-impacted-by-cyber-attacks/

* The Verge reported that one source spoken to stated that Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard could be finalized and closed as early as the end of next week depending on any new actions from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-reportedly-looks-to-close-out-activision-blizzard-deal-next-week/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Unity recently announced that their CEO John Riccitiello has recently left the company. While the official reason was not given, it is currently assumed to be due to Riccitiello being the main person responsible for the controversial changes to Unity's engine "Runtime Fee" payment system that led to serious backlash against the company and serious drop of support by developers and studios.
Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231009494331/en/Unity-Announces-Leadership-Transition , https://www.destructoid.com/unity-ceo-john-riccitiello-leaves-the-company/

* For those interested in a skinny PS5, Sony recently announced that a new and slimmer model of the PS5 will be released this holiday season at a price tag of $499.99 for the standard disc model and $449.99 for the digital only discless model.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BU4VXofbQk

* According to a report from Bloomberg, Disney advisors are currently pushing Disney CEO Bob Iger to move Disney into a new direction in the gaming industry from being just a game license distributor into becoming a new major gaming publisher. One of the plans reportedly involves Disney buying up studios and companies with EA being targeted as a potential future acquisition. It was reported that Iger is currently against the idea but this is believed to be something he might eventually relent based on how a similar situation took place when it came to sports gambling through ESPN.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-10-10/has-bob-iger-lost-the-magic-inside-disney-ceo-s-billion-dollar-crisis?embedded-checkout=true&leadSource=uverify%20wall#xj4y7vzkg , https://www.destructoid.com/disney-ceo-bob-iger-urged-to-transform-company-gaming-giant/

[M-A-G]

Nerd/fan boy rant incoming: learned more about the project that is Silent Hill: Ascension, which is due to get started on Halloween and my thoughts are mixed. An interactive show sounds promising and it's a cool idea, but I'd be more on board if this were a different IP or at least run by people who know what they're doing, which has been my feelings about virtually every new Silent Hill project for the last 15 years. The trailers give me no confidence and it'd probably be for the best that Konami just stops with all of this or at least sell the IP off.

[ClockShot]

Today's News:


* According to a report from Bloomberg, Disney advisors are currently pushing Disney CEO Bob Iger to move Disney into a new direction in the gaming industry from being just a game license distributor into becoming a new major gaming publisher. One of the plans reportedly involves Disney buying up studios and companies with EA being targeted as a potential future acquisition. It was reported that Iger is currently against the idea but this is believed to be something he might eventually relent based on how a similar situation took place when it came to sports gambling through ESPN.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-10-10/has-bob-iger-lost-the-magic-inside-disney-ceo-s-billion-dollar-crisis?embedded-checkout=true&leadSource=uverify%20wall#xj4y7vzkg , https://www.destructoid.com/disney-ceo-bob-iger-urged-to-transform-company-gaming-giant/

This make a bit of sense. Because growing up for every Disney movie that got made, a video game followed. I know for a fact that I have the Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, and Lion King games for Genesis. I think I had Tarzan for PS1.

But they're already doing fine with Star Wars and Marvel games (Spider-Man aside).

[Fignuts]

What kind of satanic ritual will be necessary to merge EA and Disney?

I'm guessing at least several human sacrifices.

[M-A-G]

How long before Disney basically rules the world and starts sponsoring fighting tournaments a la Ultratech in Killer Instinct?

[Emperor Smeat]

The day after their copyright on Steamboat Willie expires as revenge for the House of Mouse over Mickey Mouse entering the filthy realm of public domain with the other unwashed masses of past copyright works.

[ClockShot]

It's done. Microsoft closes the deal with Activision.

[drave]

And with that, Bobby Kotick is exiting the company at the start of 2024.


promising start.

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* Voice actor Kevin Afghani revealed on Twitter that he is the official new voice actor for Mario and Luigi for the upcoming Super Mario Bros Wonder game. Nintendo confirmed the announcement in a statement to The Verge.
Link: https://twitter.com/KevinAfghani/status/1712900880218181648 , https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/13/23916232/super-mario-bros-wonder-new-voice-kevin-afghani

* As noted before, Worms series developer Team 17 has been expected to lay off a sizeable portion of their staff following the recent departure of their CEO due to serious financial related issues. In an update, Eurogamer reported that their sources stated that Team 17 is currently set to lay off around a third of their workforce and development for several upcoming games is currently believed to be in jeopardy.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/full-extent-of-team17-cuts-threaten-third-of-the-company-sources

[Emperor Smeat]

According to Game World Observer, Cryptic Studios and Zen Studios were the latest studios under Embracer's umbrella to get the mass layoffs treatment from Embracer over Embracer's current serious financial-related issues.

