The serious business of making games

“The belief that streaming was going to be transformative was based on a view that there were loads of people who really [had] an interest in interactive entertainment, really wanted to pay for it, but just didn’t want to have a console,” Zelnick said. “I’m not sure that turned out to be the case.”

I don’t know if I can agree with Zelnick there. I still think being able to play top-end games on basically any display device could be really attractive with the right investment and business model. To me it just seemed like Stadia was offering a worst of all worlds buffet and it’s no wonder it didn’t attract much of a following.

That sucks. That was an epic game.

I found Darklands hard to penetrate when we played it for the old Game Club, but I could really respect its approach to a historical setting.

Still, someone mentioned in the Darklands thread that Hendrick also did some world design for Pirates! so for that reason alone I feel I owe him a lot!

Requiescat in pace.

With a good internet connection. And a controller.

The pitch of game streaming is play anywhere. The reality is play in your home, just like you would on a console, but a bit shittier.

Certainly it could find some audience if it’s handled better than Stadia was. I don’t seeing it being a big audience until either the gaming market or the internet situation of most of the world changes beyond recognition. Absent just bundling it into something that is already a crazy good deal like Game Pass, of course.

Proud to be part of this company.

That’s good to see!

Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer of games that are collectively a bargain, today announced the impending completion of a collective agreement…

I like their humor. This is neat to see. Hopefully relations are good behind the scenes, too.

I was going to ask you… why did Paradox pick Barcelona for the new studio?

As far as I am aware, its because thats where the talent wanted to be. Johan and Fred and a bunch of other folks have moved there from Stockholm. Also as a growing global company under Ebba’s leadership I think Paradox is enjoying the process of starting new studios wherever they see a real opportunity to create games that can resonate with the new broader audience.

Its similar to Berkeley/Bay Area with us. This is just where we are already and where we like to be, we have access to (arguably) one of the best talent pools in the world so Paradox was delighted to start a studio here, less delighted by the local cost of living, but thats true for all of us :) Likewise Barcelona is within the EU in a great location so talent will hopefully be attracted to that.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, Rod. I was just unsure how a Sweden-based company would choose Barcelona for a new office, but what you’ve explained makes sense. Barcelona is a great city (or was when I visited in 1992)!

Fantastic news. Cheers to the leadership at Paradox. Are there any clear avenues to making this applicable to the whole company, @Rod_Humble? Maybe that’s more a matter of workers getting organized in other countries?

I dont know yet is the short answer and we are a public company so not sure what might be material so I wont speculate :(

I can tell you Paradox HQ holds all studios to the highest ethical standards around employee rights , customer rights and working conditions but gives fairly wide autonomy at the national level and leeway for local cultural attitudes and business practices to hit that standard. So what works for the studios in Sweden may or may not work for the studios in another country.

I know I will be watching how it goes in Sweden with I am sure interested developers outside of Paradox, so we shall see.

Yes, it is worth pointing out that in Sweden, 85% of the employees in the private sector are covered by these types of collective agreements. It’s definitely the norm here, and even more so for large, publicly-traded companies.

AT&T is discussing a sale of its Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gaming division in a deal that could fetch about $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard have all expressed interest in buying the gaming division, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. No deal is assured or imminent, two of the people said.

Many of the video game titles within Warner Bros. Interactive are tied to Warner-owned intellectual property, including “Harry Potter,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Lego Movie.” The unit also owns the “Mortal Kombat” and the “Scribblenauts” series. A deal might involve a commercial licensing agreement where AT&T can continue to get revenue from its IP, the people said.

That reminds me, WB gaming owns Rocksteady Studios I think. I wonder what they’ve been working on for the last 5 years? Arkham Knight came out in 2015.

I think that Warner unit has created two of my favorite games this generation: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War.

I hope ActivisionBlizzard doesn’t end up with this series since they’ll inevitably shit all over it.

Like 90% of Warner’s games are licensed properties rather than original IP. They want to continue being paid for those licenses after selling the company, but to also get 4 billion dollars (like half of Ubisoft’s market cap) for this hollow shell. It’s kind of hard for me to understand what the commercial logic would be here for the buyers.

Oculus/Facebook buys Ready at Dawn, the Order 1886 studio.

Having shipped titles to multiple platforms in the past, Ready At Dawn is a veteran game developer with some serious chops—as well as a VR pioneer. They’ve created four titles for the Oculus Platform, including Lone Echo , Echo Arena , Echo Combat , and Lone Echo II , which is currently in development. In addition to setting the bar for narrative VR experiences, Lone Echo re-wrote the playbook for VR movement mechanics with the debut of Ready At Dawn’s signature innovative continuous locomotion system and full-body IK (inverse kinematics). The zero-g mechanic is used throughout the Echo Games franchise and lends itself well to VR beginners and competitive VR esports alike.

Hey what do you know, they’ve been working a Suicide Squad game for the last 5 years.

“Suicide Squad kills the Justice League”?

I’m trying to remember the movie. Let’s see, there was Harley Quinn, and Will Smith’s character was Headshot, I think. I can’t really remember the others. Jai Courtney was a character, but I don’t remember what. Oh well, I’m sure Rocksteady will do a much better job of introducing them than the mediocre movie did.