Update Patch | October
October has come and passed us by. Ed Sheeran released a new album, Timothee Chalamet was everywhere on our screens and gaming had a decent time. Metroid Dread finally released and proved to be a popular return for the beloved franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy turned out to be surprisingly novel and fun AAA fare and titles like Echo Generation and The Good Life snuck under the radar. But plenty of news happened alongside all these Winter releases, so here is the biggest, non-Halloween themed news.
1. Yet Another Activision Blizzard Update
Once again, we start with the latest developments at Activision Blizzard, and writing these has become increasingly aggravating.
Firstly, on the lawsuit front, the state of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has filed an objection to an $18m settlement Activision Blizzard paid out to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), claiming that the settlement would cause “irreparable harm” to their lawsuit as it would free the company from their own lawsuit under state law. The EEOC hit back as two of the lawyers handling the state’s case previously worked at the EEOC, creating a conflict of interest. Activision Blizzard did try to file to stay proceedings as a result of these, but with the DFEH removing these lawyers, Judge Timothy Patrick Dillon has rejected this.
Activision Blizzard has also, in a letter sent out to staff, claimed to have fired 20 employees over sexual harassment. This coincided with an email from Fran Townsend, who has been criticised for her handling of the scandal after calling the allegations and initial lawsuit “distorted and untrue”, published online that claims to be addressing key themes to “be more transparent… (and) invest resources and people into ethics, culture and training”.
Oh… and on the 2nd of November it was announced that both Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 are being delayed until 2023… Things could be going better over at Acti Bliz, huh?
However, employees are sceptical of these changes. Employees who spoke to PC Gamer were concerned about this new email detailing positive change given her initial response. One Blizzard employee stated, “The fact that she's still in charge of overseeing improvements in this area makes me have very little belief in whatever she wants to tell us”.
The group A Better ABK, a voluntary union of employees, which formed in recent months in response to all the goings on at the company, has this month called for the end of forced arbitration at the company. This US policy dictates that employees cannot pursue rights violations in court and must instead go through an exorbitant process to claim. The group said on Twitter “Many employees sign these clauses without knowing what they mean. Many companies in the tech industry are doing away with their forced arbitration agreements. It's time the rest of the industry to follow.”
The company responded with an update to their policies that waives the clause and has seen CEO Bobby Kotick announce he will take a pay cut down to $62,500, including bonuses. The CEO’s net worth is currently estimated to be $7bn. A Better ABK praised the policy changes, including a raise to the number of female and non-binary employees by 50%, describing them as a “huge win”, but also reminding the company that “we remain vigilant and continue to push for other industry practices that need to change.”
Elsewhere, the company’s games continue to be affected. Most notably, Overwatch’s OG cowboy Jesse McCree has had his name changed to Cole Cassidy, with the developer that had originally inspired the name leaving following the scandal. Of course, Cassidy is a classic name in the history of Wild West fiction, and to coincide with the update all players have been given the opportunity to change their Battle Tag once free of charge.
It may not change anything in the company’s management but this feels like a much needed win for the developers still working on Overwatch.
2. Yet Another Ubisoft Update
Ubisoft has been reeling from their own systemic issues of sexual harassment which came out last year. Since, CEO Yves Guillemot detailed what he describes as “a roadmap for a better Ubisoft”. According to Guillemot, 14,000 employees took an anonymous questionnaire as part of assessments, and an external company performed an audit on the HR department alongside other measures.
However, with the recent news that Ubisoft Singapore was under investigation for workplace discrimination by the Singaporean Government, the company has come back into the spotlight. Employees spoke to Kotaku of numerous failings in which Ubisoft has not responded to cases quickly and cases where the company has not been involving employees in the decision-making on sexual harassment going forward.
Yarrr, there be managerial mismanagement off the starboard side!
Additionally, following the aforementioned concessions Activision Blizzard made, the group A Better Ubisoft, comprised of current and former employees, released a statement criticising the lack of progress from Ubisoft in addressing key issues and adopting their own demands, as well as the lack of transparency and cooperations with workers, stating:
“You offer nothing more than your assurance that all investigations are impartial, all sanctions are appropriate and that victims and witnesses are protected, while offering us no evidence, involvement or oversight in any part of the process.”
3. The Passing of Hiroshi Ono
The gaming community was saddened this month to learn of the passing of Namco pixel artist Hiroshi Ono at the age of 64 following long-term health issues.
Rest in Peace to a legend.
Ono, nicknamed Mr. Dotman, worked at Namco throughout his career beginning in 1979 and would contribute to the iconic titles of the era. Ono would produce the artwork adorning arcade cabinets for titles like Pac-Man, and would also be a key designer working on the sprites of classics Galaga and Dig-Dug. He finished working with the company in 2013 and continued to pursue his own freelance projects.
Tributes were paid to the man by Square Enix pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya, who posted a photo from their first meeting in 2019, and fans of his work describing him as a “true artist” and “legend” of the industry. A crowdfunding campaign for a documentary about his work and is still going ahead.
We at startmenu would like to pass on our condolences and best wishes to friends, family and colleagues of Ono.
4. FIFA? NEVER HEARD OF HIM!
Hot off the release of FIFA 22 last month, EA has announced that future entries in the mega-franchise may have to go by a different name and the company is “exploring the idea of renaming” the series. However, it is worth noting FIFA license is separate from individual league and club licenses, so those wouldn’t be affected.