Spotted by Twitter user Timur222 and reported by Game World Observer it appears that the latest to be affected by layoffs within Embracer Group and the video game industry in general are Cryptic Studios and Zen Studios.

The news has come as a result of multiple employees within the studios updating their Linkedin profiles to seek new employment opportunities. Because of this, it’s unknown just how many are affected by these layoffs, which appear to have happened last week, and Embracer has not released a statement to clarify.

Cryptic Studios rose to prominence with the development of City of Heroes (my favorite MMO) and continues to maintain Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and Neverwinter. Meanwhile, Zen Studios is the developer behind the Zen Pinball and Pinball FX series.

The layoffs are part of a continued cost-cutting campaign by Embracer Group. The company had previously launched an aggressive acquisition campaign and bought out a number of developers, large and small. This seems to be related to a $2 Billion dollar investment that reportedly fell through earlier in the year.
Link: https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/10/16/cryptic-zen-studios-layoffs-embracer-group-restructuring , https://www.destructoid.com/cryptic-studios-and-zen-studios-appear-to-be-the-latest-affected-by-embracer-groups-layoffs/

[Sepholio]

Damn Embracer and their dumb business decisions :/

[drave]

City of Heroes was really fun.

[drave]

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[drave]

Also

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/fHg6RuI" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/fHg6RuI"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Emperor Smeat]

According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Bungie laid off an unknown number of employees today.

Schreier reported that Bungie CEO Pete Parsons had sent a company-wide internal email earlier in the day stating that the company would be holding a big meeting but did not state what it was for at the time. During the meeting, it was revealed that this was for the announcement of layoffs being done at the company.

Schreier also reported that those spoken to within Bungie stated that Bungie has delayed their upcoming The Final Shape expansion pack from February 2024 to a new date of June 2024 and also delayed their upcoming new Marathon game until 2025.

In what’s already been a crazy 2023, it appears another big studio has undergone layoffs. An email sent to Bungie employees from Bungie CEO Pete Parsons indicated staff would be “hearing some news today” and that a team meeting scheduled for later would “discuss today’s events”. Jason Schreier at Bloomberg saw and reported the circulating email.

As of now the exact number of employees affected by the layoffs is unknown, but Twitter is already full of Bungie employees sharing the news that they have been laid off.

“I’ve been laid off from Bungie. A surreal thing to write as I sit here pondering what went wrong. I’m still processing it all and while my first instinct is anger I know I’d regret what I’d say. Thank you to everyone at Bungie who helped make my last 5+ years the best ever.”
– Griffin Bennett, Social Media Lead at Bungie

According to Bloomberg, employees also indicated delays across the board at Bungie. Upcoming Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape has been pushed from February 2024 to June 2024. Also, Bungie’s next game, a sci-fi extraction shooter titled Marathon has been delayed to 2025.

Bungie joins a huge list of studios that have cut employees this year, which has led to one of the more tumultuous waves of layoffs the industry has seen in a while. The growing list includes Epic Games, Striking Distance Studios, CD Projekt Red, multiple studios owned by Embracer Group including Beamdog and Crystal Dynamics, Ubisoft, BioWare, Relic, Riot, Firaxis, Microsoft, Twitch, Naughty Dog, and Team17. This year has also seen the shutdown of several studios including Dang!, PixelOpus, Vanpool, and Volition Games.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-30/sony-s-bungie-game-unit-cuts-staff-following-delayed-titles?leadSource=uverify%20wall#xj4y7vzkg , https://www.destructoid.com/bungie-lays-off-staff-and-delays-destiny-2-the-final-shape-and-marathon/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* According to a rumor going around the net, the next WWE video game is currently planned to feature a tribute to the late Bray Wyatt and his WWE career. The same rumor stated that this might not be for WWE 2K24 and instead be for a different WWE game in production by 2K Games.
Link: https://cultaholic.com/posts/report-upcoming-wwe-2k-game-to-be-dedicated-to-bray-wyatt-s-career

