We had a major publisher call and cancel a project on Christmas Eve one year. That was awesome. Another killed a huge project the day after we signed the deal. Work for hire = good times.
First game they will publish looks nice
Going from strength to strength.
In a letter to employees about the cuts, Unity CEO John Riccitiello explained, “We reassessed our objectives, strategies, goals and priorities in light of the current economic conditions. While we remain focused on the same vision, we decided that we need to be more selective in our investments to come out stronger as a company.”
He provided a little more information to the Journal directly, telling the outlet, “We’re dealing very specifically with overlap and a handful of projects are going in the closet.”
He provided a little more information to the Journal directly, telling the outlet, “We’re dealing very specifically with overlap and a handful of projects are going in the closet.”
One such project was devoted to sports viewing technology that would allow anyone watching an event to see it from an angle of their choosing.
Beyond that team, the Journal reports the brunt of cuts came from the administrative ranks, including IT security and marketing.
Nothing too alarming (unless you work in one of those jobs, of course).
Gotta make some room for the ActiBlizz folks.
A CM for Limited Run Games got fired for liking tweets from, and following, anti-LGBTQ personalities.
Kara Lynne, the CM, said she was excited to play the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game from WB, which attracted the attention of someone who is against JK Rowling’s stance on trans folks. That person then dug into the CM’s Twitter history and allegedly (both her and the CM’s accounts are no longer available) found statements she had made that were anti-trans and referred them to her employer.
Oh well 🤷
Nothing is private on the Internet, I keep telling my students. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your employer/mother/partner/the IRS to know about.
The issue of where the line is between personal and professional lives and consequences is, though, another discussion entirely, and not a simple one.
People Make Games tackles Valve and their corporate structure and culture.
I actually caught a good bit of this as it was unfolding. A detail missing from the article is that the person (Purple Tinker) who did the trolling through Kara’s tweets and complained to LRG had afterwards deleted their account because other Twitter users doing the same and showing multiple receipts of Tinker having defended pedophilia in different online spaces (Twitter included). Nor is it mentioned anywhere that apparently neither the brony community at large, nor many online trans communities want any association with this Purple Tinker person on account of other reasons in addition to the aforementioned.
While I’m not a fan of LRG to begin with due to their history of terrible customer relation practices, they were certainly within their rights to fire her (especially considering her role being so public facing). That said, to do so the way they did and at instigation of a toxic troll doesn’t sit right with me at all.
Without going into it, it seems like person A said they were excited about an upcoming game, and Person B then went through various of their online posts and got her fired, on account of Person A supposedly being anti LGBTQ?
And then other people did the same to Person B and found that she was/is a paedophile defender?
You literally couldn’t make this shit up.
Pizzagate: The Game.
While it’s more of a ‘The serious business of showcasing games’ topic…
.
Sure. If one of them shows up and literally steals a stage light.
I haven’t been to an E3 since, um, like, 2000? 2001? Something like that. I have dim memories of very loud exhibit halls, vaguely desperate attempts to garner attention with scantily-clad showgirls and cheap give aways (and booze), and amongst it all the occasional interesting interaction (like watching Richard Garriott frantically putting some last-minute touches on the code for the demo of UO he was presenting, or listening to Warren Spector discuss Deus Ex or something like that).
Mostly though I remember sitting in a glass cube in the middle of the damn show floor trying to write and sometimes HTLM-code a bajillion web articles for the magazine in real-time. All day long. Effin’g sucked.
Pretty much the same, except with fewer booth babes now.
Also not as crowded.
Embracer Group just sold (update: leased) their ‘Tomb Raider’ rights to Amazon for a deal that we can exclusively reveal as being approximately a 600 Million overall package making it Amazon’s second biggest commitment after purchasing the television rights for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Therefore, this puts into perspective the cost and (updated) commitments that Embracer maybe looking for.
(Note: Embracer paid $300m for Squenix’s western studios and IPs combined.)
How is that worth 600 million? Because people sort of know the name? Because “kinda like Indiana Jones, but instead of an attractive man, it’s an attractive woman”?
Or are they getting a game out of it too?