This comes following a report from the New York Times that the FIFA organisation itself has upped the asking price for the license by double and demanded that the FIFA brand could be used for other games by different publishers, hence EA’s aversion. This is despite EA filing that the game’s ultimate team mode raking in over $1.6bn for the company and FIFA themselves being listed as a non-profit organisation.
Well EA, think of it this way… Things could be worse.
In a blog following the release of the game, EA Sports Group General Manager Cam Weber said, “Through years of building our global franchise, we also know that authenticity is essential to the experience. That’s why we focus so much energy on the collective strength of over 300 individual licensed partners”. Since then, EA have trademarked the term ‘EA Sports FC’.
5. WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME— I Mean The DC Fandome
The regular DC Fandome event saw a number of upcoming DC titles being showcased with plenty of promise on display.
YO! When Kill the Justice League releases it will have been SEVEN YEARS since the last proper Rocksteady game.
Rocksteady showed off an in engine story trailer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, with the four mainstays in Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark facing off against familiar Justice League members. While we still haven’t seen gameplay, the game certainly seems to be striking its irreverent tone well, with some decent one-line humour and even a nice appearance of Arkham Asylum as seen in the studio’s first Batman entry.
DOUBLE YO! When Gotham Knights releases it will have been NINE YEARS since the last proper WB Montreal game.
Warner Bros. Games also released their own cinematic story trailer for the recently delayed Gotham Knights, going into more detail around the Court of Owls and The Penguin. Whilst the trailer showed no gameplay, we did confirmation of a 2022 release as well as seeing each of the playable characters in Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood all in action. The game will be playable solo or co-op, though no details have been given as to the choice of characters in online play.
6. Twitch’s Old Leaky Pipes Burst
Earlier this month, a hacker published what they claimed to be the entirety of Twitch with source code and internal commit history dating back to “its early beginnings" on 4chan, comprising 125GB of data. Twitch confirmed that the data leaked was legitimate.
The data included the personal information of streamers, but the company published in an update that there was “no indication” that login details or passwords were exposed. Of course, this wasn’t a definitive statement so users are encouraged to change their passwords and use two-factor authentication. Twitch was more conclusive as to financial details not being compromised, as the company doesn’t store full credit card numbers.
Maybe if I told people we could create a multi-million dollar media juggernaut I might finally be able to find a reliable D&D crew?
Part of the leak includes details of some of the top paid streamers and users of the platform, with top of the list being the Critical Role D&D group, with other top streamers including XQC, TimTheTatman, Tfue and more earning in the millions, specifically from subscriptions and ad revenue just on Twitch.
7. Netflix Starts Taking Some Late Night Classes
With Netflix making clear their intentions as of late to add gaming to their subscription service to the raft of original TV shows and films, the company has made their first acquisition of a development team in Night School Studio.
The company, famed for critically acclaimed Oxenfree, Afterparty and currently developing its first sequel Oxenfree: Lost Signals, was founded back in 2014 by game dev cousins Sean Krankel and Adam Hines. On their site, Krankel explained the decision to join with Netflix, stating:
“Night School wants to stretch our narrative and design aspirations across distinctive, original games with heart… Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflix’s track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing. It felt like both teams came to this conclusion instinctively.”
The deal will not impact the development of Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals and Netflix’s vice president of game development Mike Verdu was keen to praise the developers’ “commitment to artistic excellence” and that games developed for the platform wouldn’t have ads or in-app purchases.
Editor’s note: PLEASE BE GOOD. PLEASE BE GOOD. PLEASE BE G—
Wow… Psychonauts 2 goes places…
Patch Notes:
Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, a remastered collection of GTA III, Vice City & San Andreas, will be available digitally on 11th November and physically on 7th December, with the remasters having updated controls, a rebuilt lighting system and other technical improvements.
Respawn gave details for Season 11 of Apex Legends, entitled Escape, including the confirmation that long-teased simulacrum Ash will finally be playable in-game, the C.A.R. SMG will be introduced and a new map for players. The new season launched on 2nd November.
Microsoft have announced that they will be hosting a 20th Anniversary Xbox Stream on 15th November. The company have confirmed that no new game announcements will be made on the stream, but a 20th Anniversary controller has been revealed ahead of the event
Gaming forum ResetEra has been acquired by a Swedish company MOBA network for $4.5m, with the company expanding its portfolio of forums.
Romuald Capron, who was head of Arkane Lyon for 16 years, has stepped away from the company following the release of Deathloop, citing the desire to try something new going forward.
Konami’s eFootball, the free-to-play continuation of the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise, launched disastrously with rough bugs and ended up being rated the most negatively reviewed game on Steam shortly after launch. Konami has issued an apology, claiming to be issuing patches.
The Game Awards has confirmed that this year’s ceremony will take place in-person at L.A’s Microsoft Theatre on the 9th December, and public voting has opened for the Golden Joystick Awards which you can do here. Games grabbing multiple nominations include Psychonauts 2, Metroid: Dread, Hitman 3, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart & more
Sony hosted another State of Play event, with the biggest news being the announcement that critically acclaimed Death’s Door will be coming to Playstation this November.
343 Industries showed off a new indepth Halo: Infinite campaign trailer, showing off revamped textures as well as the open-world Zeta Ring, and more details on the bigger villains for the Master Chief to face.
Oh, and Mark Zuckerberg wants to upload your brain to the ether or something. Actually he doesn’t know what he wants, but he knows he wants it and John Carmark has pretty much said as much.