* In an update to the recent news of Bungie laying off a portion of their staff yesterday, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported that around 8% of Bungie's staff was laid off and the reason was due to financial-related reasons over Bungie missing their target expectations for projected revenues from Destiny 2 by around 45% for this year. This reportedly was around 100 people who got laid off out of a total staff of around 1,200. Schreier also reported that there were no advance warnings by the company of layoffs being imminent until yesterday's layoffs happened.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-31/sony-s-bungie-game-unit-cut-jobs-as-destiny-2-popularity-waned?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZ SIsImlhdCI6MTY5ODc4Mjc3OSwiZXhwIjoxNjk5Mzg3NTc5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTM0VQTFFEV0xVNjgwMSIsImJjb25uZWN0S WQiOiJGRUIzODlCNUI2ODI0RTY0QjY5MENEODE1RTBDREZGRCJ9.8iJtSlPe7GT5nO9_xgcUM9kIIEWKcZskdkj539g7ooo

* Forbes' Paul Tassi reported that the recent layoffs at Bungie were not a decision that came from Sony management but there have been some rumblings of Sony is currently planning to do some company-wide cost-cutting measures that could lead to layoffs at other Sony-owned studios and departments within the near future.
Link: https://twitter.com/PaulTassi/status/1719396652996317488

* Nintendo's successor console to the Switch is currently rumored to potentially feature 3DS-style dual screen capabilities based on a patent filed by the company last year. This patent also reveals that the two screens can also be disconnected from each other and act as two separate devices.
Link: https://hypebeast.com/2023/10/nintendo-switch-2-design-rumors-3ds-info

[road doggy dogg]

It's kind of depressing that most of these daily updates lately are about "company making billions of dollars hand over fist has laid off ____ hundred employees"

the world sux

[drave]

IMO - they screwed themselves with the music director. Halo's and Destiny's music is very good, easily identifiable and recognized. This will be a major blow, IMO.

[Emperor Smeat]

It's kind of depressing that most of these daily updates lately are about "company making billions of dollars hand over fist has laid off ____ hundred employees"

the world sux

Its pretty much the gaming industry trying to get back to pre-COVID pandemic levels in terms of cutting back on the over-hiring and the massive sums of money they were spending like crazy. Same thing is happening in the tech industry as well over the same issues.

That only happened due to a combo of the big sums of money the government gave to prevent massive layoffs during the pandemic and consumers spending more on gaming and less elsewhere for their entertainment.

Even the retro gaming industry got hit hard once things started to go back to normal with people cutting back on the massive spending for old games and consoles and flooding the market with them getting rid of that stuff.

[drave]

I don't buy that for a single solitary moment.

I understand that they fell 45% short, but how is that on the workers in any capacity? It isn't. It's more corpo puppetry man.

I was let go from a tech job and was cited a similar BS line. Yet the company was VERY profitable, full stop.

The people doing the projections are to blame. In regards to the Bungie specific scenario, they overshot with their expectations on Lightfall. It is barely an "expansion" in it's own right. On top of that, you had to pay a 2nd time just to get access to the new dungeon.

Pay to get access to new stuff, then pay again for more access. They have put themselves in microtransaction hell and the consumers are no longer buying. That's why their product took a big shit.

Next up:

Delaying all projects due to "recent cutbacks" and needing "more time" to work with more intimate headcount. This will be defined as "right-sizing".

Fuck them all for upending the lives of (mostly) every day people. The fucking people at the top should be held accountable for shitty business decisions.

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah its a very greed-based reaction over Bungie's big money train with Destiny not printing money like crazy like before and Bungie didn't have a real Plan B for when this moment would happen for their projections that didn't involve just laying off a ton of people.

Same happened with Epic Games who pretty much is being propped up by the huge sums of money from their Fortnite and Unreal Engine money trains. At least with the Fortnite money train, that pretty much has been subsidizing the huge money pit that the Epic Games Store has become and some of the big acquisition purchases Epic has done in recent years. Fortnite is still printing a ton of money for Epic but because its not at the insane level anymore, Epic decided to break the glass and start laying off people and get rid of some of those acquisitions.

