Industry news thread?

[Mister Six]

Feel like this counts.

Bragging about their immense user base.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-67332123

Yet, cutting almost a fifth of staff:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66953910

Juicy lovely capitalism mmmmm gimme

Handy explanation of this kind of cuntdom in the video games industry (and in the tech one, and others), courtest of the absolutely wonderful Moon Channel (not to be confused with Moon, who seems like a cunt)...

Spoiler: firing all those people just about tricking investors into thinking that you're being fiscally responsible to bump share prices. They'll hire a bunch more expendable staff in a bit for another share bump (expansion!) then fire them again a little while later (fiscally responsible!) and so the cycle continues.

Of course, actual human beings are put through horrible stress - financial, emotional, relational and more - in their thousands to accommodate this bullshit, but who gives a fuck? They don't have yachts or fast cars or hot mistresses. They're barely even human! Stupid plebs.

This may not be the best analogy but it fits one reasons why it happens - marketing. This is common in publishing - celebrity autobiographies, which usually employ ghostwriters in secret, is an obvious  example but it happens with creative work.  A friend of a friend of mine has worked for a prolific novelist and screenwriter, I think this was for one of their shows (but have a feeling they have worked for them on a few things), where they wrote the whole thing but the famous writer took sole credit for

Do they get royalties on this, or at least a fat upfront payment? Sounds like a painful deal otherwise.

[Kelvin]

E3 graved now, too.

[Papa Wheelie]

Hopefully The Game Awards will go next and we can wrap games up.

[oggyraiding]

a while ago i was chatting to a guy who said he worked for a video games company. i asked which one and he said he wasn't allowed to say. i whispered "...Rockstar?" but he didn't divulge a drop of gossip

is this normal in the industry? employees can't even tell people that they work for the company? or is it for super special companies (e.g. Rockstar)?

I have three acquaintances who proudly posted they work(ed) for Rockstar on Facebook. Two did QA on the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition. So sometimes they can reveal who they work for.

I worked for Team 17 (for a day, I had a nervous breakdown for unrelated reasons), and we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and not mention anything beyond we work for Team 17. As if leaking pre-release info on Overcooked 2 is going to be a big deal. Beware of spoilers about slicing lettuce on a fucking flatbed truck.

[C_Larence]

I have three acquaintances who proudly posted they work(ed) for Rockstar on Facebook. Two did QA on the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition. So sometimes they can reveal who they work for.

You'd think they'd have wanted to keep that quiet

[Ignatius_S]

Do they get royalties on this, or at least a fat upfront payment? Sounds like a painful deal otherwise.

From what I remember, the money was said to be very good but don't think any details about how it worked. I suspect it would be a money upfront deal.

[C_Larence]

Insomniac were targeted by ransomware hackers and suffered an unprecedentedly large leak. Their planned release schedule up until 2035, files and gameplay footage (along with details of the entire plot) from their upcoming Wolverine game, and personal information (potentially including passport details of employees) have all been circulating online.

I watched some of the gameplay footage online and it looked good for a game that's supposed to be releasing 3 years from now. The comments underneath were quite funny, lots of people saying that the devs shouldn't be downhearted about the leak because the game looks great. I think they might be more upset about having all their personal details on the dark web. 

https://www.eurogamer.net/devastating-leak-lays-bare-spider-man-developer-insomniacs-plans-for-the-next-decade

[Mister Six]

Some video from that leak here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/s/n8IFNfkl99

Looks like Arkham City with no fun gadgets and more Assassin's Creed parkour. Not remotely interesting to me at this point but I'm glad others are excited.

[AngryGazelle]

Some video from that leak here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/s/n8IFNfkl99

Looks like Arkham City with no fun gadgets and more Assassin's Creed parkour. Not remotely interesting to me at this point but I'm glad others are excited.

The combat is going to have to be top tier for me to be massively interested. I'll definitely play it but I really hope it has some solid mechanics.

God of War probably has the best combat mechanics of the Sony first party stuff but the worst camera.