Rest of the gaming industry is a mix of that and them just growing way too much and too fast during the pandemic and now those unsustainable revenues expectations are no longer possible.

[drave]

Personally, I hope we see video game and tech industry unions soon.

It'll be too late for me, but we get fucked over hard, daily. And it gets whitewashed with sentiments such as "Oh it's tech, there's a million tech jobs and they pay $$$$"

That's a big fucking lie.

[Fignuts]

I don't buy that for a single solitary moment.

I understand that they fell 45% short, but how is that on the workers in any capacity? It isn't. It's more corpo puppetry man.

I was let go from a tech job and was cited a similar BS line. Yet the company was VERY profitable, full stop.

The people doing the projections are to blame. In regards to the Bungie specific scenario, they overshot with their expectations on Lightfall. It is barely an "expansion" in it's own right. On top of that, you had to pay a 2nd time just to get access to the new dungeon.

Pay to get access to new stuff, then pay again for more access. They have put themselves in microtransaction hell and the consumers are no longer buying. That's why their product took a big shit.

Next up:

Delaying all projects due to "recent cutbacks" and needing "more time" to work with more intimate headcount. This will be defined as "right-sizing".

Fuck them all for upending the lives of (mostly) every day people. The fucking people at the top should be held accountable for shitty business decisions.


Lightfall was the first expansion I didn't get and I havn't touched it since. From everything I've seen since, it's just gotten worse.

[drave]

Same.

Bought it for THE BOY because he really enjoys it and has gotten into raids. He was able to complete the newest raid on competition mode and is eligible for the raid ring they make.

We are going to get it for him, as he is a "collector" of things like that. He doesn't know.

[road doggy dogg]

Blizzcon starts today. I'm not sure why I keep rewarding ABK with my interest but meh, maybe Metzen being back in the WoW fold will spark something cool for next expansion.

[road doggy dogg]

Its pretty much the gaming industry trying to get back to pre-COVID pandemic levels in terms of cutting back on the over-hiring and the massive sums of money they were spending like crazy. Same thing is happening in the tech industry as well over the same issues.

That only happened due to a combo of the big sums of money the government gave to prevent massive layoffs during the pandemic and consumers spending more on gaming and less elsewhere for their entertainment.

Even the retro gaming industry got hit hard once things started to go back to normal with people cutting back on the massive spending for old games and consoles and flooding the market with them getting rid of that stuff.

Yeah I kind of get that, it's something of a "correction" to get back to how things were. But man. You'd think that these multi-billion dollar companies would be able to figure out ways to make things work and not ruin hundreds of lives.

[Emperor Smeat]

Nintendo announced that a live action Legend of Zelda film is currently in production with Sony Pictures and Arad Productions Inc. and Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad as its co-producers.

Nintendo has announced that it will develop a live-action film of The Legend of Zelda.

The film will be produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, representative director and fellow of Nintendo and veteran Hollywood producer Avi Arad, the former chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment.

The film will be produced by Nintendo and Arad Productions Inc., and directed by Wes Ball, the director behind the Maze Runner trilogy and next year’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

The film will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., with more than 50% financed by Nintendo.

“By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles,” the company said.

“By getting deeply involved in the movie production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.”

Shigeru Miyamoto said in a statement: “I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films.

“I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.”

Nintendo’s first modern Hollywood production, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, was a co-production between Illumination (Minions, Despicable Me) and Nintendo. So far it has generated over $1.3 billion at the global box office since its early April release.

Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-is-officially-making-a-live-action-zelda-movie/

[Emperor Smeat]

In more somber news, Ubisoft recently joined the growing big pile of gaming-based companies that have laid off a sizeable portion of their workforce over the past year.

Around 124 employees reportedly were laid off today and affecting a variety of departments and studios, according to Kotaku.

Official reason given was current restructuring plans by the company.

Today, Ubisoft will lay off 124 employees as part of a cost cutting strategy. These departures are happening across several of its departments, including many at its Canadian offices.

The layoffs are hitting a variety of departments at Ubisoft, including some administrative teams, Ubisoft IT, and Hybride, the company’s SFX studio. In a statement to Kotaku, the company explained the reasoning behind the move.

“Ubisoft is proceeding with a collective dismissal in its Montreal establishment within the framework of a reorganization of its production support services across Canada, by consolidating these functions Canada wide, Ubisoft will be able to optimize its resources to be more sustainable in the long term.”

The company also said it is “providing comprehensive support for our colleagues who will be leaving Ubisoft during this transition” and emphasized that the current restructuring won’t have an effect on its production teams.

Ubisoft as a whole has been facing challenges lately. Lengthy delays for games like Beyond Good and Evil 2 and xDefiant have undoubtedly affected the company. Just this May, Ubisoft let go dozens of employees at its North Carolina and Newcastle locations. Employees at the time said they were given no notice that they would be losing their jobs.

Sadly this is part of an ongoing trend in the gaming industry this year. In September Epic Games cut 16% of its workforce. Just last month Naughty Dog and Telltale Games were hit by a wave of layoffs. More than a dozen different companies have faced layoffs in the back half of 2023 alone.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-sees-layoffs-amid-year-full-of-them/ , https://kotaku.com/assassin-s-creed-far-cry-ubisoft-montreal-layoffs-1850998477

[Destor]

Ubisoft is trying to be bought and not finding a buyer. Had Embracer not had the saudi deal fall through it might have been them but i dont see anyone being interested. As the industry goes into the consolidation phase as it shrinks over the next decade i fully expect Ubisoft to be the first major studio to implode.

[Fignuts]

Today I learned that the one who did the motion capture for king in the very first tekken, was none other than minoru suzuki.

Thats badass.

[Emperor Smeat]

According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Rockstar is currently expected to officially announced GTA VI as early as this week.

It was reported that the first official trailer for the game is expected to be released next month to coincide with Rockstar's 25th anniversary.

Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., plans to announce the next highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto game as early as this week, according to people familiar with its plans.

The company plans to then publish a trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI next month to celebrate Rockstar’s 25th anniversary, said the people, who asked to not be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. A spokesperson for Rockstar didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent after business hours ...

Last year, hackers released hours of early footage from Grand Theft Auto VI. Rockstar blamed a “network intrusion” and said it “will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready.” Two UK teens were convicted of the hack in a London criminal trial earlier this year.

The game is set in a fictional version of Miami and features two protagonists, a man and a woman, Bloomberg News has reported.

Take-Two is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-08/rockstar-plans-to-announce-much-anticipated-grand-theft-auto-vi?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIs ImlhdCI6MTY5OTQxMjMwNywiZXhwIjoxNzAwMDE3MTA3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTM1JWQkREV0xVNjgwMSIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQi OiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.3ryTNPoXswLuh9rS0VUSAbr-Uj4ezdsFo5JjTaKz2PA

[ClockShot]

N7 Day yesterday. You know what that means.

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[Emperor Smeat]

According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Rockstar is currently expected to officially announced GTA VI as early as this week.

It was reported that the first official trailer for the game is expected to be released next month to coincide with Rockstar's 25th anniversary.


Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-08/rockstar-plans-to-announce-much-anticipated-grand-theft-auto-vi?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIs ImlhdCI6MTY5OTQxMjMwNywiZXhwIjoxNzAwMDE3MTA3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTM1JWQkREV0xVNjgwMSIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQi OiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.3ryTNPoXswLuh9rS0VUSAbr-Uj4ezdsFo5JjTaKz2PA

Turns out the expected reveal announcement was just an announcement of the real reveal announcement for GTA VI is coming this December.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are very excited to let you know that in early December, we will release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto. We look forward to many more years of sharing these experiences with all of you.<br><br>Thank you,<br>Sam Houser</p>&mdash; Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) <a href="https://twitter.com/RockstarGames/status/1722237703553798312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's extra meaty news:
* In a recent letter to shareholders, Unity's new CEO James Whitehurst warned that the company is likely to do a round of layoffs as part of their current plans to become a "leaner, more agile, and faster growing company." This warning was due to the results from their fiscal third quarter being "mixed" in terms of what the company had been expecting. The letter also admitted that the company's new runtime fee decision had caused a lot of problems for the company but they consider that to be an issue in the past.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/unity-warns-of-likely-layoffs-following-runtime-fee-decision/ , https://s26.q4cdn.com/977690160/files/doc_earnings/2023/q3/generic/2023_Q3-Shareholder-Letter_FINAL.pdf

* In regards to Unity's disaster of their announcement of changes to their fees system that they later partially backed down from, a recent report from Mobilegamer.biz reported that several insiders within Unity stated that this whole plan was "rushed out" by upper management despite the objections by many within the company over the damage and problems it could end up causing to the company.
Link: https://mobilegamer.biz/fuck-you-were-not-paying-inside-unitys-runtime-fee-fiasco/ , https://www.eurogamer.net/unitys-controversial-runtime-fee-policy-was-rushed-out-says-report

* In a recent earnings call, Sony COO, CFO, & President Hiroki Totoki announced that they company is scaling back their plans to release 12 live service games by 2025 fiscal year. Instead they currently are planning to only release 6 live service games during that time period and the official reason related to both their purchase of Bungie last year and them realizing releasing that many games in a short period likely meant a big sacrifice in quality and less long term big earnings potential for those games.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/sony-delays-half-of-its-12-planned-live-service-games/

* Based on a recent investor's call, Take Two announced that GTA 5 has sold around 190 million copies since its release in 2013 with around 20 million copies sold within the past year. The game is currently the second highest ever selling game but for some perspective, the all-time highest selling game is Minecraft at around 300 million copies sold.
Link: https://ir.take2games.com/static-files/81215869-e3ee-45a5-a1c9-80770b07279f , https://www.destructoid.com/gta-5-is-getting-closer-to-200-million-units-sold/

* According to a report from VGC, Embrace Group is currently planning to shut down Free Radicals studio, Timesplitters series developer, as part of the on-going serious financial related issues affecting the company.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/embracers-timesplitters-studio-free-radical-faces-closure/

* For those interested, Valve recently announced that they will be releasing a new OLED model of their Steam Deck that features improved specs and battery life on November 16th.
Valve has just announced the Steam Deck OLED, due to release in very short order on November 16. Effectively an upgrade to the baseline Steam Deck model, the OLED variant will even have a substantially upgraded battery, making the device that much more appealing.

What’s particularly interesting here is that as the OLED model of the Steam Deck rolls in, Valve is phasing out the 64 GB and the 512 GB variants of the original device. As of right now, these version of the Deck are only going to stay in stock while supplies last (with an appropriate price drop), and new buyers will be able to purchase the following versions of the device in the future:

256 GB LCD version of the Steam Deck at $399
512 GB OLED version of the Steam Deck at $549
1 TB OLED version of the Steam Deck at $649

... Aside from the obvious boon of a 7.4″ OLED display with HDR support which is “designed from the ground up for gaming,” according to Valve’s press release, the device also features the following upgrades compared to the previously available model:

6nm APU for improved gaming efficiency
Wi-Fi 6E for better download speeds
50Whr battery delivering up to 12 hours worth of gameplay

The top-spec 1 TB version of the Deck comes with its own set of exclusive boons, including the premium anti-glare etched display that was previously reserved for the 512 GB version, a special carrying case with removable liner, an exclusive startup movie, and an exclusive virtual keyboard theme. All in all, quite the bundle of goodies.
Link: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamdeck_2023?tab=1 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vTsZMvjJ-A , https://www.destructoid.com/valve-announces-the-steam-deck-oled/

[drave]

"Leaner, more agile" is a load of horse shit for:

Team collapses after adopting the Agile mindset and working all of IT like it's a god damn pipeline for dev ops.

It doesn't work well. This will show through their product quality down the line.

[Emperor Smeat]

Based on a recent fiscal report released by Embracer Group, around 900 employees in total have been laid off by the company over their various studios and departments. This was stated to be around 5% of their total workforce.

Embracer also revealed that game sales for the past fiscal quarter was actually up 13% compared to the same quarter last year so its not all doom & gloom going on in the company.

2023 has been an utterly miserable time to be working in the video game industry. Announcements of layoffs from some of the biggest names around have been dominating news sections lately. While we already knew Embracer Group was one of them, we now know the figures.

In the most recent sales report from the Crystal Dynamics and Gearbox Software owner, the company has said it experienced a 13% increase in net sales between July and September of this year (Q2 of their 2023-2024 fiscal year).

It then goes on to acknowledge that “around 900” people were part of the “reduction in headcount.” This equates to 5% of the whole workforce. That’s quite an astonishing amount of people to let go. Embracer Group said it’s also “reduced the number of projects” being worked on and is focussing on “improving the projected return on investment within PC/Console.”

The report goes on to say that CEO Lars Wingeford would like to “put on record a special thanks to the people who have left Embracer in the quarter.” Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to bring much comfort to those who have lost their jobs.
Link: https://twitter.com/embracergroup/status/1725036498649583678 , https://www.destructoid.com/the-monolith-that-is-embracer-group-confirms-900-layoffs-in-just-one-quarter/

[Emperor Smeat]

Today's News:
* In a "Did You Know Gaming?" type story, former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij revealed in a recent blog post that Rockstar's original plans for GTA Vice City was not for it to be an actual game but instead as just a mission pack for GTA 3. Vermeij stated that because Vice City was running on the same engine as GTA 3, it was an easy transition to make it into a full fledged game. Vermeji also revealed that Rockstar also had plans at one point to make a new zombie game that would have been built off of Vice City but was dropped a month into its development in favor of GTA San Andreas instead.
Link: https://insiderockstarnorth.blogspot.com/2023/11/development-of-vice-city-2002.html , https://insiderockstarnorth.blogspot.com/2023/11/distractions-agent-z.html

* Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake reportedly is still currently in production despite recent rumors hinting otherwise according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. Schreier reported that two people spoken to at Saber Interactive stated that the game is still being worked on at their studio. Schreier also reported that it is likely that the remake might never be released due to the current serious financial issues affecting Embracer Group.
Link: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1727140417047802269 , https://www.destructoid.com/knights-of-the-old-republic-remake-reportedly-still-being-worked-on/

* For those interested in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, publisher Focus Entertainment recently announced that the game has been delayed from its originally scheduled late 2023 release date to now a new date of second half of 2024. Official reason given was them needing more time for polish and tweaking.
Link: https://cdn.focus-home.com/admin/investor/website/desktop/_FILES/Communiques/focus_entertainment_pr_execution_partnership_21112023_vuk.pdf , https://www.destructoid.com/warhammer-40000-space-marine-2-delayed-until-the-second-half-of-2024/

[ClockShot]

Studio Fntastic closes up shop. Just days after The Day Before dropped on Steam early access.

From what I'm reading here and there, it really was that bad.

[ClockShot]

It's all over.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/y6dtVkBvNI">pic.twitter.com/y6dtVkBvNI</a></p>&mdash; E3 (@E3) <a href="https://twitter.com/E3/status/1734583493592498437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Emperor Smeat]

Not surprised since the combo of the COVID pandemic and the massive personal data leak scandal pretty much were the final nails in E3's coffin.

[drave]

Eh. even before that it had gone to shit. Companies started launching their own versions. I think the first Nintendo Direct was in 2010 or somewhere around there.

COVID was just the final nail. That, and how they started gatekeeping the fuck out of things.

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah, Nintendo launching their Nintendo Direct was the start of the road of E3 becoming irrelevant in the future since companies started to realize you didn't need to spend all that money and time preparing lavish press conferences when it was easier and likely cheaper to just to do it all in-house.

Forgot where I read it but it was something like if you wanted to do an E3 press conference, then you pretty much had to start to lock in plans and prep work in January or so just to have a live press conference ready in place by June.

[ClockShot]

Naughty Dog puts the kibosh on The Last of Us multiplayer. Determined it was going to be too big of a hassle.

[Big Vic]

I unironically love that song from Alan Wake 2.

[ClockShot]

Eidos-Montreal lays off about 100 people. And kills off the Deus Ex game that was 2 years in development.

Thanks, Embracer. :fu:

[M-A-G]

Game Informer shut down and closed as a publication.

[Savio]

And World of Goo 2 was released on the same day....

Interesting...

[Emperor Smeat]

Game Informer shut down and closed as a publication.

Apparently the farewell statement written by Game Informer wasn't written by anyone on the actual staff and is currently speculated to have been AI written.

[drave]

How appropriate.

[M-A-G]

It's about God damn time.

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[M-A-G]

It's official. I am now credited by name in a video game thanks to being a backer. :cool:

[Big Vic]

Eyyyy nice!